[16-11-2006] Heuston after 18:30

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by IE

Today I am conducting a full enquiry into the route cause of each mechanical failure and also how we can improve our contingency planning to deal with these exceptional circumstances in order to limit the extent of delays experienced last night.

I can solve that for you Steve,

Crap quailty equipment, 6000 mpc is fairly crap for a unpowered coach set
Total lack of quailty control by IE, locknuts and split pins had to be fitted when bolts worked loose
Poor training of staff on all levels
Lack of facilities to maintain the train, like to explain why the sets end up in Connolly?
Lack of spare parts, yes I know you have knicked them out of set 8
Staff lied and mislead passengers and failed utterly to provide timely information about getting home

Seriously though its odds on a electrical fault on the control car of the 18:35 which made it impossible to get a blue light, of course 2/3 of the locomotives have the abilty to power the coaches if required. The Mk4 is odds on a instrumentation fault which made it impossible to confirm the parking brake released or maybe it was a the visual inspection which found a bolt had snapped on the secondary suspension

These where not exceptional circumstances, the 18:35 frequently has problems and the Mk4 sets have serious trouble, on the day of the press launch the train was delayed by 20 minutes since a Mk4 suffered a parking brake problem in Heuston, happened a few other times as well, there was the Knocklong incident, the list goes on. Nothing happened last night that hasn't happened before

BTW does anyone in IE proof read stuff ? its root cause not route