[Mark Gleeson]

The trains have all the safety gear for Ireland, they don't have the Northern Irish safety equipment. It is a legal requirement to have this equipment but you can beg for a exemption. This to my knowledge is the only exemption ever granted for a scheduled passenger service. Translink probably has acquired the greatest number of exemptions of any rail operator in the UK industry. To make matters confusing Translink applied for the exemption not Irish Rail which again is at odds with the way this is normally done.

For the record the last fatality accidents in both Ireland and Northern Ireland involved trains passing red signals and rear ending a stationary train. Both accidents would have been either prevented or significantly reduced in scale had the equipment existed then

Basically the train Irish Rail are sending up has no equipment fitted which will warn the driver of the next signal (AWS) and which will stop the train if it passes a red signal or approaches a red signal too fast (TPWS). All trains in Northern Ireland require a guard or second driver to be carried as they don't have a secure radio system.

Irish Rail has 6 trains in addition to enterprise which have this equipment but are not using it on this service.

On the Irish side there is continuous notification of the next signal (CAWS), automatic brake if the driver fails to acknowledge and a full positive id radio system. The radio is the secondary safety element if something goes wrong.


Put simply if Irish Rail used the trains with the safety equipment, everyone wins, the train would be significantly more comfortable for passengers, be appropriate for the distance, be faster and would ensure the highest level of safety achievable