Cork Area Services

[Mark Gleeson]

They changed the training program compared to the one agreed back in 2000. The whole driver mentor thing

Had a driver been rostered specifically for the job on Thursday there would not have been a problem. That was the normal case

A large amount of the training requires the trainees to sit with a driver and simply watch and learn the road thats the biggest part of the training course, however a driver has the right to operate alone, indeed in the UK recently trained drivers are not allowed to have someone with them. The practical drive under supervision is actually a very small part of the job

[ACustomer]

Two points: the return to normal service does not seem to be exactly a matter of urgency: nothing restored to-day. And this coming from drivers who said a few days ago that they wanted to drive and were being prevented from doing so.

Also "a driver has the right to operate alone". That really made me laugh. Do you mean that hey are unwilling to have a trainee colleague sit alongside and learn the road. Any normal person should love to have someone along to whom they can pass on a few comments. Don't tell me they might be distracted: after all drivers in the UK used to go on strike in defence of double-manning in the (alleged) interest of safety.

There has been far too much mollycoddling of drivers in this descussion.

[Mark Gleeson]

One of the key causes of accidents is getting confused as to where you are,

Obviously in 99% of cases there isn't a problem to have someone else in the cab once they have the right pass

Since the line Cobh Cork, Cork Mallow and Mallow Tralee haven't seen a train in Thursday last a test train has to run to confirm the line is clear, also several of the trains need to be inspected since they have gone too long without a routine maintenance inspection obviously that can't be done if its not in Cork station, of course Cork was short serviceable trains anyway

There should be something running today, assuming there are trains in the right place to run the service

For Friday the 7:15 Tralee Dublin likely to be canceled or run only from Mallow

[dowlingm]

As a layman, I can understand why a driver would have to be "type-rated" to a specific train but not why the driver would have to be cleared on a given line. After all, buses can be chartered to anywhere you like without a prior visit, as can aircraft.

I'm sure there's a good reason for it - stuff like acceleration/deceleration profiles so you stop accurately on the platform, who to ring when the LC operator hasn't got out of bed, that sort of thing...

It just seems a lot like Mark Twain's book on apprenticing to be a Mississippi steamboat pilot. I mean, feck there seems to be more automatic guidance in private cars these days with all the GPSes being sold, you'd think Garmin could come up with an equivalent to assist train drivers

[Mark Gleeson]

Friday 30th May

All services on the Cork/Dublin, Tralee/Dublin, Cork/Tralee, Cork/Cobh and Cork/Mallow routes will operate normally except the following services, which are cancelled on Friday 30th May, due to the requirements to move trains into position following this week's disruption:

05.25 Tralee / Mallow
09.15 Tralee / Mallow
06.15 Cork / Tralee
07.45 Cork / Mallow
08.50 Cork / Mallow
08.30 Mallow / Cork
09.00 Mallow / Cork
10.46 Mallow / Cork

Iarnród Éireann apologises to customers for the serious disruption to Cork and Kerry services over the past week.

Curiously too many trains in the wrong place

Services resume at 00:01 on Friday May 30th

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

As a layman, I can understand why a driver would have to be "type-rated" to a specific train but not why the driver would have to be cleared on a given line. After all, buses can be chartered to anywhere you like without a prior visit, as can aircraft.

I'm sure there's a good reason for it - stuff like acceleration/deceleration profiles so you stop accurately on the platform, who to ring when the LC operator hasn't got out of bed, that sort of thing...

Location of signals as well as the speed limits, braking points, gradients etc must be learned, its not easy in the pitch black dark at 100mph remember it takes 2km to stop at that kind of speed and you have a target you can't see where you have to be accurate to within 1.5m. Airline pilots are somewhat similar certain difficult airports must be flown by senior captains

Not all Cork drivers are able to drive all trains in Cork which causes some problems when a freight train appears and the guy isn't passed out to drive it