Progress on promises

[Mark Gleeson]

At two recent meetings IE managers made a lot of promises, question is will they deliver.

Seemed to be something going on in the waiting room in Newbridge yesterday

End of the day very little will get done unless we all keep after them

[Garrett Cummins]

Just to advise everyone, that NRG did have a follow up meeting with Irish Rail. They have appointed a project manager to oversee the promised work. To date the main thing that we have noticed is the opening of the gate adjacent to Platform 3 in Newbridge, which greatly improves passenger's ease of exit from the station, secondly they have reopended the Waiting room on the Dublin bound platform.

Outstanding to date are the additional shelters on the platform, the additional bicycle shed, new tannoys and CCTV, and the realignment and additonal car park spaces.

In our meeting they did appear confident that this would be delivered by end of June. However they did advise that they required a budget for the CCTV and tannoys and that this was holding up this aspect of the work!

On sour note they have introduced a gate on foot bridge to the Dublin bound platform on the basis of Health & Safety. They advised that this will only be operational for "slam-door" type trains of which there are only two departing from Dublin. They advised that this is being implemented on all stations that are manned. Do you know if this is true??

Any assistance onthis would be great!

Regards,

Garrett

[Mark Gleeson]

The gate behind platform 3 opened very very quickly when word got out before even the public meeting with IE (I exited through it on the night in question), we know Myles was out in early April 'supervising' the waiting room works

This new gate is an interesting, a photo would be handy. Newbridge is rather unique as you can run down the steps and onto the train without have to take a turn. Now down the years there have been a number of accidents where people have tried to board moving trains, I haven't heard of any in recent years

The fundamental flaw in Irish Rails argument is its not a Health and Safety issue nor is its a requirement from the RSC, the remaining slam door coaches the MK2d type would be illegal in the UK since they don't have central door locking. The safety audits have been critical of Irish Rails unwillingness to install central door locking on slam door trains. Central door locking would result in a much greater reduction in incidents than a gate at each station as it prevents a multitude of other issues

[Kildare Commuter]

An interesting addition to this is that a gate was fitted to the platform 1 side in Kildare, only to be removed leaving the post a few days later. I haven't seen it in operation yet.

[Garrett Cummins]

The gate in Newbridge was actuall removed last Friday I think,as the bolts were put on the wrong side! I could say something regarding typical Irish Rail efficiency but.....! The station master advised that this gate was for Health & Safety Reasons due to the nature of the slam door trains. I queried whether Sallins was getting a similar gate, I was advised that this issue didn't arise in Sallins as most people enter the station from the Dublin bound platform, now, I thiught the issue from Irish Rail was people boarding a train that was already cleared to depart, if that is the case then surely passengers in Sallins should be prevented from entering the station building! I not suggesting that this is what IE do, but is it not the extension of their logic?

Also we have IE for a copy of the plans to re do the carpark, we await these.

[Mark Gleeson]

Just to prove the door locking issue