Waterford Station closes after landslide!

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Only Ballina-Waterford is cleared for liners, no other lines are allowed to take them without clearance.

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Only Ballina-Waterford is cleared for liners, no other lines are allowed to take them without clearance.

Snap:D

John Denver wrote: »

Anybody from Waterford or is familiar with Plunkett station knows this was just a freak accident. Unfortunately its not until incidents like this that the weaknesses in the cliff face or rock surface can be dealt with!
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yep, some posters here have never been in Plunkett station, freak accident indeed, the important thing is to learn from it.

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

I've been there many times. It was obvious that the rockface there hadn't been looked at or maintained in an age.

Its not a freak accident, its an occurrence that could have been avoided if IE bothered doing routine maintenance and safety surveys.

If it has never happened before why would you mess with something that is not broken. If the council felt the need to fix the road side why not fix the railway side. If safety was top they would of completed all the works.

Not exactly the same but all the damage on the west cost was "preventable" if action was taken....the only reason people have issue with this is because it happened with IE, if it was on a side of a road nobody would say a word.

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Suitable engine availability is another issue. 201 Class loco's are not allowed south of Arklow bar for an emergency. There are not passed for the South Wexford line and they are certainly not passed out for the Barrow bridge.

In any case, I would wager that either station at Rosslare hasn't a long enough passing loop for a runaround manoeuvre to take place.

South Wexford line could never handle the payload of the DFDS service, they could always find an 071 as 201's very rarely operate to Waterford. One return trip in the last 4 or 5 months.

In the same way the Malahide bridge collapse was due to negligence and lack of maintenance.

That had never happened before - doesn't mean it was ok that a train full of people nearly fell into the sea.

Some of the replies here are off the wall! The cutting never collapsed onto the roadway but was reinforced all the same. It appears the ah sure it will be grand approach was applied at the train station and the inevitable happened. I've never been knocked down crossing the road does that mean I shouldn't look both ways?

The comparison to the west would be acceptable if roads, piers, promenades etc. hadn't been closed but they were as the damage/danger was anticipated. The problem I have is that IE should of known the rock face was vulnerable we had heavy rain and poor weather conditions leading up to the collapse and I've no doubt that they were factors but IE seem to be blind to the danger given the difference in its appearance along the roadside and track bed.

If when the RAIU report is published it's found that everything in relation to risk assessment and mitigation was up to an acceptable standard and recent inspections where performed properly and found no reason for concern then fair enough but for now I'm skeptical.

corktina wrote: »

the Malahide bridge collapse was caused by the sea scouring out the foundations.Only easy to see with hindsight.....

Have you read the published report? It's here http://www.raiu.ie/download/pdf/accident_malahide.pdf Members of the public raised concerns re scouring under the bridge piers and ultimately IE inspection and knowledge where found very wanting it was plain to see for anyone who knew when and what they were looking at.

Waterford is re-opening this afternoon.

cbl593h wrote: »

Travelled into Plunkett today, 3 car 22000 1015 ex Heuston.

First to note was one of the mk3s has a big hole in it, odd to note though the cutting going on next to a working line. They appear to have all the seats stacked on the tables, maybe they are recyclable separately.

In the station they've done a lot of work on the cliff and not necessarily just where the big rockfall is, quoted as "€700k spent" so far. General concensus from those I spoke in the station was "they spent 25p on it in 25 years".

A source there passed on various tales of woe- big changes are afoot, the station as we know it is to move to Sallypark yard, (with bus shelters), while the administration stays in the existing station. The bay on the carpark side is to go, a stop block is to be put on the current main platform making it a dead end. The Rosslare line will be a long siding, all controlled eventually from CTC. Central cabin not expected to reopen.

Grave days....

The scrapping is hardly near the working line, there is a good space between them.

CTC is a matter of time and should of happened 10 years ago when the line began being centrally controlled from Connolly.

My sources say nothing has been decided yet and that more than likely the station will remain in its current location and the rock will be reinforced. IE got 2.5m last week to complete the work on the rock. It still has to be x-rayed to see exactly where there are weak points. Removing points and platforms was proposed by the S&E dept to lower reinstatement costs but this was rejected out of hand. Bottom line is nobody knows for sure yet what is happening. Could anybody seriously see passengers walking out to Sallypark on a wet and windy day. It would be the death of passenger traffic in waterford.

Agree.

mike65 wrote: »

What they should do is move the whole station across to the North Quays and build a covered passenger bridge across to the South Quays as Frank McDonald mentioned in the IT feature on Waterford this week its the obvious thing to do and has been for years.

Don't know why people say move to the North when it's on the North already, I know what you mean though a good idea but moving it down there is pointless as flooding will still happen and close the place. Sallypark is the only place where it will be unaffected however a move out there will destroy passenger numbers. A temporary platform best way forward.