Irish Rail gatekeeper parks car on line

dowlingm

Well now. How WILL Barry Kenny spin his way around this one?

http://www.examiner.ie/story/Ireland/idaucwcwcw/rss2/

Irish Rail gatekeeper parks car on line
By Dan Collins

HUNDREDS of train passengers were caught up in lengthy delays when an Irish Rail gatekeeper parked her car on the main Cork-Dublin line yesterday in a row over the closure of the level crossing at Kyle, Co Tipperary.

Ann Flavin, who is fighting cancer, has been gatekeeper for 30 years at Kyle level crossing, which is due to be closed with the completion of new road works.

Yesterday afternoon she drove her car onto the line when a contractor attempted to carry out work at her rail-side home, which she will have to vacate.

"At the moment I have nowhere to move to and my severance agreement with Irish Rail has not been finalised," she said.

While her union SIPTU had been negotiating severance terms, Ms Flavin said she had been given an assurance that no work would be carried out on and near her home until all discussions were finalised and agreement with the company was concluded.

There were still outstanding issues to be sorted out, such as the demolition of a shed that the Flavins built adjacent to the gate lodge, "but no talks have been held to finalise anything", she stressed.

The 55-year-old gate-keeper contradicted claims by the company that she owned her own house nearby. Vacating the gate lodge would be a huge upheaval for her and her husband, she said.

"We have nowhere else to go," she said.

Last May, Ann underwent an operation for breast cancer and has been on a programme of chemotherapy since then.

"Last September, when I was in hospital having chemotherapy, the contractor attempted to carry out work at my home despite the fact that the company said this would not be done until everything had been agreed," she said.

Last Thursday, another attempt was made to carry out hedge removal works near the gate lodge, she claimed.

"I told Irish Rail last week, if that ever happened again I would block the line and that’s what I did today."

A spokesperson for Irish Rail said the contractor should not have attempted to carry out any work at Kyle level crossing yesterday. Talks between the company and Mrs Flavin are expected to be held on Friday.

A number of services were affected for 40 minutes before Mrs Flavin removed her car from the line and there had been a consequent "knock-on" effect on schedules, the spokesperson said.

Trains running on the Dublin, Limerick, Waterford and Limerick Junction services were affected.

Gardaí were called to the scene yesterday after which a spokesman said a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

seanybiker

The fecking plonker. She had a free house for 30 years, move on ya ould biddy

Skyuser

It's simple. When they want to do the work, block the entrance so she cant get in. If the car is there when they come working move it, if shes in it pull her out. If the car is there when they're not working but when a train is coming.....drive through it!

seanybiker

ha ha thats the shot.

bill_ashmount

dowlingm wrote: »

Gardaí were called to the scene yesterday after which a spokesman said a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. [/url]

Good

Rawr

Madness!

Fair enough if she had an issue with her (soon to be ex) employer IE, but really, parking a car on a Level Crossing?!

Luckily, the worst that happened here was delays, but it could turn out much worse. You might end up with an Intercity plowing into that car, possibly de-railing, with passenger injuries or even fatalities.

That said, I don't know anything about that Level Crossing. Is it automatic or one of the old manual gates (are they still around?) My main point is that she put people in danger for the sake of a protest, and that just isn't right.

KC61

It is a manually operated gated crossing that is protected by signals either side - given the gates were closed across the railway the signals would have stopped any oncoming trains.

BrianD

Surely any IR employee putting anything on the "permanent way" would be a gross breach of safety procedures and leave them open to prosecution? On that basis she would then be grounds for dismissal or redeployment within the organisation.

dowlingm

KC61 - wasn't there a train vs closed gate incident last week the signals should also have prevented?

I don't have much time for the way the woman concerned handled the situation but once again we see the HR drones within CIE have taken a simple issue and mishandled it to the point where their employees feel they have no option but to disrupt the system, in this case to the point of possibly criminal activity.

UPDATE: The Indo covers the incident.

"They want all this done by December 31, but we are still trying to get this settled and they told me last week they would not be back.

"I warned them I would block trains if they attempted it again," Mrs Flavin said.

Interesting...

UPDATE2: The story goes international...

orbital83

Gardaí were called to the scene yesterday after which a spokesman said a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

... and hopefully tried as attempted mass murder.

