[21-08-08] Malahide viaduct

[losexpectation]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catb/3843727118/

[Rashers]

We will see how good the contingency plans are. I know the time of the Skerries freight derailment, there was chaos with lots of mis-information.
There were no extra buses put on, and the Dublin Buses were full from towns like Balbriggan, so no one else got on en-route.
I tried to get a taxi to Malahide, but that took an hour as so many people ended up driving.
I really hope they have learnt from all the past mistakes.
I fully acknowledge this is on the serious end of the scale in terms of impact, but call in the army of whoever, if they do not have the skills/capacity.
Time will tell.
They will need a lot of buses to start transporting people in from Skerries. And will they bring them just to Malahide, or to the city centre?
Assuming they get the buses, not sure how you 'fast track' them along the M1 to the Port Tunnel, and into the city centre.

[Jister]

If it happened in the dark it would not have been spotted I would imagine. If it happened in another month or so it would have been dark at 6pm!!!!

A shockingly close call.

[Mark Gleeson]

Whats even scarier is there was an even closer call within the last month.

Exceptionally lucky today, the consequences of a full 8 coach 29k railcar rolling off the viaduct are too shocking to imagine.

[ThomasJ]

latest @22.30hrs

21st August: Major disruption to Northern Commuter, and Belfast Enterprise services by Corporate Communications


UPDATE 22.30HRS, Friday 21st August

There is significant disruption to Northern commuter, and Belfast Enterprise services due to a serious incident in which a 20 metre section of the viaduct has given way across Broadmeadow estuary, north of Malahide this evening. The incident occurred shortly before 18.30hrs this evening.

An investigation into this extremely serious incident is underway.

Services:

Northern commuter services are seriously disrupted. A shuttle rail service is currently operating between Drogheda and Skerries only. Customers travelling between Dublin city and all stations north of Malahide are advised to travel by Dublin Bus or Bus Eireann services.

Saturday: Trains will operate between Dundalk/Drogheda and Skerries as follows:

Depart Drogheda: 06.30, 07.30 (starts from Dundalk 07.03), 08.30, 09.30 (starts from Dundalk 09.55), 11.30, 13.30, 15.30, 17.30, 19.30, 21.30

Depart Skerries: 07.00, 08.00, 09.00, 10.00, 11.00, 12.00, 14.00, 16.00, 18.00, 20.00, 22.00

Further services for Dundalk will be confirmed later.

Please note again that customers travelling between Dublin city and all stations north of Malahide are advised to travel by Dublin Bus or Bus Eireann services on Saturday.

Belfast Enterprise services will operate with train services between Belfast and Drogheda, and with bus transfers between Drogheda and Connolly, with resulting delays.

These arrangements will continue tomorrow, and weekday service details for next week are being arranged.

DART services between Malahide and Howth Junction have resumed, and are operating normally.

Due to the severe damage to the viaduct, we regret to inform customers that the line across the estuary will not reopen for, at the very least, several weeks, with resulting disruption continuing.

Iarnród Éireann apologises for the inconvenience caused.

now it would be helpful to know how to get from malahide to skerries best i know is sutton-swords village-skerries (102 and 33-although you might be a few minutes walk from off the bus to skerries rail station)

[ThomasJ]

RTE now reporting the driver of that train drove on to malahide and them reported it

[karlr42]

Originally Posted by ThomasJ

RTE now reporting the driver of that train drove on to malahide and them reported it

I read this too, if true does it mean the driver proceeded over the viaduct? Possibly he was unable to stop in time. Presumably it will all become clear at a later stage.

[on the move]

Originally Posted by Jister

If it happened in the dark it would not have been spotted I would imagine. If it happened in another month or so it would have been dark at 6pm!!!!

A shockingly close call.

6.00 will be bright enough to see issues until the clocks go back. I'm not due to use that section of the line until early October, so hopefully it will be fixed by then.

Lucky the driver spotted it in time. That's a full speed, flat out area of the track. I hope IR have learned their lesson from the Cahir viaduct collapse a few years ago.

[Mark Hennessy]

Thank heavens no one was hurt today, thats all I can say.

Absolutely shocking images, we can only hope there is an engineering explanation as to why this could happen so suddenly, if not there are massive safety questions to be asked of IE.

[on the move]

The worst place for such a thing to happen would be the Boyne Viaduct, where it's a 30-metre drop into the water.

All viaducts should be regularly and thoroughly inspected.

[sublimity]

Yep, shocking images really and very scary.

Now everyone should be on red alert along the wicklow and wexford coast too...

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by sublimity

Yep, shocking images really and very scary.

Now everyone should be on red alert along the wicklow and wexford coast too...

True i always wondered if the platform at leixlip would subside but that is a drop in the ocean [excuse the pun ] compared to the northern and east south eastern line [DART AND Rosslare line ] i shudder to think of the consequences.

[weehamster]

Jeasus H Christ, this is serious problem. I can't state enough how lucky this whole thing was. This will take a month or 3 to repair. And depending how serious condition the rest of the bridges are. Again....