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A Subway for the future.
 national |
politics / elections |
other press
 Thursday October 19, 2006 13:58 by John McDermott - removefiannafail
The Clown in the Cabinet.
5 minutes to the Airport.
15 more to another planet.(where Martin lives)
 Martin Cullen re-announces Dublin Subway plans Coming down to earth...
January 2006; A DUBLIN businessman has written to the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen, the Health and Safety Authority and the Railway Inspectorate about what he claims was the "filthy, unsafe, unsanitary and uncomfortable" condition of a mainline train last weekend.
But a spokesperson for Iarnrod Eireann said that while they accepted trains could be crowded, especially at the weekend, the issue was one of comfort rather than safety.
They could not comment on the particular complaint and they had not yet received an correspondence, but they promised that the situation would improve in 2007/2008 when 120 new carriages would add comfort and allow greater frequency on inter-city routes - such as the one complained of. Mr Owen Patten told the Sunday Independent that when he boarded the 2.25pm train from Westport to Dublin on Sunday last it was half full, but by the time it reached Ballyhaunis it was full.
"At Ballyhaunis, Claremorris and Roscommon, more and more passengers boarded, with the result that every gangway, every available space was filled with people and their luggage - even the spaces between the carriages," he said.
"Exit doors were blocked and the two toilets in the vicinity of where I was siting - carriage number 5223 - were locked and out of order. If there was any kind of emergency either on the track or in the train, I doubt if the rescue services would have been able to get to work very quickly.
"I talked to the ticket collector and he told me he had only got on at Castlereagh and couldn't do anything about it. At this stage I had given up my seat to an elderly nun who looked very frail," he added.
Mr Patten said that conditions were so bad that he and about 20 other passengers decided to get off the train at Athlone. "Some soldiers in uniform had to help a few elderly ladies off the train. We waited for the best part of an hour for the Galway train which was half full before we could continue to Dublin.
"I did asked to speak to the station master, but was told she was not available."
Mr Patten says he had a similar experience almost exactly a year ago so when he got home he rang some friends in Castlebar and Westport to ask them if there had been some special occasion that might have caused overcrowding.
"I was told there was nothing special, that this was a regular occurrence." http://www.soldiersofdestiny.org/theghosttrain.htm
During the 1977 election campaign ,Fianna Fail abolished domestic rates .It was said of the party,in their anxiety to get re-elected;
"If the electorate wanted the moon ,Fianna Fail would have offered to buy Cape Canaveral."!
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 4 3 2 1And pigs will fly. Was supposed to be completed three years ago. And when was the tunnel supposed to open?
.... another idea is that Irish Rail and Dublin Bus as soooooo incompetent that they can't do what expected of them no mather how much money their given.
The Luas could have been achieved with just clearing the routes of traffic and running buses that change the traffic lights to their advantage. Don't be too suprised when its scrapped when the metros expanded.
Metro is a good idea though, at least its underground (ish), and you can add bits on. Hopefully they ll be able to build it.
This overcrowding on our trains has been known for years and I have heard people frequently comment about it over the past 7 or 8 years. The most dangerous part must be where people are standing in the sections between carraiges. This is very dangerous and overall this is a disaster waiting to happen.
However it is possible that CIEs hands are tied here, because there are various restrictive rules applied to a state company about capital spending.
A case in point is Dublin Bus. They have requested for years that they been allowed buy over 120 or so new buses because well eh they need them. Apparently they can't just go out and buy them like any other company. They need some sort of ministerial approval and I think it was last year the minister only approved the purchase of 6 to 8 buses. This is all part of a strategy to starve Dublin Bus of a new fleet and let the existing system degrade so badly that the service runs down and public opinion is then manipulated to ask for privatisation.
The same is very likely happening with CIE and may explain the apparent apathy from the company. It is quite obvious they need new rolling stock but I am sure if we look at the decisions around this we will see government interference. The worst case scenario for the neo-liberal elements in power is a smoothly running and efficient train service. Then there would be no justification to privatise it..
I think what we will see is if there is a bad accident and I truly hope there isn't, then this will be used as a justification to privatise it. It will go something like this. The accident happened due to a combination of aging stock and inefficent work practices; private investment is badly needed to bring it up to modern standards and we must work with the private sector to implement this as they are the only ones with the expertise and finance.......
And to the metro..... it is well known that once you go underground, that the costs per mile or kilometer go up by a factor of 10 at the very minimum. I heard a number of years ago that a preliminary survey of the soils in Dublin showed it to be quite unsuitable for tunneling because it is largely composed of soft alluvial soil and it tends to shift and subside and would need considerable reinforcing within the tunnel. Perhaps this could explain part of the delays and cost overruns with the existing and very expensive port tunnel.
But if they do go ahead then it would make sense to minimize the actual amount of tunnel and go above ground as soon as possible.
I just had a look on the transport dept website for the new route - its going along the main airport road, but somehow there will be a stop at o'connell bridge and stephens green. are we to take it from this that the metro will be underground and not overground like the LUAS?
if it is, this is madness - think of the delays with the LUAS when they were digging up the streets, and that was just at street level. the road collapsed in harcourt street at one point, because there was an old bricked up cellar under the road that nobody knew about any more, it had just been built over several times.
digging underground deep for a metro system will encounter all sorts of underground rivers, walls, churches, streets, artefacts, viking relics, and ancient sewage works. of course if anything like this is found, then all work has to STOP immediately while the archaeologists come in and clean everything down with toothbrushes. this is no bad thing uncovering material from the past - but of course the metro progress will grind to a halt.
the best option is for overground light rail - connect it to the LUAS, interconnectivity between lines is important, and just look at the success of the red and green lines - and it will cost a lot less (money and time) in the long run.