Security at Coolmine train station

iMADEtheBBC

FYI

Early yesterday morning my wife was approached by a junkie 'looking for a light'. Later that morning the sole staff member at the station (a young girl) spotted him trying to steal a bike. She approached him and was threatened by him.

Be aware that there are no lights at the car park and no security whatsoever.

My wife will be phoning Irish Rail today to ask when they will be installing lights in the car park and will be following up with the Gardai to make sure they are aware of this individual. Until then I'll be escorting her to the station early in the mornings.

dubdec99

Clonsilla station, too, has had a few bike thefts and attempted bike thefts in the last month. I had a word with the local labour councillor about it, he said he had already spoken to the gardai about it but they said it was iarnrod eireanns responsibility - apparently they are saying it's the responsibility of the gardai....

TradeSecrets

I have had my bike stolen and about three weeks ago my tyres were slashed when I arrived back to the station at 5pm one evening. I have informed Irish rail and got no response.

Enii

My bike had its saddle stolen from Clonsilla station...... thought it would have been safe enough overnight......

glossy

iMADEtheBBC, did you phone?
like to hear what the follow up on this will be. have you contacted one of the local councilers

BostonB

First I've heard about it.

utick

dubdec99 wrote: »

Clonsilla station, too, has had a few bike thefts and attempted bike thefts in the last month. I had a word with the local labour councillor about it, he said he had already spoken to the gardai about it but they said it was iarnrod eireanns responsibility - apparently they are saying it's the responsibility of the gardai....

you report crime to the gardai and they say its not there responsibility, that f'ing crazy response from them

leggo

The security of the station isn't the Gardai's responsibility at all. It's up to Iarnrod Eireann to look after their passengers or risk losing the business as a consequence.

If there's an actual crime committed...the Gardai are obliged to respond. But if the facilities aren't there for them to investigate the crime then there's not much they can do.

So it looks like Iarnrod Eireann are simply passing the buck.

In saying that, though, in all of my years using Coolmine train station I've never once thought there was a need for security. And that's coming from somebody who's worked at length in security too. You get the odd gang of young fella's hanging around...but that's going to happen anywhere. I can't recall seeing one incident there personally. And one junkie does not call for security to be brought in. All it takes is the staff in the station either telling him to clear off or calling the Gardai if necessary.

Lights in the car park, though, I'll give you.

Pineapple stu

iMADEtheBBC wrote: »

FYI

Early yesterday morning my wife was approached by a junkie 'looking for a light'. Later that morning the sole staff member at the station (a young girl) spotted him trying to steal a bike. She approached him and was threatened by him.

Be aware that there are no lights at the car park and no security whatsoever.

My wife will be phoning Irish Rail today to ask when they will be installing lights in the car park and will be following up with the Gardai to make sure they are aware of this individual. Until then I'll be escorting her to the station early in the mornings.

There are cctv cameras all around the station,what security would you like to see?

Pineapple stu

dubdec99 wrote: »

Clonsilla station, too, has had a few bike thefts and attempted bike thefts in the last month. I had a word with the local labour councillor about it, he said he had already spoken to the gardai about it but they said it was iarnrod eireanns responsibility - apparently they are saying it's the responsibility of the gardai....

There are signs that says that you park your cars/bikes at your own risk.

dubdec99

cymro wrote: »

There are signs that says that you park your cars/bikes at your own risk.

And those signs absolve the gardai of any duty re bike thefts/vandalism?

Pineapple stu

No. It just means if you get your bike nicked you report it to the gards rather than to irish rail or your local councilor.

dubdec99

Well from talking to other cyclists, this has been done but to no avail unfortunately

Yesterday I disturbed three kids, at the bikes, they scarpered fairly quickly - one of them had a silver scooter with him, which he threw over the bridge into the canal. i dont know obviously if it was his or not.

Cathmandooo

iMADEtheBBC wrote: »

FYI

Early yesterday morning my wife was approached by a junkie 'looking for a light'. Later that morning the sole staff member at the station (a young girl) spotted him trying to steal a bike. She approached him and was threatened by him.

The staff member was very stupid to approach the man. I've seen staff in the station go onto a speaker phone that plays into the station and into the car park to warn people who are being seen misbehaving. There were a group of teenagers hanging in the carpark at the time. The man in the station announced that they're on cctv and that he was calling the gardai and they all scarpered. She should have done the same.

I don't see any need for security otherwise, you can get junkies asking for a light anywhere at any time.

