Irish Rail have issued an appeal for people to never cycle on a railway track.
It comes as a person was escorted from the tracks in Waterford recently, with a train coming in their direction.
The incident happened on the freight line between Waterford and Belview in the past week.
The person in question was said to have had headphones in and to be totally oblivious to the fact that what they were doing is illegal.
Speaking on Deise Today, Barry Kenny from Irish Rail said it could have been fatal.
“What would possess anyone to cycle on an active rail line? It’s not exactly conducive to cycling in any circumstances, but obviously - it is dangerous. The range of circumstances here, were extraordinary. Literally, our freight service had just left Belview. It was within a mile and a half of this location and we had a person who was cycling towards Waterford, with earphones on, who could hear nothing.”
Mr. Kenny says the person was taking their life in their hands, as in the scenario of train versus cyclist - there’s only ever one winner.
“Quite simply, even at limited speeds - it does take a distance for trains to stop. Train versus cyclist. There’s only one outcome. Thankfully, our own line patrol staff member was patrolling the line at the time, and escorted the person out. They claimed to be oblivious to the fact that it’s something they shouldn’t be doing. Apart from the law of the land and safety regulations, you would think that common sense would apply. Unfortunately, for a minority - obviously, that’s not the case.”
Mr. Kenny says it’s important this close call is highlighted to avoid further incidents in future.
“We want to make sure that one - people are aware that this is active railway line. We’ve had different levels of services and the nature of freight services is that the schedule can change, so it’s not a case of saying that well there’s a train at X time. Two - it’s dangerous, it’s illegal and people are putting themselves at risk. We’d also ask them to think of our drivers and other staff, who frankly would be traumatised if there was any incident.”
