[Article] Serious flaws found in Luas system

[Mark Gleeson]

There was no flaw in the Cahir viaduct, it was structurally sound the fault was a once in a million wheel rail interaction with a freight wagon, it could never have happened to a passenger train and it was only after the accident was the issue discovered. The Cahir viaduct does not feature in the safety audits publicly available, note publicly available the Luas report is still buried and was only leaked to the Irish Times

In this case

1) RPA knew about the flaw
2) RPA pushed ahead opening depite the contractor wishing to relay effected sections
3) Since the lines opened no remedial works have been carried out
4) The RPA can't make up there mind how bad it is

RPA keep changing there story
First there is no risk its under control work will be done at night, then we get the civil engineering professor in UCD stating the system isn't designed correctly anyway and needs a total redesign in the sharp corners, who do you believe a civil engineering professor who has no connection with Luas or former banker in charge of the RPA

Then the story changes to if no work is done to repair the faults it will become a safety issue and Ger Hannon starts talking about single line working in Fridays Indo, so there will be closures and hassle

To put some context on this 57% of all blocks in corners are defective that every second block thats scary

Key point is the RPA opened in the line with a serious safety issue hanging over them which they should have dealt with before the lines where open and in doing so it could have been done quicker and without disruption to 80,000 a day who have grown used to using the Luas lines, its now a year and a half later and a shutdown or the luas even a partial one is a not something we want to consider