Commuters faced with transport woe during railway strike

Tens of thousands of commuters have been caught up in transport disruption after rail workers went on strike for a second day.

Irish Rail, which is already under deep financial strain, is set to lose about 1.5 million euro if staff push through with plans for another three days of stoppages after today.

One of the next planned strikes is on the day of Ireland’s World Cup play-off game against Denmark in Dublin next week with the fallout likely to increase pressure on Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross.

The following stoppage is December 8, traditionally the busiest Christmas shopping day of the year.

Iarnrod Eireann management said that as more than 150,000 journeys are made on the network daily and it is not possible to provide alternative transport on dates of industrial action.

No trains have been operating across Intercity, Dart and commuter routes.

And the result has been huge volumes of traffic in and out of the main cities and a surge in demand for public transport on bus and Luas services.

In some parts of the country where Irish Rail and Bus Eireann share depots, passengers were being dropped off on nearby streets to avoid the crossing of picket lines.

All roads in and out of the capital and other major cities experienced increased delays during the rush hour.

Siptu’s organiser Greg Ennis said there had been no contact with Irish Rail or from mediators as the second day of strikes hit.

“There’s absolutely no contact. There’s nothing going on,” he said.

“Our message to the people affected today would be that Siptu represents 170,000 workers, members who are stuck in traffic, stuck in their cars, and our members in Irish Rail are left with no choice but to withdraw their labour.

“They are on strike after 10 years of a pay freeze and carrying significantly more passengers and they have no choice in order to extract a par rise.”

Pickets were placed throughout the day at all main Irish Rail stations and Dart lines including Bray and Fairview.

AA Roadwatch reported the main arteries into Dublin saw significant increases in traffic including the M4, M7, M3 and the Rock Road and Stillorgan Roads and also from Darndale into Dublin city.

Elaine O’Sullivan, editor of AA Roadwatch said: “The daily commute started a bit earlier.

“We noticed an increase in traffic volumes from about 6.45am but the busiest times were between eight and nine as expected.

“It was very heavy on all the main arteries into Dublin.”

AA Roadwatch also said there was increased traffic in Galway and Cork and in Limerick where the volumes increased later in the morning.

Martin Fox, a driver on the Galway to Dublin and Limerick lines for more than 12 years, said: “The last thing we want to do is inconvenience the public. We apologise to them.

“But we feel that we are left with no choice.”

Mr Fox said he thought a deal was close to being agreed during negotiations with mediators last month but he blamed Irish Rail for pulling the plug on it.

He added: “We have a minister for transport who seems more interested in tweeting about Manchester United and problems in North Korea. He’s conspicuous by his absence in this dispute. He does not seem to want to get involved.”

Source

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/commuters-faced-with-transport-woe-during-railway-strike-36297196.html

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