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670 Number of lift incidents at Dart and Irish Rail stations last year
145 Number of outages in January and February this year
TWO lifts a day were reported broken in Dart and Irish Rail stations around the country last year, we can reveal today.
Our latest data investigation also exposes how Luas stations in Dublin were hit with three lift outages a week in 2019.
There were 670 lift incidents in Dart and Irish Rail stations across the network last year.
January and February saw 145 outages before the Covid-19 pandemic put the brakes on public transport.
Figures provided by the national operator show it received 99 complaints in 2019 and the first two months of 2020 about access problems for buggies and wheelchair users.
Sinn Fein health spokeswoman Louise O’reilly branded the figures “an absolute disgrace”.
She told the Irish Mirror: “If you can’t get to work because of a broken lift, you’re not just being cut off from social and leisure activity, you’re being cut off from economic activity as well.
“It’s your own responsibility to get to work, you can’t keep telling your boss, ‘Sorry but the lift was broken this morning’.
“We have a really poor record in this state of employing people with disabilities as it is.”
Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny said 568 of the total 815 total outages were fixed within 24 hours.
He told the Irish Mirror: “We apologise for the issues experienced, particularly in locations where there have been recurring issues, and recognise the impact this has on accessibility of our stations.
Our data probe also reveals Bus Eireann received 214 queries last year about access issues on its 750-vehicle fleet covering national and regional routes.
A spokesman said: “Currently, 100% of vehicles operating City and Town services are wheelchair accessible, while 90% of the total Bus Eireann fleet is accessible.”
Dublin Bus said it could not provide complaints numbers specifically relating to accessibility.
Go Ahead Ireland, which has a fleet of 178 buses and coaches covering a number of Dublin city and commuter services, had not provided complaints figures at the time of going to print.
The lift in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock Dart stop has broken down more times than any other station’s over the past 14 months.
There were 45 lift outages at the South Dublin city train stop between the beginning of 2019 and February 2020 before the lockdown.
Blackrock station in South Dublin and Pearse Street station in the city centre are next, each with 43 reports of broken lifts in 14 months.
There were 41 lift stoppages in Tara Street and 39 at Connolly Dart station.