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Mayo Family's LC Campaign and Implications for WRC North

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  • 19-03-2008 3:01pm
    #1
    Nostradamus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 621 ✭✭✭


    Although this is a terrible tragedy for the family at the centre of this accident. The fact remains that their father drove through a level crossing he used on a daily basis, was well marked with warning and stop signs and which only carries a handful of trains a days.

    Apparently there are reports that the gate to the crossing was left opened by the previous driver. If so why isn't this being made the main issue here? Why no Garda investigation into the previous user who failed to close the gate when they drove through it?

    Now it is possible the victim was suffering from early stages of alziemers and this maybe a factor. Yes we need as many level crossings as possible, but there is a denial of reality going on here which is worrying for lots of reasons. One being that Mayo politicians seem to think that defensive driving should be sacrificed for elderly rural drivers. Nothing new there, but by making an issue out of this one case while demanding all unmanned level crossings be automated, it will have very serious implications for railway expansions. There is simply no railway in the world with 100% level crossings. Yet Mayo is demanding just this.

    Either way, the family's crusade against unmanned level crossings has very serious implications for the Western Rail Corridor being extended north from Tuam to Claremorris. This section of the line is defined by massive numbers of level crossings, including 3 huge ones which cross the N17 directly south of Claremorris.

    The politicians in Mayo (being the hysterical reactionary creatures they are) are lost in their usual foaming at the mouth/arm-waving litany that all minor level crossings in Mayo should be automated at a cost of about 900,000 euros each.

    This would make their WRC into Mayo one of the most expensive elements of Transport 21.

    Maybe they need to think again. But then again, they are not used to actually thinking something out before issuing press releases. If the IFA and other rural lobbies jump on this bandwagon they can kiss their "Western Rail Corridor in Mayo and rural transport access" goodbye.


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    #2
    BrianD
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,221 ✭✭✭BrianD


    Given that it is a single rail line and most of these unmanned LC's are laneways, would it not be cheaper to build underpasses? Something similar to those they build on a lot of new road developments. It removes the risk and the maintinance costs must be cheaper over time.


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    #3
    Nostradamus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 621 ✭✭✭Nostradamus


    BrianD wrote: »
    Given that it is a single rail line and most of these unmanned LC's are laneways, would it not be cheaper to build underpasses? Something similar to those they build on a lot of new road developments. It removes the risk and the maintinance costs must be cheaper over time.

    Be even better if some Irish drivers obeyed the rules of the road and showed consideration for all other transport users.

    People are forgetting that this farmer could of easily killed a large number of rail passengers as well.

    Reopening the WRC to Claremorries will make it an incredibly dangerous railway line for rail passengers and drivers as Mayo politicians have concluded hat drivers of cars are not responsible for their actions and never should be.


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    #4
    El Stuntman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,720 ✭✭✭El Stuntman


    with the deteriorating budgetary situation, expect WRC to be dropped quietly over the next year


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    #5
    SeanW
    Registered Users Posts: 8,744 ✭✭✭SeanW


    The fact is - as it always has been - that the WRC above Tuam is so heavily defined by curves, steep gradients, level crossings and cheap engineering commensurate with the standards of a Victorian tramway, and encroachment on the lines since then with one off housing and road building, that if one was considering reopening that railway, it would make as much sense, if not more, to go completely new-build, because reopening it would be so expensive and the trains that run would be so slow on the existing "line." All this combined with the fact that the critical mass of patronage to justify MASS TRANSIT which is what railways do. This admission that Mayo drivers are not capable of safely using user-operated crossings only adds to the sheer madness. Of which there was no shortage beforehand.


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    #6
    spacetweek
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 4,956 Mod ✭✭✭✭spacetweek


    El Stuntman wrote: »
    with the deteriorating budgetary situation, expect WRC to be dropped quietly over the next year
    There is no deteriorating budgetary situation, not for T21 anyway. The money has been committed and it is a matter of the survival of the economy that we build it out.

    That said, I don't think the WRC was ever going to be completed anyway regardless, especially the section north of Tuam.


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    #7
    Our man in Havana
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,476 ✭✭✭✭Our man in Havana


    They will be lucky it Ennis-Athenry opens at all.


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    #8
    Ham'nd'egger
    Registered Users Posts: 3,025 ✭✭✭Ham'nd'egger


    Nostradamus wrote: »
    Be even better if some Irish drivers obeyed the rules of the road and showed consideration for all other transport users.

    People are forgetting that this farmer could of easily killed a large number of rail passengers as well.

    Reopening the WRC to Claremorries will make it an incredibly dangerous railway line for rail passengers and drivers as Mayo politicians have concluded hat drivers of cars are not responsible for their actions and never should be.

    Maybe the plan is for some of the idiot motorists to be made use trains for the safety of all concerned! I have access to some of Mayo's print media and the blazé attitude shown to rail users is surreal at times.

    Just in linkage to this tragic crash, the WRC and the contempt of some Mayo people to railway's; in 1989 the afternoon Dublin-Westport train collided with cows on the line. The twixt of the incident was that the train was running late and the farmer assumed it had passed and let his animals cross the line to an adjoining field; the oncoming train mowed into the livestock and killed many of them. The farmer sued CIE for the loss of his cattle and lost but won his case on appeal, the judge noting that it was CIE's responsibility to secure the line. Whatever about using a level crossing, but herding cows across a working line? :eek: From a precedent in that case, the Mayomen seem to believe a case is to be answered.

    Until the line was made safe and cleared, all trains to Ballina and Westport were diverted onto the WRC, thus keeping the area's services running for some time afterwards.


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    #9
    dermo88
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,000 ✭✭✭dermo88


    Thank you for reviving that incident. We would do well to remember this county, and how it treats its resources. It wants it all, at any price, and will give nothing back in return. Frankly speaking, I would turn the Westport and Ballina railway lines over to a single OLD diesel train per day for a year. They'd be begging for modern trains then.


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    #10
    A Dub in Glasgo
    Registered Users Posts: 16,970 ✭✭✭✭A Dub in Glasgo


    There is simply no business case for automating level crossings like the ones in Mayo. I would shut the crossings.


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    #11
    corktina
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,733 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    I think a huge mistake was made in making railway crossings different to road crossroads...were all the signs and lights the same on both exmaples, more notice would be taken of them....as for "occupation" crossings, if the users want them automated then so be it, and THEY can pay for it too...


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