Rail line had been checked day before Roscommon accident, says O'Rourke

The stretch of track in Co Roscommon where a train was derailed at the weekend had been checked the day before the accident, …

The stretch of track in Co Roscommon where a train was derailed at the weekend had been checked the day before the accident, the Dail was told. Fifteen people were injured in the incident last Saturday and although the locomotive remained on the track, all seven carriages were derailed.

The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, told deputies that the derailment appeared to have been caused by a broken rail joint.

Ms O'Rourke, who was responding to a special notice question from five Fine Gael TDs, said that Iarnrod Eireann had established an internal joint inquiry board, which would issue an interim report in three weeks. The Minister added that the remaining two passengers still in hospital were due to be discharged last night.

She told TDs that the lines were examined on a regular basis, and in particular "all the tension areas". Mrs O'Rourke said they were "inspected twice-weekly and this particular joint was inspected and reported on before the accident".

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There was an angry outburst from Mr Michael Ring (FG, Mayo), who claimed discrimination against the west. "It was an accident waiting to happen when you have second-hand lines, second-hand tracks, second-hand everything," he said. "The people of the west of Ireland are regarded as second-hand citizens."

He asked what funding the Government would put into this line, "now that an accident has taken place, now that people from the west of Ireland were nearly killed in this second-hand train?"

Iarnrod Eireann did not care about the western rail lines, Mr Ring claimed. "All they care about is to get LUAS set up and the Dublin-to-Belfast line. As a public representative from the west of Ireland I have had enough of this and I want some funding put in place because the next accident won't be a few people in hospitals, it will be a major tragedy."

Mr Ivan Yates (FG, Wexford) said it was a miracle that the derailment did not have horrific consequences. The line was originally constructed in 1862 and the last major work was in the 1930s, he said.

Iarnrod Eireann had told him that the only way to prevent a derailment from recurring was to introduce "continuous welded rail" and not the current jointed track.

When Ms O'Rourke said that £275 million would be required for the whole track to be converted into continuous track, Mr Emmet Stagg (Lab, North Kildare) said that it cost £200 million for several miles of road. He also pointed out that trains had to travel in some areas at 15 miles an hour because of the state of the track.

Mr Denis Naughten (FG, Longford-Roscommon) asked if the Minister any plans to reduce overcrowding on trains by increasing either the amount of rolling stock or the number of departures both on the Westport and Galway-Sligo lines.

Ms O'Rourke replied that Iarnrod Eireann could increase the amount of its rolling stock but that would have to be done within its budget. The numbers travelling on the train could be limited but "that causes its own tensions" and was a matter for CIE.