CrazyRabbit

I'm pretty sure that Iarnrod Eireann have forgotten about this station.

The displays showing the next train arrival time haven't worked in months and trains run on average 12 mins late (based on my last 7 trips).

Security wise, I've never seen any issues. It's a really quiet area, but no doubt that on occasion a junkie will show up and cause some problems. That's life unfortunately. I think I'll hold off on the barbed wire and sniper towers for the moment.

Cathmandooo

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

The displays showing the next train arrival time haven't worked in months and trains run on average 12 mins late (based on my last 7 trips).

In my 6 years of using that station I've never seen those display things working in Coolmine.

BostonB

In my experience it can run early too.

Grudaire

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that Iarnrod Eireann have forgotten about this station.

The displays showing the next train arrival time haven't worked in months and trains run on average 12 mins late (based on my last 7 trips).

To be fair the displays don't work in anystation that isn't a main one like Connolly. I think the one's in Ashtown are left off now!

And I've not had such a problem with the trains being late myself...

Pineapple stu

I think there is plans to make the car park a multi storey one .
The boards have never worked.

iMADEtheBBC

cymro wrote: »

There are cctv cameras all around the station,what security would you like to see?

I'd like to see the lights turned on. The next morning they weren't on either.

Phoned Irish Rail who said that the car park was the responsibility of CIE Group Properties.

CIE Group Properties wouldn't return my calls.

The Garda I spoke with was a smart arse who said that they couldn't put someone there 24 hours a day. I responded that I wasn't asking for that and was asking if they could have a word with the station master about the lighting in the car park. He refused to do anything further unless I went in to make a statement.

So Irish Rail don't want to know. CIE don't want to know. Gardai don't want to know.

After another call to Irish Rail they agreed to have a word with the station master about ensuring the lights are on in the car park.

Anyhow. Be aware that there are some lowlife targeting the car parks at the rail stations in our area.

daymobrew

iMADEtheBBC wrote: »

He refused to do anything further unless I went in to make a statement.

You should ask your wife to make a statement - it's not a big deal. I've made a bunch wrt TrafficWatch reports. They are unlikely to do anything further but you can use it to complain to senior Gardai when the Garda does not take action.

dubdec99

My bike was stolen this evening from clonsilla train station - looks like they used a bolt cutters of some sort to snip through the lock. Anyway, i'm off to the garda station to file a report.

BostonB

What kinda lock was it?

dubdec99

One that wasn't good enough!!! :-) Dont really know how to describe it, it wasn't a link-chain or the u-shaped kryptonite - just a wire lock encased in a hard plastic

amdublin

Sorry dubdec

I hope it wasn't a mad expensive bike :mad:

dubdec99

amdublin wrote: »

Sorry dubdec

I hope it wasn't a mad expensive bike :mad:

Nah, not really but still painful for it to happen, next time I'll have to get a really good lock if one exists....the kryptonite fugedaboudit is supposed to be one of the toughest to break.....although getting one would probably be like painting a target on your back!!!! :-)

daymobrew

I drove by the Coolmine car park this morning and saw that 3 cars had had their windows smashed.

I was collecting someone from the car park in the afternoon. Two of the cars had been moved but one of the vandalised cars was still there - it had a smashed rear windscreen in addition to a side window.

Looking at the pools of glass around the car park it looks like 4 cars were vandalised and one of them had the rear windscreen and side window smashed.
There are plenty of security cameras in the car park and hopefully they record pictures.

I rang the Community Gardai asking them to visit the station. I might phone the station tomorrow.

Bloody scum.

amdublin

what a disgrace.

The poor owner when he/she goes to pick up the car.

daymobrew

I rang Coolmine station this morning (they weren't answering the phone yesterday). The guy said he'd look through the CCTV footage and report his findings to the Gardai.

Zaph

I noticed one of the parking ticket machines was vandalised as well. The screen was smashed in but at least it was still working.

Bunnyhopper

Cliste wrote: »

To be fair the displays don't work in anystation that isn't a main one like Connolly. I think the one's in Ashtown are left off now!

They do seem to work fine at all the DART stations though. You can check the real time train information for Coolmine online now: it's daft that you could stand on the platform with your smartphone and check the train times live but Irish Rail can't get the same information onto their own platform displays.

Cathooo wrote: »

In my 6 years of using that station I've never seen those display things working in Coolmine.

I can't recall them ever working at Coolmine, either.

Still, at least it's not Broombridge....