Rail Safety

[clonsilladart]

Following the tragic accident in England over the weekend, I was just wondering about Rail Safety in Ireland.
Network Rail seem to have a fundamental problem with tackling Safety issues in Britain (one "expert" suggested that the they are too centralised).
How do IE compare, and do we have any areas of our network that are ticking time bombs?

Surly with such a small network, we should have a safety structure that almost guarantees such an accident can never happen here???

[Mark Gleeson]

The vast bulk of the network has been replaced or is in the process of being replaced, the safety standards here are more or less UK based

Now while Richard Branson was jumping around about how great his train was the reality is that any train built in the last 30 years would have remained intact. All modern (post 1997) built trains in Ireland fully comply with all UK regulations in terms of safety, the older Mk3 intercity coaches while not designed to modern standards have been proven exceptionally strong well beyond expectations. Put it this way I'd still prefer a Mk3 over a Pendelino in a accident since there is evidence of total structural failure of extruded aluminum bodyshells in high speed collisions, Pendelino has one. Friction stir welding avoids it

Unlike the UK all double track sections and some single track sections are fitted with continous cab signalling so the next signal is always displayed to the driver on a console which he/she must acknowledge otherwise the train stops. DART has full ATP, British Rail actually came to Dublin to inspect it in the late 1980's since they had nothing like it

Principle risks

Animals are a major cause of collisions, nearly one incident a week. No injuries reported since the 1987 accident in Claremorris but several hundreds of thousands of euro damage to trains

Level crossings, people don't seem to understand that a train will destroy anything

Trespass/Vandalism, serious ongoing issue particularly in Dublin. Train I was on last week had to jam on outside Blackrock since two fools decided to walk through the Blackrock Tunnel.

UK network is actually safer than here, they learned the hard way and have made serious strides forward, IE have about 30 signals passed at danger per year the entire UK is less than 350, UK network carries 25 times more passengers

Timebombs Are
Lack of central locking Mk2 coaches
Portarlington station area
Limerick Junction station area
Ballybrophy station area
Shannon Bridge Sligo Line

[Thomas J Stamp]

IE will deny there are any such "time bombs". On-track 2000 was implemented to deal with outstanding issues, IE will say that a massive amount has been spent on improving signals and track. Also, there are a lot of permanent speed restrictions all across the network, which, coupled with restrictions on where the 201's can go, are implemented for greater safety.

The expert who said Network Rail were too centralised was Richard Branson. I don't know the ins and outs of the UK system to agree with that or not. I do know however that there are quite a few officials who have responsibility for specific parts of the track (part of a guards duties is to know which controllers district you are in at any one time).

For the record our railway has a very good safety history for passenger related incidents.

[MrX]

Wouldn't the hundreds of thousands of euro lost on damage to trains be better spent on rolling out some fencing?!?

Even an electric fence along farm boundries with the railway would solve the problem?

[Mark Gleeson]

One of the incidents last year at Charleville occured since they where putting in a new fence. To be fair they have made a big effort to get proper strong fences in

Of course if some twat leaves a gate open onto the line.....

Several hundred of these types of crossings have been closed in recent years but still its a risk