Malahide viaduct 'maintenance failures' found

[loner]

Another cock up that fortunately did not end up in massive loss of life----if it can be shown that the fault in not properly monitoring this bridge resides with the railway management then we should have resignations

[Pabilito]

This is a shocking story, even the young boys and girls of the Malahide Sea scouts saw it coming.!! Young boys and girls with no engineering knowledge could see a potential disaster. These kids could see a disaster in the shifting rocks and reported it!. Yet the the engineers of Iarnród Éireann were useless.

I have personal experience of trying to doing business with Irish Rail and I have to say that they are the most useless shower of gobsh1tes ever landed on planet earth... only interested in buying any old equipment for the lowest price..

The Irish people in 2010 need a decent rail transport system linking up our villages, towns and cities yet we are stuck with a shower of useless ejits who don’t even know what the rail network is made of??

[Craiced]

Systems do not just fail. Either the components don’t behave as they should, their intended behaviour is not correct in certain circumstances or they are not provided with adequate resources.

Let us be clear – either people operated these systems incorrectly in these circumstances (and are to blame) or they designed these systems incorrectly (and are to blame) or they resourced these systems inadequately (and are to blame).

The full article is here
The Business of Technology

[MsAnneThrope]

The report recommends that in future, knowledge should be passed on by Iarnród Éireann staff who move or retire.

You couldn't make it up could you? Does anybody here know one - just one - successful, private business that does not have a hand-off process when a staff member of any importance moves or retires?

Will this revolutionary brainwave of passing on information be limited to Iarnród Éireann I wonder, or will other important organisations in the State realise it has its merits also? God help us all

[wombat]

You couldn't make it up could you? Does anybody here know one - just one - successful, private business that does not have a hand-off process when a staff member of any importance moves or retires?

It happens all the time, even without someone retiring, the left hand changes something and the right hand makes another, its a major problem in any organisation. Trying to get open communication, especially about problems is a major task for management. "Old Soldiers" hoard information because they fear being replaced - if the young fellow knows what I know, he may replace me. Its no excuse but it is not unique to Irish Rail.

[fiannafailure]

I am genuinely interested in how any engineer could be so myopic and disinterested in his job, that he wouldn't have even a cursory interest in the ground he walked on in order to do his inspection.

[wombat]

that he wouldn't have even a cursory interest in the ground he walked on in order to do his inspection.

Unless he was Jesus Christ, he hardly walked on these foundations

[energy]

I am genuinely interested in how any engineer could be so myopic and disinterested in his job, that he wouldn't have even a cursory interest in the ground he walked on in order to do his inspection.

I agree.

It would be interesting via FOI or otherwise to know how many engineers are employed in Irish Rail - same applies to our county councils. Are they just employed to watch infrastructure crumble ? - all the technical work or reports they release seem to be contracted to outside consultants.

[fiannafailure]

Unless he was Jesus Christ, he hardly walked on these foundations

Nice to see that the double entendre can still be used effectively as a communication tool

[Aindriu]

I think the bit about "passing on knowledge" is a bit of a joke. Whatever else about the Victorians, they were sticklers for keeping copious amounts of documents and plans in their records. I bet that the plans for the Malahide viaduct and causeway are gathering dust in some filing cabinet up in Heuston Station or in some other archive. The fault lies at the top with bad management and with successive governments who have ensured that the funding and subsidisation of public transport here is amongst the lowest in Europe.

I have no faith in Fergus O'Dowd either - his real agenda, like the present minister's, is privatisation.

I completely agree.