Sligo hotel in action over noisy trains offered 'Hobson's choice'

A Sligo hotel whose guests are regularly kept awake by noise from trains in the adjoining railway station were given what a judge described as "Hobson's choice" yesterday.

The Southern Hotel, part of the McEniff Group, which initiated court proceedings against Iarnród Éireann because trains at Sligo station are left running all night, was told that if the engines were shut down they might not re-start.

The solicitor for the hotel, Mr Gerry McCanny, described these machines as "dinosaurs".

The rail company yesterday offered to move the locomotive for the train which leaves Sligo every Monday at 5.15 a.m. further away from the hotel to minimise the disturbance. But the company cautioned this would mean even more noise for the best part of an hour before the train pulls off as the engine is shunted and re-connected to the train.

Judge Oliver McGuinness, who adjourned the case to Sligo District Court on September 2nd to allow the company try this option, commented that the hotel was being offered Hobson's choice - no noise from midnight to 4 a.m. and then even worse noise than is already endured, or constant noise through the night.

The judge was told that these engines are turned off at Connolly station in Dublin because there is back-up maintenance staff available there and because there are also replacement engines. Mr Brian Armstrong, solicitor for the rail company, said the engines costs €4 million.

He said the company would be delighted if extra resources were provided to supply more replacement engines. The court heard that new rail carriages are to be introduced on the Sligo line in December 2005 and each carriage will have an individual smaller engine.

Mr Brian McEniff, who bought the Southern Hotel in 1988, said it was impossible to quantify the damage done to his business. In the past week there had been three complaints and the previous week two guests had complained. There was also the issue of guests who did not complain, but who did not return.

Mr McEniff told the court that the problem had been ongoing for 10 years or more. He said he had treaded very gently with Iarnród Éireann "probably too gently" in his efforts to find a resolution. "Nobody likes to fight with neighbours," he said.

Mr McEniff said he found it difficult to accept there was no mechanism to allow an engine to be switched off. He was aware the hotel was built as the Great Southern at the beginning of the last century to take advantage of business from the railway station, and he agreed that he used the proximity of the station as a marketing tool.

Mr Armstrong told Mr McEniff that the practice of leaving engines running all night had been ongoing since Sligo railway station opened in 1862. Mr McEniff did not accept Mr Armstrong's suggestion that "you brought this evil down on your head" by building two separate extensions to the hotel in the 1990s closer to the rail line than the original hotel.

Mr Donal Corcoran, a technical expert with the railway company, said that if the engines were shut down at night there was a danger that they would become so cold that re-starting them might be a problem. He said this would have implications for the reliability of the service.