22 August 2009

Main Dublin Railway Line collapsed

We are in a very deep recession, financial crisis and governed by the most ludicrous bunch of incompetents that has ever been assembled in an Irish cabinet. They have no clue how to get us out of the mess they created, waste time with their senseless waffling and procrastination, and in the meantime dream up ever more and higher taxes and severe cuts to the social welfare and education budgets, thus making the poor pay for the mistakes of the rich.

And while the government fiddles, all around it Ireland crumbles and falls to pieces.

The latest example - and indeed a most visible and symbolic one - is the sudden collapse of a segment of rail track in the northern part of Dublin.

Yesterday evening, at around 6.20 pm, a 20-metre-long section of the main Dublin to Belfast railway line on the viaduct across the Broadmeadow estuary - between Malahide and Donabate, just north of Malahide station - has crumbled and collapsed into the water.

The damaged line was noticed by the driver of the 6.07 pm train travelling from Balbriggan to Pearse station. He drove his train to Malahide station and reported what he had seen. There were about 50 people on the train, but no one was injured.

After the driver's report all other trains were immediately stopped from using the line.

Iarnród Éireann (Ireland's state-owned national railway company) has said that the collapse had "the potential to be a serious tragedy" and that they will be investigating the incident fully.

According to Iarnród Éireann, "the railway lines are inspected regularly and viaducts have a maintenance regime". But, as with almost everything here in Ireland, things are often not done right, not often enough, and not thoroughly.

There will be shuttle bus services between Drogheda and Skerries for northern commuter services for the foreseeable time.

The Emerald Islander

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Holy Mackerel!

If that driver had not spotted it, this could have derailed a trained and killed people. Our rail system is pretty run-down and alwasy has been, and everyone in Ireland knows it.
But this goes a bit far. Seems that no one did proper maintenance on the viaduct. It's made of concrete, and that's pretty stable. But if not serviced well, concrete in close proximity to water can become porous and fall to pieces. The engineer responsible for this sector should be sacked and prosecuted for negligence. But as things are in Ireland, he is probably getting a pay rise, a promotion and will end up one day as chief executive.

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