Part of Dublin to Belfast rail line collapses

russelljames

So for those of us around Balbriggan now have to contend with this bridge collapsing, meaning no trains to Dublin. The 101 Bus Eireann bus now is delayed by about 10-15 mins a journey leaving Drogheda and if it doesn't take the M1 its another 10 mins or so due to roadworks. And no doubt both Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann will think of putting more busses on the route either.
I'm with everyone above, I'm glad the driver noticed and this wasn't a tragedy. Standing at the platform with an enterprise going by shakes the ground as it is, the idea of an enterprise going at full speed over that is terrifying

dcr22B

I'm counting my lucky stars tonight as myself and my wife were on the last northbound train (in separate carriages) to cross the Estuary at approximately 6pm. We've played a few scenrios over and over in our heads and to be honest, I watched the Nine O'Clock News in my parents' house and my Mum nearly broke down crying she was so relieved.

Going to be an extremely sh1tty few weeks trying to get to work :mad:

On the upside, fair play to the driver of the Pearse bound train. That man can sleeps oundly knowing he averted a near catastrophe this evening.

sdanseo

What worries me is RTÉ are now reporting the driver continued to Malahide. Scary.

dcr22B

sdonn wrote: »

What worries me is RTÉ are now reporting the driver continued to Malahide. Scary.

Yeah, I thought I had read that right. It's normally a slow crawl across the Estuary at that time of the evening for Commuter trains heading south as they would stop in Malahide.

lostexpectation

huhu? maybe,obviously it wasn't a bad when he drove over it? his train would have made it worse

IIMII

murphaph wrote: »

This will pose a major problem for the mine I would imagine. The ore trains are very heavy-how are the loads transfered in Dublin Port (to presumably bulk carrier?)? It may not be easy to even use trucks instead.

Irish Rail have a lot of questions to answer. Looking forward to hearning Kenny waffle his way out of this one. I'm sure FF are wishing they had reopened Navan now. It could have been quite useful. But I thought the east got all the fancy new infrastructure and the wesht was being starved.....;)

Well, at a guess I'd say it means approx 100 truckloads of zinc per day through Navan, down the N3, hitting the M50 around to Dublin Port. Not sure about unloading facilities as there is a mechanised system in Alexandra road for rotating and emptying the wagons. This is going to **** up the N3 corridor as well.

I'd say the mine train drivers are sweating this evening with the what ifs - those trains are seriously heavy

Clare Bear

Jonathan wrote: »

Funny to see all the Malahide boardsies coming out to say hello :pac:

I know, rarely hear of many Malahide Boardsies

I live on Bissetts Strand overlooking the estuary so will be strange to see my view when I get back to Malahide on Monday. Just thankful that no one was hurt. It may take a while but at least it can be fixed.

Really annoyed that these things aren't checked on a regular basis though, people could have died today. Maybe they'll step things up a gear after this.

dochasach

Davy wrote: »

Plenty of water :rolleyes:



The water was a bit low around sunset, but that was also near low tide. Highest tide of the year is 4.74 meters about now (actually 1:15 a.m. Saturday 22 August)

I happened to be down at broadmeadows estuary with my family and camera looking for crabs. I took this photo around 8:00 p.m./sunset.

BTW I agree with Clare Bare and others and had assumed that regular surveys (heck these days you could do comparative laser interferometry and/or digital photo subtraction every few seconds!) Check this out:
http://www.ensco.com/Rail-Surface-Wear-Condition

Sierra Oscar

lostexpectation wrote: »

huhu? maybe,obviously it wasn't a bad when he drove over it?

I am guessing he noticed something was up whilst driving over the particular section?

fiddlesticks7

jesus i waved my friend off from portadown on the enterprise that arrived into Dublin at 18.15, scary to think what could have happened eeeee!

karlr42

Karsini wrote: »

This will also have an effect on commuter railcar maintenance, how will they get back to Drogheda? Might need to go to Inchicore or Portlaoise instead.

