I'm just back from Prague (where I enjoyed their excellent tram and metro system), and was off on Friday, so I missed the whole thing.
It seems to me that the whole affair has been very badly managed. Here are some questions that I think deserve answers...
1. The incident happened around 23:00 on Thursday. That gives around 7 hours before the Friday commuter period. What was done in this time?
2. What effort was made to clear the line in these 7 hours? It seems to me that everyone just went to bed and the engineers didn't arrive until Friday morning. If everything possible had been done overnight, could one line have been open in time for the morning rush?
3. What effort was made to arrange alternative transport, and when did these efforts begin? There must be a lot of buses available around the country, even allowing for school runs, etc. If a concerted effort had been made as soon as it had been known the train service would be severely affected, calling emergency contact numbers for bus operators around the island (north and south), a sizeable bus fleet could have assembled.
4. Why were IE tickets not accepted on bus routes running parallel to the affected rail services? Passengers may be able to claim refunds on their season tickets, but how about allowing them to claim the cost of their alternative travel?
5. What effort was made to inform passengers of the situation? Garda stations should certainly have been informed. Radio stations obviously had some information, but was it enough for people to know what was going on? Was there an information line people could call? Was there information about alternatives available?
6. Trains could almost certainly have been run between Drogheda and Balbriggan, possibly Skerries. Why wasn't this done?
7. There were at least two railcar sets south of Skerries overnight. Why weren't these used to run a limited service between Rush and Lusk and Pearse?
8. Why was Friday evening a complete mess, with journeys that normally take an hour taking 3-4 hours? For many people this was worse than the morning disruption.
9. Why was information about which services would run on Friday evening so sketchy? Why not publish a list of which trains would be running, and if delays to the journey time were expected, how long those delays might be? Was there a plan, or were they just playing it by ear?
10. Is it acceptable tat when there's a problem, commuters are asked to "make alternative arrangements?" They are in effect saying "we can't be bothered, so screw you, you're on your own." Should IE not have standing contingency plans in place for a range of scenarios such as this?
11. What training do IE staff and managers receive for situations such as this? Shouldn't they have regular simulations and exercises to prepare them for dealing with unexpected situations. Why does everything seem to fall apart when there's the slightest problem?
12. What steps will be taken to ensure that this cannot happen again? More importantly, what steps are being taken to ensure that next time an unexpected situation arises, it's dealt with in a more considerate (to the customer) manner.
13. Finally (until I think of something else), an investigation is taking place into this incident. Will the findings of this investigation be made public?
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