COMPLACENCY AND poor safety management almost caused a disaster last August when the Malahide railway viaduct collapsed, threatening the lives of Iarnród Éireann passengers. Following two damning reports, new safety arrangements are being introduced. But the board of semi-State conglomerate CIÉ and Iarnród Éireann’s management remain firmly in place.
In 1998, the viaduct was identified as one of the most unsafe stretches of track in the State. In spite of that, insufficient remedial action followed. A warning from the public that the viaduct was being damaged by tidal flows led to an official inspection, days before the pier collapsed. But the danger was not recognised. CIÉ chairman John Lynch told an investigating Oireachtas committee last September the company had been “shaken” by the incident. And while public safety had become an issue at board meetings, he said it was “a mystery” why the collapse had occurred.
It is a mystery no more. Poor safety procedures, complacency and inadequate management were the prime causes. The latest report on the event, from the Railway Accident Investigation Unit (RAIU), found that Iarnród Éireann had failed to act on safety reviews going back to 1997. Engineers were not appropriately trained for inspection duties. And a maintenance regime designed to prevent the viaduct being undermined had ended in 1996.
This official neglect could have led to massive loss of life when the viaduct collapsed as an Iarnród Éireann train with up to 50 passengers on board crossed en route to Pearse Station from Balbriggan. The swift action of the driver and a heavy helping of good fortune helped to avert a potential catastrophe.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey found the RAIU report to be a worrying account of an inadequate maintenance and inspection regime. And what happens? CIÉ promises to do better. Iarnród Éireann sincerely regrets its failures and pledges to apply new safety recommendations. As happened following the collapse of the house building and banking sectors, this episode represents another case of “we are where we are”.
Following years of government prevarication, a National Transport Agency was finally established last December. It has been given responsibility for developing an integrated transport system for the greater Dublin area and for a number of other cities. Its powers in relation to CIÉ and its subsidised bus routes are carefully circumscribed. It is only now preparing a draft transport strategy. But it offers hope for a gradual shake-up of management and trade union rigidities that have bedevilled public transport in this State for decades.
More fundamentally, however, CIÉ and its constituent companies must recognise that there is neither room for compromise nor scope for faulty management in their duty to ensure the safety and protection of the travelling public. It is their primary responsibility and they must demonstrate they take it seriously.