{"id":523743,"date":"2026-06-29T06:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/523743\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T06:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:54:15","slug":"key-safety-features-in-new-irish-rail-it-system-failed-tests-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/523743\/","title":{"rendered":"Key safety features in new Irish Rail IT system failed tests \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key safety features on a proposed IT system for the country\u2019s railways did not work reliably, staff who tested the software found. Alarms designed to issue alerts when trains had passed danger signals did not operate correctly if they had previously been stationary for long periods.<\/p>\n

Based, in part, on the testing results, the board of Irish Rail<\/a> in recent days decided the contract with the company that provided the IT system should be ended. <\/p>\n

However, it will be up to the National Transport Authority<\/a> (NTA) \u2013 which funded what is known as the traffic-management system (TMS) \u2013 to make a final decision on the future of the project and the role of contractor, Indra. <\/p>\n

About \u20ac30 million has so far been spent on the TMS project which would integrate signals, communications and other systems on the rail network.<\/p>\n

However, the project has been beset by years of delay and has also gone considerably over budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Irish Rail told the Oireachtas transport committee earlier this month it had written down payments of \u20ac28.2 million made to Indra. It said it had also written off more than \u20ac17 million spent on project-management costs to support Indra in its work.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Continuing concerns raised about IT project for rail network, but key decisions imminentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The State-owned rail company said on Sunday that \u201cany decisions arising from the June board cycle would be advised to the NTA as the approving authority\u201d.<\/p>\n

The NTA is to appear before the Oireachtas transport committee on Wednesday, while the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee will examine the rail IT expenditure in mid-July.<\/p>\n

The latest software for the TMS project was submitted by Indra to Irish Rail in April for testing.<\/p>\n

It is understood the company determined the software had failed \u201cprinciples testing\u201d, which concluded earlier this month. Irish Rail determined the system was not ready for operational testing or commissioning.<\/p>\n

Irish Rail testers maintained there were significant safety issues to be overcome. They also determined the effort, resources and time needed for testing and development to bring the system into use would be significant.<\/p>\n

It is understood a key safety concern centred on alerts that issue when a train passes a red signal light \u2013 known in the rail industry as \u201csignal passed at danger\u201d (SPAD).<\/p>\n

This is considered to be a very important safety feature in the rail sector. <\/p>\n

Industry sources said any such event happens in error as no train driver would deliberately pass a danger signal. When such signals are passed, a warning alert is sent to the central facility controlling the rail line.<\/p>\n

It is understood that Irish Rail concluded, as part of the testing, that the SPAD alarm did not operate reliably, particularly when a train had been stationary for a long period, either at a station or overnight. <\/p>\n

Indra has been approached by The Irish Times on several occasions in recent weeks but has not commented about the TMS contract.<\/p>\n

The introduction of the TMS was originally expected to cost about \u20ac19 million but it has run considerably over budget. It was initially expected to be in place two years ago. <\/p>\n

However, the board of Irish Rail was told in recent months that it could be the summer of next year before the first phase of the project \u2013 covering the Dublin-Rosslare line \u2013 would be introduced. The board was also told it could be well into the 2030s before the full system is operational.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key safety features on a proposed IT system for the country\u2019s railways did not work reliably, staff who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,16455,7942],"class_list":["post-523743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-rail","tag-national-transport-authority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}