Irish Rail’s centralised control system to oversee the movement of trains has just two remaining spare central processing units, “heightening the risk of service disruption”, its company directors have been told.
A board meeting in March was told Irish Rail cannot find any more replacement parts for the existing system, which was commissioned more than 20 years ago and was supposed to have been replaced in 2024.
Executives at the State-owned company will this week face questioning by the Oireachtas Committee on Transport about the substantial delays and cost overruns to the introduction of the planned new traffic management system (TMS).
Last month, the board wrote down by €50 million the value of its investment in the project after testing of software to implement the first phase of the new system identified problems.
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The National Transport Authority (NTA) has told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee in recent days that the Government was to provide €20 million over the next three years in additional funding to boost resilience in existing signalling on the key rail arteries around Dublin.
This is “to mitigate the risk of a major failure” of the existing central traffic control system at Connolly Station as a result of delays in introducing its planned replacement, the NTA said.
Minutes of the Irish Rail board meeting in March set out the concerns within the company.
Directors heard the existing system had been originally commissioned in 2004, and that between 2018 and 2020, high-risk hardware items were replaced and software upgrades were applied.
“It was noted that this was a temporary life extension measure, as TMS was planned for completion in 2024,” the minutes said.
“It was advised that the current centralised traffic control (CTC) system had been reduced to two remaining central processing spare units, heightening the risk of service disruption” from any future CTC failures, and that “Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) is unable source any further replacement parts” for the current CTC system. “It was noted that there would also be an inability to support infrastructure changes to increase service frequencies or to successfully bring into service big capital investment programmes.”
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However, the NTA briefing document to the PAC said current timelines for key projects such as Dart to Wicklow, Dart+, and Navan railway line due to be commissioned in 2029, 2031 and 2035 respectively, are not expected to be impacted by the current delays in the TMS delivery.
The Irish Rail minutes say the board was told structured, CTC options analysis confirmed the immediate priority was to implement targeted upgrades “to mitigate high and urgent operational risks, manage obsolescence and signallers’ workload pressures”.
PAC chairman John Brady said the delays and cost overruns with the planned TMS was “rapidly becoming one of the most serious public sector IT failures in the history of the State”.
“Taxpayers have already seen Irish Rail write down €50 million on this project, yet the financial exposure continues to grow.”
The Sinn Féin TD said on top of the additional €20 million provided to boost current arrangements, the NTA had warned that if delays to the TMS resulted in a new Cork signalling project being held up, the State could face additional costs of up to €800,000 every month through contractor claims and additional project management costs.
He criticised Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien for “a hands-off approach” which, he maintained, was allowing “the saga to continue”.
