Solution on track for Athenry train and traffic delays?

By TOM GILMORE THE recent problems for traffic in Athenry, due to long delays in opening the gates at the railway crossing, will not happen again, according to Iarnród Éireann. But Deputy Paul Connaughton who raised the matter with the rail company says he will be keeping an eye on the situation and will hold them to account if it does. â€Å“Last month I was contacted by a number of very frustrated local residents who had been forced to wait for up to 25 minutes behind closed railway gates with no apparent passing train. [private] â€Å“People appreciate that the railway crossing gates have to close for approximately three minutes to allow trains to pass, but to sit and wait for up to 25 minutes with no passing train is particularly frustrating and should hot have happened,â€Â he says. Deputy Connaughton wrote to Iarnród Éireann about this and he has received an assurance from the companyâ€â„¢s chief executive David Franks that the issues regarding the lengthy gate closures and an out of operation lift at the railway footbridge are being addressed. But the CEO says the cause of the delay last month was due to essential signalling and level crossing maintenance testing that was taking place at the time. â€Å“The timing of the testing was unfortunate and in future we will ensure that the planning of such work gives full consideration to additional crossing closure in order to ensure minimal impact on the town,â€Â states Mr Franks. While apologising for the traffic delays last month he also explained that the increased demand for rail services between Athenry and Galway has resulted in increased frequency of trains and the use of barriers. â€Å“This results in the level crossing barriers being lowered on each occasion for an average of 3.5 minutes and this is consistent with closure times at similar crossings throughout the network. â€Å“We endeavour to keep inconvenience to users of this level crossing to a minimum while maintaining the need for safety,â€Â he added. The Iarnród Éireann CEO added that the Athenry station had undergone an extensive upgrading in 2009/10, including a new footbridge with lifts, as part of Iarnród Éireannâ€â„¢s accessibility project. But the frustration of people in Athenry has been compounded by the new lift not working for much of the time since it was installed in October 2010. â€Å“Motorists were not the only people inconvenienced by what was going on last month. Many pedestrians unable to use the lifts at the footbridge, especially people pushing children in buggies or those in wheelchairs, had no option at the time but to wait for the gates to reopen and this problem also needed to be rectified,â€Â said Deputy Connaughton. But the Iarnród Éireann CEO says this situation is also being resolved and the lift will soon be operational again. â€Å“The lifts have suffered intermittent problems since their installation and were isolated in spring of last year pending an appropriate permanent solution. The cause and solution of the problems are the subject of a contractual dispute, which we anticipate, will be resolved shortly. It will then be possible to return the lifts to working order,â€Â states the letter from the Iarnród Éireann CEO. â€Å“I was caught up myself in traffic delays at Woodlawn Station a few times and once in Athenry it is simply not acceptable that motorists and others should be delayed in this way. Hopefully Iarnród Éireann will sort out the problem as they have promised and if not I will be back putting pressure on them again,â€Â Deputy Connaughton concluded. [/private]