I have a feeling that this is going to become a major issue- some trainsets needed for other Dublin area services are no doubt stranded in the depot, and maintenance will be a problem too- think of all the empty trains running to Drogheda and back during the average day for refuelling, diverting these to Inchicore or(more likely) Portlaoise will impact other services.

ronano

Thank god no one was hurt or killed but god unless bus eireann do some cheap lark i will have to shell out 250 euro a month for travel with matthews coach from julianstown. FML

dowlingm

Once again the fragility of the Irish rail network, radial as it is, is demonstrated if the recent Bray closure wasn't enough. If Navan-Clonsilla was open the mines traffic could be running through there and trapped trainsets rerouted to the other side of the breach.

The one thing about lines like Limerick Junction-Waterford and Waterford-Rosslare that the beancounters don't mention is that they do provide extra options when incidents like these occur. As murphaph said there, if Metronorth ran to Donabate that could take a whole bunch more people off the M1 now.

The other point is that if Dublin Port had moved faster on moving port operations to Balbriggan, the mines traffic might not be hammering the suburban trackage as much anyway.

@DWCommuter - I was just thinking that it might be time for a look at the Cahir report as a preview of what we'll read in the RSC's report on this disaster.

df1985

it does make you wonder about the vunerability of irish rail routes.on the south dart im always worried about a rockslide along the cliffs.

living on the maynooth line which hugs the canal,i sometimes wonder about the strength of the bank along the route.leixlip-confey stations' platform recently started sliding into the canal and repair work had to be done and it looked like a patch-up job, no significant strengthening of the bank the platform was sitting on.

Run_to_da_hills

Dose anyone have any idea where loco 186 is?

Its due for an excursion from Connolly to Wicklow next Sunday, I hope its not stuck at the RPSI depot in the North :eek:

c4cat

dcr22B wrote: »

I'm counting my lucky stars tonight as myself and my wife were on the last northbound train (in separate carriages) to cross the Estuary at approximately 6pm. We've played a few scenrios over and over in our heads and to be honest, I watched the Nine O'Clock News in my parents' house and my Mum nearly broke down crying she was so relieved.

Going to be an extremely sh1tty few weeks trying to get to work :mad:

On the upside, fair play to the driver of the Pearse bound train. That man can sleeps oundly knowing he averted a near catastrophe this evening.

I think that driver deserves a Medal at the very least!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

L1011

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Dose anyone have any idea where loco 186 is?

Its due for an excursion next Sunday, I hope its not stuck up North :eek:

181 class, it'll be in Inchicore rusting away quietly surely?

karlr42 wrote: »

I have a feeling that this is going to become a major issue- some trainsets needed for other Dublin area services are no doubt stranded in the depot, and maintenance will be a problem too- think of all the empty trains running to Drogheda and back during the average day for refuelling, diverting these to Inchicore or(more likely) Portlaoise will impact other services.

They can refuel elsewhere if they have to - nearly sure they used to refuel locos in Maynooth over weekends when the line from Drumcondra in was out of action for upgrade works. Used to have entire trainsets overnighting there and lots of fuel-looking kit sitting on the sidings anyway.

Infini

sdonn wrote: »

What worries me is RTÉ are now reporting the driver continued to Malahide. Scary.

From what i heard myself the Driver was actually driving over it as it was starting to go. Got one hell of a scare from it too! Thankfully noone was killed or injured tho im suprised myself that such a busy section of track could just collapse so suddenly.

sdanseo

Just in from the aul raving, but I'll take a hi-res camera with me down the road tomorrow and pop up some more detailed shots.

lostexpectation

said it was redone in 97?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0822/1224253080907.html
what does that mean,when was it last checked?

lostexpectation

http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/M/Malahide/slides/Malahide%20Estuary%20(3).html
close up on viaduct as was

sdanseo

Just seen

Jonathan wrote: »

Funny to see all the Malahide boardsies coming out to say hello

Clare Bear wrote: »

