FIFTY people are believed to have been left temporarily stranded on Dursey Island after the cable car closed recently.
And now Cork County Council has announced yet another closure for the trouble cable car – this Saturday, August 26th.
The cable car was closed for two days earlier this month so a contractor could repair the fault that was reported shortly after 1pm on Sunday August 13th. At the time, 50 people had already arrived on the island via the cable car and a local ferry operator was engaged to bring them back to the mainland.
‘They were lucky,’ one islander told The Southern Star, ‘that the conditions at Dursey Sound were flat calm. If the weather had been like the conditions two days before, they would have had to stay on the island.’
The ferry operator had previously been employed by the Council, with departmental backing, to provide three ferry crossings per week while work was being done in 2022 to rebuild the cable car’s two towers.
‘It would have been better if it didn’t happen,’ said the islander, who suggested that there was a problem with a bearing on the pulley wheel.
‘But,’ he added, ‘at least the cable car is there. We’ve waited long enough for it.’
A spokesperson for Cork County Council confirmed that a roller, which allows the haul rope to be mechanically pulled back to the mainland, was replaced in advance of the reconstruction of the towers but it showed unexpected signs of wear and tear.
‘An examination of the roller indicated that it was defective and required replacement. It was necessary to decommission the cable car until a replacement could be installed and tested.’
Cork County Council has advised people intending to travel to Dursey that the cable car will be closed on Saturday August 26th ‘for operational reasons.’
This is the latest in a long line of closures since it reopened last June after 14 months.
