Users of 1,000 manually operated railway level crossings have been asked to take extra care, as Iarnród Éireann warned it does not have the cash to upgrade to best practise safety levels.
According to the company there have been four fatalities since 2007, with “category one” near misses – incidents where only emergency action on the part of train drivers averted a collision – now running at about 30 per year.
In recent years Iarnród Éireann has spent €150million upgrading about half of its level crossings but some of the oldest - some 650 “field to field” crossings remain. In addition there are about 150 rural road crossings which feature manually operated swing gates or barriers.
Speaking at the launch of a new campaign to promote level crossing safety consciousness at Lansdowne Road this morning Iarnród Éireann safety advisor Cahal Mangan said many of the crossings were “legacy, Victorian, gates” . He said upgrades which include level separated crossings and automated barriers and flashing lights had been made.
Some of the more difficult areas where level separation would involve relocating approach roads and building embankments would be more expensive and in the current economic climate, Iarnród Éireann did not have the funds, Mr Mangan said. In the past improvement works had cost “about €1 million per crossing” and the more complex engineering solutions could be significantly more than that, he said.
In addition in field-to-field type situations separated levels were not practical and Iarnród Éireann was reliant on users to be very safety conscious. Between 2002 and 2011 there were 241 incidents of a vehicle colliding with a level crossing, and 20 incidents of a train striking a gate. Many of the problems are reported in Roscommon and Mayo, but also on the Dublin to Wexford route.
Noel Brett chief executive of the Road safety Authority said the new safety awareness campaign would involve a radio advertisement, a new booklet and print media reports.
“The campaign highlights to road users including pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and drivers the dangers posed by level crossings and the steps they should take to stay safe when using them.”