I know, rarely hear of many Malahide Boardsies

I'm always hovering about! Dunno where the rest of the Malahiders are normally

CHD

ooops

Rashers72

Anyone got any information on the replacement bus services?
Just checked the 33 timetable. There are only 2 buses from 12-16.00 hours.
All the customer service desk numbers are ringing out in Connolly, and the IE website just says get Dublin Bus. This is a joke. Basic information, that's all passengers want.
If anyone has anymore information, much appreciated.
Monday will be chaos unless they get their act together very quickly.:mad:

dcr22B

Rashers72 wrote: »

Anyone got any information on the replacement bus services?
Just checked the 33 timetable. There are only 2 buses from 12-16.00 hours.
All the customer service desk numbers are ringing out in Connolly, and the IE website just says get Dublin Bus. This is a joke. Basic information, that's all passengers want.
If anyone has anymore information, much appreciated.
Monday will be chaos unless they get their act together very quickly.:mad:

Rashers, you have a point but I guarantee you they had no contingency plan in place for this but they're simply going to have to expand the 33 service for the next few weeks or there'll be a lot of irate train users (like myself and my wife) having some serious words!

KC61

Rashers72 wrote: »

Anyone got any information on the replacement bus services?
Just checked the 33 timetable. There are only 2 buses from 12-16.00 hours.
All the customer service desk numbers are ringing out in Connolly, and the IE website just says get Dublin Bus. This is a joke. Basic information, that's all passengers want.
If anyone has anymore information, much appreciated.
Monday will be chaos unless they get their act together very quickly.:mad:

I think a little patience is required here. This incident happened at about 1830 yesterday.

Buses, trains, and drivers will now have to be sourced and scheduled and that does not happen overnight. I'm sure that either later today or tomorrow some semblance of a plan will develop.

The other problem is that whether Dublin Bus have spare vehicles/drivers available - people seem to think that buses and drivers can be sprung out of nowhere!! That may not be the case (particularly in the morning rush hour).

Incidentally between 1200 and 1600 on Saturdays there is also the hourly 33A that could be used to connect with a 41/41B/41C/43 at Swords for the city.

Bluetonic

dowlingm wrote: »

The other point is that if Dublin Port had moved faster on moving port operations to Balbriggan, the mines traffic might not be hammering the suburban trackage as much anyway.

God knows what you are talking about as that was all just pie in the sky. Dublin Port will not be moving to Bremore, it was fanciful dreaming by the PDs

positron

I am not particularly fond of Irish Rail drivers, but I was going commend and applaud this driver for the medal for noticing the collapsed section, but as I started typing this, news came on radio that the train actually went over it, and the section collapsed just after the train went over it, and the 50-60 passengers had a narrow escape. Hmm, I suppose its still good of him to it giving away under the train, can't imaging the nerves afterwards! Fair play!

I was on the 7pm Enterprise which was cancelled. Everyone was asked to get off the train and wait for the buses. A group of about 400 were waiting for alternate transport near the station car park. 30 mins later there was a serious risk of death by laughter when the 'transport' arrived - a 20 seater mini-coach-thingee! Then one proper coach turned up. Then nothing for another 45 mins. Finally more small coaches arrived and a large bus around 8:15, which finally made it to Drogheda station by around 9:20pm.

I have to say the rail users are such a merry bunch - the 3 to 400 people out waiting for IR to arrange coaches for nearly 2 hours, infants in buggies, people with long haul flight tags on their luggages, daily commuters, teenagers returning from shopping, old and frails grannies - they all just stood there chatting, laughing, smoking, munching, listening to whatever - I know for a fact that in many other parts of the world this would have lead to tut tutting, heated debates, fingers pointed at etc..! Top marks to the rail users!!

lostexpectation

positron wrote: »

I was on the 7pm Enterprise which was cancelled. Everyone was asked to get off the train and wait for the buses. A group of about 400 were waiting for alternate transport near the station car park. 30 mins later there was a serious risk of death by laughter when the 'transport' arrived - a 20 seater mini-coach-thingee! Then one proper coach turned up. Then nothing for another 45 mins. Finally more small coaches arrived and a large bus around 8:15, which finally made it to Drogheda station by around 9:20pm.

did you know what happened at that stage?

DWCommuter

"In february and March 2004 additional rock and concrete fill was added to provide additional protection against the elements."

Source: IRRS Journal.