Irish Rail has recorded an increase of over 500,000 passengers in the first six months of this year.

The train company says 650,000 extra people used its services between January and June. That is an increase of 3.5%.

Iarnród Éireann says the growth was mainly felt on its DART services.

Almost 19 million journeys were made from January to June this year on DART, Intercity and Commuter services.

Meanwhile the DART was suspended for a time last night after a fight broke out.

The train was stopped at around 9:30pm at the Salthill and Monkstown station, after two people got involved in a fight in one of the carriages.

The DART was stopped for around 30 minutes but gardaí say that no arrests were made.

Barry Kenny is corporate communications manager with Iarnród Éireann.

He told Newstalk Breakfast the passenger numbers are approaching boom-time figures, and more services are on the way.