Malahide rail viaduct collapse 21 August, 2009

Irish Railway Safety Scandal



Under the Railway Safety Act 2005, Irish Rail is required to commission an independent audit of its safety management system every four years. The next audit is scheduled for 2010. It will consider if inspections of the Broadmeadow viaduct were regular enough, and if an underwater survey of the pier should have been conducted. Irish Rail and the RSC are also expected to appear before the Dail Transport Committee next month to answer questions about safety.



What is particularly disgraceful about the state of Irish Rail is that it has had ten years worth of European Union and taxpayer funded largesse and has spent money on high end capital projects and new equipment without even looking at the fundamental business cases for such expenditure or indeed reinforcing its basic operating discipline or customer focus in that time. Indeed it has dreamt up more grandiose schemes such as the 3 Bn Euro Dublin underground Interconnector to connect Heuston to Connolly Station even though they are already linked by Rail. Such is the Government’s lack of faith in Irish Rail that they bypassed them for the Dublin Light rail and proposed Metro system with the result that a separate Quango has now come up with totally disconnected and grandiose schemes for these. In Ireland they say “It’s an ill horse which blows no wind” and hopefully the collapse of the Celtic Tiger will ultimately result in more realistic Public transport policies and a safer system?



Original on Blogger;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/08/irish-railway-safety-scandal.html