Exact same as here, except specially trained senior instructor drivers supervise the trainee. Normally the driver standards manager is in charge. UK never had dual control cabs to start with.
Irish Rail now seem to put any random driver in charge regardless of experience, which contradicts the agreed plans to have specific trained drivers for the purpose, any driver wishing to carry out the task applies for the job, its not given automatically. There are mentor drivers in Inchicore and Connolly but none in Cork.
The issue at hand is who is responsible and the various documents we have seen are not clear as to the qualifications of the supervising driver and responsibility in the event of an incident. With the advent of a penalty points, official certification of drivers and increased emphasis on safety, no one is willing to put their job on the line. There is no problem with a trainee traveling in the cab, its the trainee driving.
Full service is operating in Cork currently to the 2007 timetable, so what is ongoing currently is not impacting services yet.
We have very little interest in the underlying reasons for the disruption. The passenger on the ground, they don't care. What we are interested in is failure of Irish Rail management to provide the service as agreed, failure to notify the public in good time of alterations, failure to promptly reimburse those effected and so on. The key issue is since Irish Rail management are answerable to no one there is no motivation on them to provide a service in a professional manner.
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