[25-10-2011] NO trains north of Connolly due to signalling fault at Howth Junction

thomasj

Second night in a row! not great! appearently the flooding caused major damage to the signalling at howth junction

Dublin area floods:Major disruption to Northbound DART and Commuter services by Corporate Communications

Tuesday 25th October - UPDATE 18:50hrs

MAJOR SIGNAL FAULT AT HOWTH JUNCTION DUE TO FLOODING

No DART services currently operating North of Connolly. DART services operating between Connolly and Bray/Greystones only

Northern Commuter Services are cancelled until further notice

Trains currently between Howth Junction and Connolly will return to Connolly.

Southbound Drogheda Commuter services will terminate at Connolly

Every effort is being made to source buses

Dublin Bus are honouring all rail tickets

L1011

I'm sure I heard something about the CTC centre being flooded, but that was on the news this morning, probably Morning Ireland.

Jammyc

According to twitter, people are apparently hopping off trains stuck between stations. Blood dangerous and stupid, I know people get desperate but I'd imagine proper protocol there is talk to driver if you're ill, suck it up if you're impatient.

carveone

Someone told me he was on a train (specifically the Dundalk commuter) sitting between Connolly and Clontarf road for 90 minutes. That's crazy; it traps people in between stations with no way to get off and get the bus or a taxi. At least there are toilets on that train.

Did people know of the issue _before_ they got on the train? According to twitter they didn't. I mean if people knew and were kept informed this wouldn't be such a problem. Instead it turns into a health and safety problem.

I mean obviously the train can't move until it has a signal to do so, and people jumping off trains is nuts but when a train stops outside a station, like the Northbound commuter did, the least they could do is give people the option instead of holding the doors shut...

And what is with Howth Junction anyway. It's my local station and everytime there's a big rain the points go out. They'd be better off if a guy went down there and operated it manually. Once you're outside the rail yard at Connolly there is only two lines all the way to HJ...

ParkRunner

They sent at least 4 trains up that line anyway after ten past five, 2 Darts, the train to Balbriggan and the "express" train to Dundalk. The trains stopped at the Dart stations along the way to let passengers off for fresh air after being stalled for about 15 mins. Another half an hour later all trains were cancelled and we were told to get the bus. Passengers were simply abandoned miles from home and with no easy access to an alternative option.

Sultan of Bling

I was one of those who jumped off the train. Was on a Dart to Kilbarrack and train was stuck a couple of hundred yards from the station. Was stuck for approx 45 mins and was told by driver that he had no idea when we would be moving. We asked could he not go to kilbarrack but he said a train was already there. I couldn't understand why the train at Kilbarrack couldn't let people off and move a few yards past the platform to let our dart get to the station or why they couldn't tell us at Raheny about the delay.

How did you get off? Did the driver open the doors or did you use the emergency door release?

Cookie_Monster

Sultan of Bling wrote: »

I couldn't understand why the train at Kilbarrack couldn't let people off and move a few yards past the platform to let our dart get to the station or why they couldn't tell us at Raheny about the delay.

This, at very low speeds there can be no real issues with moving trains into close proximity too each at stations other rather than let people stew for hours.

Sultan of Bling

Karsini wrote: »

How did you get off? Did the driver open the doors or did you use the emergency door release?

Emergency door release.

kingshankly

Sultan of Bling wrote: »

Emergency door release.

tut tut tut

Losty Dublin

kingshankly wrote: »

tut tut tut

There are easier ways

td1

I had started a thread on another part of this section of boards.ie, but apparently it wasn't in the right section ...


Irish Rail FIASCO Tuesday 25 October
I thought there might have been some thread(s) on this already, but it seems not? I have sent a complaint on my own behalf, but I think this particular shambles was so bad, we need as many people as possible to let Irish Rail know that the complete failure of management, organisation, communication, consideration for their customers (I could go on and on!) they displayed last Tuesday evening is completely unacceptable and must not be repeated! At the very least, a major public apology - website, national media etc. - is required I think?

BTW, in case anyone doesn't know what this is about, it's their abysmal handling of the "major signalling failure" at Howth Junction during the Tuesday evening rush hour, which for those of who use their "services" became the rush 3-4 hours thanks to Irish Rail's incompetence - people stuck on trains, waiting on delayed trains without any information as to why they were delayed, left to make their own way home without any help from Irish Rail ...

highdef

If i had been stuck between stations for such a long time and I needed to pee, of course I'd force my way out of the train. Are passengers expected to piss in front of each other inside the train?

CIE

highdef wrote: »

If i had been stuck between stations for such a long time and I needed to pee, of course I'd force my way out of the train. Are passengers expected to piss in front of each other inside the train?

And some planners want to replace DMUs with toilets on some of the suburban lines with EMUs without toilets.

Now someone with knowledge could perhaps demonstrate if or whether a semaphore signal system might be less susceptible to flood damage than what's in place on DART (CAWS, IIRC)...?

Losty Dublin

CIE wrote: »

And some planners want to replace DMUs with toilets on some of the suburban lines with EMUs without toilets.

Now someone with knowledge could perhaps demonstrate if or whether a semaphore signal system might be less susceptible to flood damage than what's in place on DART (CAWS, IIRC)...?

In short, no. A semaphore, generally being mechanical, would obviously not be affected by a power failure. However, excess water can affect the tension of the cables which are operating the signal arm, leading to signals sagging at times or signals sticking at "Danger". Also, lying flood water can weigh down the links to a signal or junction box, making them difficult to or impossible to operate at times. If flood waters are excessively heavy, the links can be dislodged and broken though this is rare. Some semaphore signals and points are electrically operated so flooding will affect them as well, more so than coloured light systems.

DART operates under CAWS signaling for it's entire routes, which is an in cab signaling system. Should a signal failure occur it will failsafe and downgrade the in cab reader to red, thus requiring the driver to stop his train. This he must do, CAWS won't stop it for him. In the case of a DART, Automatic Train Protection will also halt the train for him, making it impossible to go beyond a red.

While these systems do save lives in the long run and improve safety, it's times like this week that the problems in same arise and cause headaches for passengers.