A railway safety watchdog has issued a safety notice to Iarnród Éireann about the importance of planning work before accessing the railway, following a “near miss” last month when two rail workers managed to move to safety from a fast approaching train with just seconds to spare.
The Railway Accident Investigation Unit (RAIU) said a safe system of work (SSOW) must be planned with red zone working only used as a last resort when all other safer options have been considered and ruled out.
Red zone working means the railway line remains completely open to trains travelling at normal operating speeds without any restrictions.
The safety notice arose following an incident on 13 July on the line between Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo and Castlerea, Co Roscommon when the Westport-Dublin Heuston passenger service approached two railway staff working under red zone conditions at a speed of 108km/h.
The RAIU said the two workers moved to a position of safety with just 4-5 seconds to spare before the train passed after the driver had sounded his horn to warn them.
The train came to a stop after the driver applied the emergency brake.
The RAIU said the available sighting distance was insufficient to allow the two workers to reach a position of safety “with an adequate margin before the train arrived”.
It noted that the incident occurred on a section of track classified as “medium risk”.
The RAIU also said a SSOW must be reviewed and authorised before work starts, so that staff must not access the railway until required protection arrangements are in place.
It also issued instructions for staff carrying out the role of track safety coordinators.
“Those responsible for planning protection arrangements must be trained, assessed and competent to do so,” the RAIU added.
The watchdog pointed out that the rail network is broken down and graded on risk in quarter-mile sections.
It said the three main hazards for staff working on the railway which affect grading are sighting distance to see approaching trains, train frequency and position of safety – the ability to be at least 1.5 metres away from the nearest rail on which a train is approaching.
The safety notice also referred to eight other similar “near miss” incidents on the rail network between February 2023 and November 2025 including three cases where a position of safety was reached with less than three seconds to spare.
The RAIU pointed out that a number of safety recommendations issued earlier this year in relation to the safety of track workers remain open.
An Iarnród Éireann spokesperson said the company had made “significant progress” in implementing recommendations to strengthen trackworker safety.
The spokesperson said measures included moving track patrolling out of live running conditions and into protected access windows for the DART network and several regional divisions as well as new pre-access compliance check procedures.
The company has also invested over €10 million in infrastructural improvements to walking routes and access points on the rail network as well as making enhanced use of technology to reduce “on-track exposure.”