[Article] Train hits vehicle at level crossing - Birdhill

[Colm Moore]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0903/tra...-crossing.html

Train hits vehicle at level crossing
Updated: 21:10, Monday, 3 September 2012

A train has struck a vehicle at a level crossing in Co Tipperary.

Iarnród Éireann says the incident happened around 8pm at Kelly's Crossing in Birdhill tonight.

The 6.20pm train from Ballybrophy to Limerick was involved.

Emergency services are at the scene. The driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle, while the driver and between six and eight passengers were on the train at the time, but there are no reports of injuries.

[Destructix]

:O it actually had passengers on it.

[doherty jack]

Originally Posted by Destructix

:O it actually had passengers on it.

why wouldnt people be on it?

[dowlingm]

So that was what - 104-106 empty seats?

[Inniskeen]

Thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of empty seats on DART every day. There are eight car trains running around off peak with hundreds of spare seats, - loads on the busier DART trains (in the city centre) after 1930 are frequently well less than 100 and could be easily accommodated in a two car formations. Many of these DART trains would have barely a handful of passengers closer to the end of their journeys.

Easy to play the empty seats game ! If Irish Rail are looking for economies it might make sense to reduce off-peak formations before messing around with peak service formations.

[Mark Gleeson]

Average number of passengers who travel per DART service is of the order of 400. 65,000 per day, 154 services per day. Seating capacity per 6 coach set 384.

Nenagh carries in a week little more than what a single average DART service carries.

Those are the hard facts, Nenagh is in serious trouble simply because the population density isn't there and the arrival of the M7 has made rail in any format uncompetitive, the location of Limerick station doesn't help

Athenry Galway is the opposite, chronic traffic congestion and roundabout hell, but a centrally located station and very quick rail journey

[comcor]

If it was heading towards Limerick, it was near the end of its run. Seeing that the main business on that train should be taking people from Dublin to Nenagh and Roscrea, it's not numbers around Birdhill that should be a concern.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

So that was what - 104-106 empty seats?

as it was past nenagh its not important really, i was surprised that there were still 5-7 people on board (figure would include the conductor i imagine).

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Average number of passengers who travel per DART service is of the order of 400. 65,000 per day, 154 services per day. Seating capacity per 6 coach set 384.

Nenagh carries in a week little more than what a single average DART service carries.

Those are the hard facts, Nenagh is in serious trouble simply because the population density isn't there and the arrival of the M7 has made rail in any format uncompetitive, the location of Limerick station doesn't help

Athenry Galway is the opposite, chronic traffic congestion and roundabout hell, but a centrally located station and very quick rail journey

About 16 million passenger journeys were undertaken on the DART system in 2011 with approximately 53,600 scheduled trips. Works out at about 300 passenger journeys per trip. Given that most DART workings are in effect two services (Greystones/Bray to City Centre and City Centre to Howth/Malahide or v.v) the average loading over the busiest sector is not likely to be much more than about 150 especially given that the average DART journey length is about 9km.

There are generally plenty of seats and loads of spare capacity on off peak DART services with ample opportunity for reduced off peak formations especially after 1930.

[dowlingm]

Comparing the DART and the Branch is the height of ludicrousness. Boards.ie has been hopping this week about 4-car DARTs being used and them jammed to the rafters. Obviously providing that capacity means offpeak and so on there will be some light loads but at least the train is packed to the gills at some parts of the day. The Nenagh branch needs there to be an All Ireland championship game in Croke Park involving Tipp about five times a week to make money.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

Comparing the DART and the Branch is the height of ludicrousness. Boards.ie has been hopping this week about 4-car DARTs being used and them jammed to the rafters. Obviously providing that capacity means offpeak and so on there will be some light loads but at least the train is packed to the gills at some parts of the day. The Nenagh branch needs there to be an All Ireland championship game in Croke Park involving Tipp about five times a week to make money.

