DUBLIN’S NORTHERN commuter line as well as rail services to and from Belfast are likely to be disrupted for much longer than the three months estimated by Iarnród Éireann, following the partial collapse of the railway viaduct over Broadmeadow estuary.
Up to 20,000 rail journeys a day, split evenly in and out of the city centre, are to be replaced by road transport over the next three months, the shortest period within which Iarnród Éireann says it envisages the viaduct can be repaired.
The company said Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and private operators will provide alternative transport, including a special service between Drogheda station and Dublin city centre utilising Dublin Port Tunnel.
Enterprise services will operate only between Belfast and Drogheda, but Dart services between Malahide and Howth Junction are running normally. The measures are to be reviewed next week as the busy back-to-school period gets under way.
In 2003, when a goods train derailment caused part of the Cahir viaduct in Co Tipperary to collapse, it took 11 months for repairs to be carried out. Unlike the Broadmeadow collapse, it did not involve replacing any of the bridge piers.
Engineers and railway safety inspectors, supported by divers, spent the weekend examining the collapsed section of the viaduct – a breach some 20m (66ft) long – and inspecting the remaining 10 piers for signs of any structural damage.
In 1998, a report by International Risk Management Services (IRMS) identified sections of the viaduct as being among the most unsafe stretches of rail track in the country, assigning it a 60 per cent security risk on a scale where 5 per cent is “best practice”.
Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd TD, who regularly commutes on the line, said questions needed to be answered about what had happened since then.
In its 2006 report on the Cahir incident, the Railway Safety Commission found “serious deficiencies” in Iarnród Éireann’s inspection and maintenance regime and concluded that these shortcomings “were principally responsible for the accident”.
One of the options being considered is to replace the missing section of the Broadmeadow viaduct with a single 20-metre span from reinforced piers on either side of it. However, depending on the outcome of inspections now being carried out, it may be necessary to replace the entire viaduct.
An Iarnród Éireann spokesman said every bridge was thoroughly inspected at two-yearly intervals.