There are no excuses for this sort of behaviour, never mind petty disputes over a hedge.

the_syco

"Last September, when I was in hospital having chemotherapy, the contractor attempted to carry out work at my home despite the fact that the company said this would not be done until everything had been agreed," she said.

Last Thursday, another attempt was made to carry out hedge removal works near the gate lodge, she claimed.

"I told Irish Rail last week, if that ever happened again I would block the line and that’s what I did today."

FFS. Doing it whilst she's in hospital is a bit low.

They then called her bluff, and found out that she wasn't bluffing.

Don't see why they can't wait until the severance agreement with Irish Rail has been finalised.

Morlar

It would be nice if she were made to monetarily compensate all of the people that she held up/all the plans that were shot because of her.

By the sounds of it she is looking for money for a shed she decided to build on the property - I would charge her for having to demolish it.

KC61

dowlingm wrote: »

KC61 - wasn't there a train vs closed gate incident last week the signals should also have prevented?

That was on the South Wexford line - I'm not sure what the cause was in that case - possibly a semaphore signal not moving to/from the danger position.

In the case of Kyle crossing, it is protected by colour light signals either side.

Of course it would be possible for a train to crash into the car if there was a signal failure or the driver passed a signal set at danger, but thankfully both of those events are relatively rare.

corktina

everyone has their breaking point and I dont think half those comments are justified unless you know FOR CERTAIN the facts.....OK she handled it in a way that I wouldnt support but there was no danger of mass murder etc....dont believe all you read in the papers.

Morlar

corktina wrote: »

there was no danger of mass murder etc....dont believe all you read in the papers.

I wasnt talking about mass murder - just about holding up numbers of people trying to get home from work/shopping/whatever.

She has no right to throw all of those peoples plans out the window, missed connections, dinner plans, social events and so on. Pure selfishness in my view.

murphaph

corktina wrote: »

everyone has their breaking point and I dont think half those comments are justified unless you know FOR CERTAIN the facts.....OK she handled it in a way that I wouldnt support but there was no danger of mass murder etc....dont believe all you read in the papers.

Parking a car on a live railway, even at a level crossing protected by signals, creates an added danger. What that woman did was reprehensible. It doesn't matter what her beef with IE was-you do not park your car on a live railway.

corktina

murphaph wrote: »

Parking a car on a live railway, even at a level crossing protected by signals, creates an added danger. What that woman did was reprehensible. It doesn't matter what her beef with IE was-you do not park your car on a live railway.

yeah..thats what I said.....:rolleyes:

Judgement Day

Nothing to be said here except that yet again we are treated to another example of appalling IE industrial relations. Come on Barry Kenny step up to the plate and spin your way out of this mess!:D

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

Nothing to be said here except that yet again we are treated to another example of appalling IE industrial relations. Come on Barry Kenny step up to the plate and spin your way out of this mess!:D

Quite simply thats exactly it. We can all moan and groan about the dangers, but its important to know that the Human Resources dept in IE is the most provocative outfit Ive ever witnessed. And that provocation causes problems for customers.

the_syco

Morlar wrote: »

She has no right to throw all of those peoples plans out the window, missed connections, dinner plans, social events and so on. Pure selfishness in my view.

Meh. Train is often late, usually due to a light not working near Castleknock train station.

=-=

As for the mass murder charge... pure bo||ox. To crash into the car, the train driver would have had to ignore the light before the crossing.

Victor

the_syco wrote: »

Meh. Train is often late, usually due to a light not working near Castleknock train station.

Trains on the Cork-Dublin route have extra time added, so "delayed" means "on schedule" normally.

However, a stunt like this means people being "delayed" and "later than scheduled"

orbital83

the_syco wrote: »

As for the mass murder charge... pure bo||ox. To crash into the car, the train driver would have had to ignore the light before the crossing.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/27/1214472717373.html

Yeah sure it could never happen. This is Ireland and it will all be grand. Nothing bad ever happens here!
Sure the next time I can't get parking down at Clonsilla I'll just park my oul hyundai accent along the tracks.

Try it as attempted mass murder and send a strong signal to every other potential attention seeker out there.