Keeping track of the railways

THE COLLAPSE of the rail viaduct over Broadmeadow estuary in north Co Dublin last Friday evening might have been a disaster, …

THE COLLAPSE of the rail viaduct over Broadmeadow estuary in north Co Dublin last Friday evening might have been a disaster, causing significant loss of life. A commuter train had just passed over it minutes earlier and another would have followed but for the alertness of driver, Keith Farrelly, who raised the alarm when he noticed the bridge starting to collapse as his train was crossing it.

That is how close we came to a real human tragedy on Irish railways. Amazingly, it transpired that the 180 metre-long viaduct had been inspected just three days beforehand and no evidence of any defect was reported to Iarnród Éireann. Yet after one of its support piers had crumbled, the State railway company was able to say there was “little doubt” that tidal scouring was a factor in the incident.

Rail Users Ireland spokesman Mark Gleeson rightly suggested that what happened raises serious questions about the maintenance and inspection regime on Ireland’s rail network – and not for the first time. After the derailment of a cement train caused the partial collapse of the Cahir viaduct in Co Tipperary, the Railway Safety Commission found “serious deficiencies” in Iarnród Éireann’s management of its infrastructure, and concluded in its 2006 report that these critical shortcomings in the company’s inspection and maintenance regime “were principally responsible for the accident”. The number of passengers carried on the line that runs through Cahir from Limerick Junction to Rosslare is minuscule compared to the 20,000 passengers per day using Dublin’s northern commuter line or the Belfast Enterprise express.

All of these rail users are now suffering great inconvenience as a result of the line being severed, with an estimated 30 minutes added to their journey times by transferring to replacement buses; some have reverted to using cars, thus adding to traffic congestion in the morning and evening peak periods. And this disruption to people’s lives is likely to continue for at least three months, and probably a lot longer, depending on whether a decision is made merely to repair the missing section of the viaduct or to replace the entire structure. Given that all of the remaining 10 piers standing in Broadmeadow estuary are subject to the same tidal scouring as the one that crumbled on Friday last, complete replacement might be the preferable long-term solution. Clearly, however, a project of such magnitude cannot be completed in a few months.

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What all of this highlights is that, however good we may be at building things, we are woeful at maintaining them. Railway bridges are the most vulnerable sections of any rail network and, as Mark Gleeson said, “it is essential that all bridges are inspected nationwide to ensure no critical faults have been overlooked”. Although strapped for cash due to Government cutbacks – which, ironically, might include closure of the Limerick Junction-Rosslare line, as recommended by the McCarthy report –Iarnród Éireann must embark on a systematic programme of bridge inspections. A cursory glance is not enough if lives are to be saved.