Trains stand still due to bus strike

Commuters affected in transport double blow

MORE than a fifth of rail journeys were cancelled yesterday after the Bus Éireann strike spilled over into Irish Rail, leaving many travellers stranded and furious.

While Bus Éireann’s 110,000 daily passengers had been given half a day’s notice that its buses wouldn’t run, most rail passengers were completely unaware that their services could be affected.

Hardest hit were travellers using stations which are shared between bus and train services, where train drivers and associated support staff refused to pass bus drivers’ pickets. These included Galway, Tralee, Limerick and Sligo station.

Altogether, 140 train services across the country, out of a total of 650, were cancelled.

Some train drivers did not go into work yesterday morning at Waterford station even though the train station is separated from the bus station by the River Suir.

Union members later explained that Bus Éireann clerical staff, who are based in the train station, had set up a picket there, which rail staff did not want to pass. Bus Éireann staff in Waterford said it was a matter of conscience whether or not Irish Rail staff passed the picket.

Many rail staff also failed to turn up at Cork’s Kent station, which is a seven-minute walk from the city’s bus station. One rail worker at Kent Station said: ‘We’re supporting our colleagues in Bus Éireann in solidarity with the attack on their wages.’

After talks, services resumed at Kent Station at 11am.

Barry Kenny, corporate communications manager at Iarnród Éireann, said they were not informed that rail services would be impacted by the bus strike.

‘Obviously the trade unions had been speaking about the possibility [that rail services could be affected] but we had as precedent a situation whereby in 2013 and 2015 there were Bus Éireann disputes that involved pickets but they didn’t prevent Iarnród Éireann employees accessing work,’ he said.

‘We had been planning on the basis that all services would operate and certainly that any impact would be minimal, but unfortunately from about 5am, at various locations, the reality that there was going to be significant interruption became clear.’

Ahead of last night’s Ireland-Wales match at Dublin’s Aviva stadium, he noted that ‘huge numbers were affected’.

Mr Kenny added that normal services should resume this morning. ‘Now the belief is that this level of disruption is not likely to reoccur tomorrow,’ he said.

‘We would expect a far greater level of service to operate tomorrow, but we’re looking to get a bit more clarity before formally confirming that.

‘We are not a party to this dispute, and very much regret the disruption our customers experienced today. We would hope that our employees will not encounter pickets as they seek to go about their daily work for the remainder of this dispute.’

Dermot O’Leary, general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union, said the ‘all-out indefinite’ bus strike would continue until the row was resolved.

He said that the union had warned that ‘this was going to happen at some stage’.

Mr O’Leary, whose union represents both Bus Éireann and Irish Rail staff, acknowledged that rail services should not have been affected. ‘People in Irish Rail should be at work this morning, but I did flag, and I was very honest with people, that [in] the colocations in particular there was going to be a problem,’ he said.

‘People were faced with a moral dilemma this morning. I’ve been in that situation before where pickets were placed and I didn’t pass them. I could say that people should ignore pickets but I can’t do that because it is a moral dilemma and some people in this country still have a moral compass.’

Ray Hernan, acting chief executive at Bus Éireann, said a review of the company’s structure was almost ready and plans to stem its €50,000-a-day losses would be brought to the board on Monday.

The company is headed for insolvency within months if it does not slash its costs.

But Mr O’Leary criticised plans to reduce costs.

‘What Bus Éireann are asking their staff to do is to reduce themselves to the level of some of the bad operators out there,’ he told RTÉ’s Today With Seán O’Rourke. ‘Not all private operators pay their staff badly but a lot of them do. Bus Éireann is trying to become a low-cost, low-wage provider.

‘We’re prepared to discuss the inefficiencies that are there. I’ve asked the company, I wrote to the company last week and I spelt out quite clearly to them that we’re prepared to discuss the inefficiencies but they chose not to.

‘They wanted our members to take a pay cut before discussions.’

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association said rail workers should have been at work yesterday.

Its chief executive Neil McDonnell said: ‘Of course the workers have a right to go on strike but workers that are not on strike and are not in dispute with their employers should be at work. Bus Éireann workers have voted on strike action and they’ve taken strike action. They’re in dispute with their employer. Iarnród Éireann employees are not in dispute with their employer so they should be at work.’

Mr McDonnell pleaded with Bus Éireann workers to reconsider their position. ‘This strike will severely impact small businesses and their workers. Tens of thousands of commuters have been left stranded as a result of today’s actions. Businesses will be without staff and retailers will lose sales.

‘In the meantime, people must still get to work and rural dwellers need alternatives to those services they have lost this morning.

‘We ask car commuters to consider car-pooling and to lend a hand to neighbours who have lost a bus or train service.

‘We ask employees who have been affected by the strike to contact their employers in good time and inform them of any disruption caused to their commute. Employees and employers will need to consider flexing work times and working arrangements where disruption occurs.’

‘We’re supporting our colleagues’

‘We are not a party to this dispute’