Laois County Councillors have slammed Irish Rail as 'unfair' and 'uncaring of road safety and the residents near Ballybrophy train station' following their delay of repairs to faulty traffic lights in the area.

Rathdowney Fine Gael Cllr John King requested that the Council give an update on planned safety improvement works and the replacement of a public light unit at the Ballybrophy bridge junction.

“These works will not be carried out in 2025 as Irish Rail would prefer the ducting for the proposed new traffic control system is carried under the railway line and not across the bridge,” Laois County Council's Area Office replied. 

Pictured: Ballybrophy train station. Photo: The Leinster Express

“Site investigations will be carried out this year to establish the feasibility of bringing the ducting under the railway line.” 

Cllr King was frustrated with this response, highlighting that funding was allocated for these works. 

"There was money allotted for this project some time ago, and I do understand that it left the area and went elsewhere. I don’t see any difference; Irish Rail are being very unfair,” Cllr King slammed. 

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“The easiest way of doing it, and the proper way to do it is to bring the cable along the side. Otherwise, it's going to be a huge job to plan these works and put the cable under the railway line, and it will be at a huge cost,” he argued. 

“It was €40,000 allocated for this project before today. That money was shafted somewhere else. I think Irish Rail are fully wrong, there’s no sense or reason the cables aren't along the side of the bridge where no one can even see,” he said. 

Pictured: Ballybrophy train station. Photo: The Leinster Express

“It’s being pushed down the road, it’s a very busy area at the railway station, all day every day. The lights give trouble, I think if they put the cable along the bridge wall, no one would even notice it’s there,” he said. 

Senior Executive Engineer with Laois County Council, Mr Rory O’Callaghan, replied that upon his meeting with Irish Rail officials, they stated that they would not attach cables along the bridge. 

Cllr King questioned their reasoning. 

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“They didn't give a reason. They just said that they can’t attach cables to a bridge, that they don’t want cables there,” Mr O’Callaghan replied. 

Fellow Fine Gael Cllr Conor Bergin seconded Cllr King’s motion, hailing Irish Rail’s behaviour as ‘disgraceful’. 

“I fully support Cllr King’s motion. It’s disgraceful the way Irish Rail are acting. They get a huge amount of goodwill from residents there, and landowners,” Cllr Bergin said. 

“They recently expanded the car park and we all welcomed it, they get a huge amount of goodwill from the residents. People give them access to the railway on their lands, and there is absolutely no goodwill seen given in return,” he argued.  

Pictured: The blind junction at Ballybrophy train station, where faulty traffic lights regularly get stuck on red

“I give notices about this issue regularly, for people coming up from Kilcoke especially, it’s a concern for them every day. The lights there, people aren’t following them. They are breaking on red,” he said. 

“There’s a very simple solution, to put the two lights on the one sequence. That’s all that needs to be done. All it takes is a cable, but Irish Rail are putting this down the road now, going on to next year.

"There are a number of near miss accidents there every day, there is a risk of an accident there. I think it’s disgraceful, and Irish Rail need to be held to account,” Cllr Begin shared. 

Cllr King agreed, stating that Irish Rail ‘are not playing ball at all’. 

Independent Mountrath Cllr James Kelly questioned contradictions from Irish Rail. 

“These motions of notice are about road safety. Irish Rail don’t seem to care about road safety, if this is the case,” he said. 

“Are there other cables attached to the bridge from previous years? I can't understand it,” he said. 

“We discussed the installation of an Eirgrid station in Laois with Irish Rail over the past year. We were told we couldn’t put it on the northside of Portlaoise, because they won’t put cables underneath the railway station,” he said. 

Pictured: Portlaoise train station. Photo: The Leinster Express

“It has to be on the Mountrath side. Here they will say they will put them under the tracks- this is only one cable. They are not going to run cables to the Eiffel Tower. I just can’t understand this reply from Irish Rail about the feasibility of bringing ducting under the railway, when they can run it along the bridge,” he argued. 

“The way Irish Rail are going on, we’ll be talking about this for the next two or three years,” Cllr Kelly finished. 

“The reason the lightts are malfunctioning is because the cables have a light working sequence, and they aren't in sequence. Every cable every house has, is hooked onto a wall. Irish Rail just aren’t willing to play ball,” Cllr King finished. 

This motion was tabled at the September sitting of Laois County Council’s Borris-in-Ossory / Mountmellick Municipal District. 

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