[24-9-2010] 17:36 Connolly Wexford

[Mark Gleeson]

A perfect example of everything wrong with Irish Rail

The train went through a red signal at the south end of Lansdowne Rd. No doubt in my mind of that. As the train rolled off the end of the platform a loud 'ah ****' was heard from the drivers cab followed by an emergency brake application.

Obviously it could have been a signal failure which unexpectedly put the signal to red or it could have been the driver not paying attention. We don't know but I did hear what sounded like the driver switching radio frequencies as the train passed Lansdowne as is normal which would require the driver to look away briefly.

We then sat for more than 10 minutes before we got a completely useless announcement which told us nothing beyond a 15 minute delay

Another announcement said train terminate at Bray, citing a technical problem. Which of course doesn't match Irish Rail's excuse of signal fault

Finally 40 minutes late we start to move, now terminating at Dun Laoghaire

None of the announcements were clear or in any way helpful. Some were incorrect and clearly the announcements were not honest in the information presented.

I challenged the person in charge in Dun Laoghaire who clearly was not a local, never seen him. The story of technical problem continued, he couldn't provide an answer.

The radio, CAWS and DSD systems seemed to work fine