Malahide viaduct

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by Des Gargan

having read all the posts so far it is obvious that Irish rail haven't thought it through properly. For example, I work late in the city during the week, and finish at around 9.30. There are only two buses back to Drogheda, one at 9.00 and the last one at 11.20 p.m., therefore an almost two hour wait for the bus, which arrives in Drogheda train station after midnight. There are no buses, no links and no trains back to laytown station after 10.00, so making it impossible for me to get home using the arranged transport. I have contacted the customer service manager in Irish Rail, got a wonderful e-mail back about the wonderful arrangements they have in place, but didn't answer my question. "How to I get to Laytown late at night from Drogehda". To me it was obvious that the northern route is extensively used late into the night, with trains pretty well packed up to the 11.20 p.m. service to Drogheda, surely it didn't take a genius to see that people do go to Gormanston and laytown late at night, or are we not important enough to be concerned about.

One of the things i would say is rather than contacting the hotline or management. Talk to the staff at connolly they seem to have a better idea of what is going on.

From what i recall in the days after the collapse there was a coach running all stations from donabate onwards and that it looked like this could be a long term thing. Obviously not sadly by the looks of things but i would still check just in case.

[James Shields]

While the replacement bus service in general isn't bad, the frequency after 7pm is very poor. When the train ran there were services at least every hour, and ovten more frequent if you include the Enterprise.

Instead we now have 19:00, 21:00 and 23:20. This compares to train times on 19:00, 19:21, 20:17, 20:33, 20:45, 21:25, 22:29, 23:20. In my experience, all of these trains carry a reasonable number of passengers.

I think buses at 20:00 and 22:00 would at least be warranted.

[ThomasJ]

Just thought i would mention that somrthing cought my eye when getting off the train in platform 5 in connolly.

1. Terminates 67 mins
1. Arrival from Drogheda

[ThomasJ]

Slightly ironic that the northern ireland tourist board has a banner for heading north on the northbound platform at pearse

[Mark]

They were piling at the site this evening. I could see on my way back from training. Sadly there isnt any decent areas to get a good up close look.

[dermo88]

Thats a good sign in itself. They really can get the finger out when they have to. Not often I have praise for Irish Rail, but the Permanent Way boys are in many ways the unsung heroes in there.

Hopefully it will all be up and running within 3 months. The trouble is that the newspapers will want to sensationalise it on a slow news day, and engage in scaremongering.

Lets face it....we have faced 25 years minus a passenger fatality on Irish Railways, and I doubt that any other Railway system in the world has that record. But it could so easily have been a tragedy.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by dermo88

Lets face it....we have faced 25 years minus a passenger fatality on Irish Railways

Careful with those figures. Its more 25 years without a fatality in a train accident.

There are still deaths amongst staff, trespassers, people at level crossings and suicides. I do recollect an incident in the late 1980s were some fool stuck his head out a window just before a bridge.

[Mickey H]

Originally Posted by Victor

I do recollect an incident in the late 1980s were some fool stuck his head out a window just before a bridge.

I think that was actually in Northern Ireland on the 0800 ex Connolly with an Irish Rail mk2 train

[Mark Gleeson]

5 weeks on Irish Rail are still in denial about the viaduct.

The notices still say 'subsidence' which makes it sound like someone elses fault, whereas 'collapse' is the correct term to use.

[chris]

are there any more substantive updates on how long this is likely to take?

[Mark Gleeson]

Its no longer 'subsidence' its now an 'accident' so much for the correct term 'collapse'

Work is ongoing , the collapsed pier has been rebuilt and the remaining piers are being worked on so it looks like it will be reopened within the 3 month window, last weekend in November is the likely date

[Mark Gleeson]

An Enterprise set crossed this morning and if you look from the platform in Malahide there are trains parked on both tracks. Looks to be a Tara Mines train from the distance.

Back in business from Monday