First thing to note is the excuses IE make up are rarely true, when I was on a train which had snapped a bolt in its suspension the engineer limited it to 60mph before departure, the pa on arrival Dublin 'due to speed restrictions en route' not quite the same as 'due to a mechnical problem'
Leaves are no joke trust me once you have experienced 60mph with the brakes in full emergency and the train not showing any signs of slowing you will believe. Its a Europe wide issue
What happens is the leaves are crushed under the wheels and that forms a teflon style anti stick coating add a bit of rain and it turns into the rail equivelent of black ice, all kinds of tricks have been tried the most widely used is a combination of sand and aluminum fillings with a glue known as Sandite, if you have the cash and the power the laser blaster solution is still at prototype stage but its way more effective than anything else tried
IE have a total of 1 sandite machine based in Kildare which covers only the Dublin suburban routes everywhere else is left to fend for itself
The DART fleet suffers to the point that at times 30+ coaches have square wheels from repeated slides, I've experienced a DART cutting out, light flicking as the coating on the rails is also a insulator
Should be noted the 201 class locomotive is designed to drag thousands of tons even on a poor rail but evidence suggests that leaves have the power to strand a train so much so that a rescue locomotive is sent out
IE are negligent by not taking measures to combat the problem by sending out a Sandite unit on the Dublin Cork line, they will claim the delay is not within there reasonable control bull it is if they bothered
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