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James Howard · 14-11-2012, 19:00

If you want to talk about incidents in general, then this is a different discussion, but based on the first-hand report, to me it appears that this incident was pretty well handled. It appears to me that they applied triage to the situation and prioritised resources towards dealing with the incident train.

The fact is that that railway is run on very little slack nowadays. 10 years ago, you had inter-city trains with 5 or 6 staff on them (maybe you still do on the Cork line but my regular trains have precisely one Irish Rail staffer on them and he can't be relied on after hitting some poor unfortunate on the line), every crossing was manned and every signal box and station had one or more staff. This level of staffing simply does not exist any more and there are no actual people to provide the resources to implement emergency plans where somebody can be provided to have a conversation with every affected passenger at every station on the line.

From what I read in HRidge's account, it appears to me that there was a plan to use a second train with wheelchair ramps to get people on the scene to sort things out and to eventually get the passengers off the incident train when the investigators deemed it time to release them. It simply is not possible to use the second line in these situations because there is too much danger of an emergency worker being hit.

Now, for the more workaday disruptions such as train failures, signal faults, bridge strikes, level-crossing strikes, etc., I would agree entirely that something more could be done. These happen often enough that there should be contingency plans and resources to implement them and it often appears that the response is entirely inadequate.

But thankfully, the incidents involving people being hit by trains are much rarer and to deal with them requires a level of resources much greater than can be economically provided for the 364 days a year that they aren't needed. Personally, I am willing to take the chance of a ruined evening every few years as opposed to paying an extra grand a year for my train pass in order to get me home an hour earlier on the off-chance there is a major problem.

14-11-2012, 19:00	#27
James Howard Really Really Regluar Poster Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sligo Line Posts: 1,115	If you want to talk about incidents in general, then this is a different discussion, but based on the first-hand report, to me it appears that this incident was pretty well handled. It appears to me that they applied triage to the situation and prioritised resources towards dealing with the incident train. The fact is that that railway is run on very little slack nowadays. 10 years ago, you had inter-city trains with 5 or 6 staff on them (maybe you still do on the Cork line but my regular trains have precisely one Irish Rail staffer on them and he can't be relied on after hitting some poor unfortunate on the line), every crossing was manned and every signal box and station had one or more staff. This level of staffing simply does not exist any more and there are no actual people to provide the resources to implement emergency plans where somebody can be provided to have a conversation with every affected passenger at every station on the line. From what I read in HRidge's account, it appears to me that there was a plan to use a second train with wheelchair ramps to get people on the scene to sort things out and to eventually get the passengers off the incident train when the investigators deemed it time to release them. It simply is not possible to use the second line in these situations because there is too much danger of an emergency worker being hit. Now, for the more workaday disruptions such as train failures, signal faults, bridge strikes, level-crossing strikes, etc., I would agree entirely that something more could be done. These happen often enough that there should be contingency plans and resources to implement them and it often appears that the response is entirely inadequate. But thankfully, the incidents involving people being hit by trains are much rarer and to deal with them requires a level of resources much greater than can be economically provided for the 364 days a year that they aren't needed. Personally, I am willing to take the chance of a ruined evening every few years as opposed to paying an extra grand a year for my train pass in order to get me home an hour earlier on the off-chance there is a major problem.