Not remotely convinced of the necessity of running 8 car DARTs off peak especially at night when these monster trains rattle around for the most part with barely a handfull of passengers. While four car DARTs at peak periods can be fairly stuffed the level of overcrowding is typically less than Maynooth and northern line commuter services. Personally I suspect the real reason for the short formation DARTs is that IR have mothballed additional units in recent months to join the Spanish sets which haven't run for years.

While the comparison with the branch may be a bit tongue in cheek, the fact is that there are plenty of DART sets running round with hundreds of spare seats particularly at night while perversely 4-car sets appear almost exclusively at busier times. Also, like it or not, there are probably less than a half dozen peak period DART workings daily which require anything approaching the design capacity of an eight car japanese set and even then mostly between Connoly and Tara Street only.

[Thomas J Stamp]

why are we comparing off peak DARTS to peak branch lines? Why are we expecting either to be packed out anyway? its apples and oranges and looks to me like you're rowing for the sake of it. Get a room.

[ACustomer]

If I might be premitted to return to the topic? I travelled this line a few weeks ago and there were 3 or 4 user-operated crossings with the gates left open. IE have invested a lot in improvements to these crossings and in better signage, but the locals seem to be determined to live dangerously.

If you want to see really careless behaviour, look at the Ballina branch: far more trains, much higher speeds and the local muppets (especially between Foxford and Manulla) seem to leave crossing gates open most of the time.

[finnyus]

Originally Posted by ACustomer

If I might be premitted to return to the topic? I travelled this line a few weeks ago and there were 3 or 4 user-operated crossings with the gates left open. IE have invested a lot in improvements to these crossings and in better signage, but the locals seem to be determined to live dangerously.

If you want to see really careless behaviour, look at the Ballina branch: far more trains, much higher speeds and the local muppets (especially between Foxford and Manulla) seem to leave crossing gates open most of the time.

All you need to do is go to Stagmount accom crossing, between Rathmore and Headford. There is CCTV at that crossing, but regardless, I've never see gates closed. Always open. Was there one day and a local just drove straight through.

[dowlingm]

If user operated crossings are being persistently left open despite requests from IE to cop on (with evidence from on-train cameras), does IE have the right to request the Courts to extinguish that right of way, or is their only option to cross the farmer's palm with silver or build a grade separated crossing?

[Inniskeen]

Merely pointing out that you don't have to go to the Nenagh line to find unused capacity - there is loads of spare capacity on other services including DART. Irish Rail have clearly come to same conclusion in respect of DART although there are still full size DART sets operating up to the close of business when two-car units would more than suffice and in addition create a safer environment for passengers and reduce the opportunity for vandalism.

Contrary to Irish Rail policy, I am not advocating reduced formations at peak periods although 4-car sets can easily handle most peak workings. The downside is that the sparse seating provided on the japanese sets results in a good proportion of standees and the Boards.ie reaction you mentioned.

[Jamie2k9]

If user operated crossings are being persistently left open despite requests from IE to cop on (with evidence from on-train cameras), does IE have the right to request the Courts to extinguish that right of way, or is their only option to cross the farmer's palm with silver or build a grade separated crossing?

Think its fines first and legal action then but people will never learn and 99.9% of the time its the drivers fault and most end up dead. IE can't do anymore, they provide clear info and people don't obay.

[Colm Moore]

Unused capacity is just that. If you want to judge how worthwhile a line is, you need to look at used capacity.

Originally Posted by dowlingm

If user operated crossings are being persistently left open despite requests from IE to cop on (with evidence from on-train cameras), does IE have the right to request the Courts to extinguish that right of way, or is their only option to cross the farmer's palm with silver or build a grade separated crossing?

In the case of abuse, I understand it is an administrative procedure, not a judicial one.

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

If user operated crossings are being persistently left open despite requests from IE to cop on (with evidence from on-train cameras), does IE have the right to request the Courts to extinguish that right of way, or is their only option to cross the farmer's palm with silver or build a grade separated crossing?

It's an offence to leave crossing gates open, I think.