Cancelled Irish Rail services

[mypost]

I spent 3 weeks trying to get somewhere with their customer service and found them to be nothing short of rude and unhelpful. They never once replied to any of my contacts like they said they would.

The drivers issues are still ongoing apparantly. Due to travel on the 11.10 service from Heuston to Ceannt for the Galway-Hoops game on Saturday, when it was cancelled at 12 hours notice. Having booked a seat on it, it was a mad panic trying to transfer the reservation for the later train, 3.5 hours later.

This is what the 5% increase contributes towards.

[pete]

Drivers really take the pi**. Irish Rail web site now For such a small network far too many cancellations. I am glad I never get the train.

23 00 Heuston Kildare cancelled, Tuesday by Corporate Communications
Iarnród Éireann advise customers that due to driver issues, this evening's 23.00hrs Heuston to Kildare service is cancelled (Tuesday 1st April).

21.55 Pearse-Maynooth, 23.13 Maynooth-Connolly cancelled, Tuesday by Corporate Communications
Iarnród Éireann advises customers that due to driver issues the 21.55 Pearse-Maynooth and 23.13 Maynooth-Connolly services are cancelled this evening Tuesday 1st April 2008.

06 30 Portlaoise to Heuston & 17 35 Heuston to Carlow cancelled by Corporate Communications
Iarnród Éireann advises customers that the weekday 06.30hrs service from Portlaoise to Heuston, and weekday 17 35 Heuston to Carlow service are both cancelled until further notice due to unofficial action by drivers.

13 30 Westport to Dublin, Sundays by Corporate Communications
Iarnród Éireann advises customers that the 13.30hrs service from Westport to Dublin on Sundays is deferred to 14.25hrs, due to operational problems.
The 13.20hrs Ballina to Manulla Junction will be deferred to 14.15hrs as a result.

[Kingdom]

I was getting the train from tullamore this week (yes I go away from Dublin (by car)) to get the train to work. They had a bold sign stating that the punctuality of the Dublin to Galway route was at 99.3%. I really laughed aloud heartily. Then I realised they were referring to Dublin -> Galway as opposed to both the outward and return journeys. I have never got a train that has come from Galway/mayo that has been on time.

Bear this in mind. Once you go past Portarlington there is only 1 line to Galway and Mayo. The same from Maynooth towards Sligo and from Kildare towards Waterford.
Thats ridiculous in my opinion.

[pete]

I can understand why a bus would be late as had to deal with traffic from other road users. There is no reason why trains should not run on schedule as they control the carriages & the track. It is not like they can blame any one else.

[Kingdom]

I can understand why a bus would be late as had to deal with traffic from other road users. There is no reason why trains should not run on schedule as they control the carriages & the track. It is not like they can blame any one else.

I know for fact that the early morning trains wait for particular passengers at the more remote stations. I'm looking at you Galway line. Also the early train to Heuston has been late on account of drivers arriving late for work.

[Superhoops]

I can understand why a bus would be late as had to deal with traffic from other road users. There is no reason why trains should not run on schedule as they control the carriages & the track. It is not like they can blame any one else.

I seem to remember a few years ago the Rosslare - Dublin being delayed for 10 or 15 minutes at Rathdrum or somewhere but then it had to wait another 30 minutes more at Greystones becuase it had lost its slot on the line that is shared with the Dart from Bray onwards (The Dart only went to Bray then).

[pete]

Irish Rail

06 30 Portlaoise to Heuston & 17 35 Heuston to Carlow cancelled by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann advises customers that the weekday 06.30hrs service from Portlaoise to Heuston, and weekday 17 35 Heuston to Carlow service are both cancelled until further notice due to unofficial action by drivers.

More unofficial action by the drivers.

[Macy]

Irish Rail



More unofficial action by the drivers.

Think that is the same driver(s) not doing their voluntary overtime that sparked the thread. It isn't new.

[monutdfc]

For the record, I got the train to Tralee a couple of weekends ago and was bussed from Mallow due to unofficial driver action. No mention of this until I got on the train though, and no reply to my e-mail of complaint

[mypost]

Shameful

[Kingdom]

only thought of this thread going home thurs morning and yesterday morning.
Finished work at 6 to get 6.15 (a.m.) train home for a few hours kip before being back in work at 4pm.
Asked to buy a same day return ticket only to be told that wasn't allowed on the Limerick and cork lines. I didn't have enough cash to buy a 5 day return and my wallet was at home. So I bought the single ticket. Got to Portarlington and happened to glance at the prices and funnily enough they do sell same day return tickets!
So next morning got to station for early train home again, my train due to leave platform 4, kildare train (1 hour later) on plat3. No train where mine supposed to be at the dept time, then 10 mins later the poxy kildare train left.
I complained and was told did I not use my head. Then I complained about the ticket issue from the previous morning, and I was told that its not possible to buy a day return ticket from Dublin to any station on the Cork or Limerick line, but they do it from those stations to Dublin in order to entice customers in from the country.
I mentioned that Portarlington is the beginning of the West line , that didn't go down well.

In short they're a shower of mother****ers in IE.

[pete]

If there were not so many unofficial actions I might think management were to blame. Drivers missing from work should sacked on the spot. These people look for an excuse not to work. If they had a valid reasons to strike it would be an official strike. Do they get paid while on strike?

[Macy]

No one gets paid when their on strike - the thing that sparked this was someone being removed from the payroll.

To me it sounds like the unions are holding out with regard to work practice changes, however it's pretty clear Management are provoking this actual row. Drivers returned to work this morning, but weren't allowed work unless they signed an open ended document? Barry Kenny talked a lot of crap over the weekend about the drivers effecting the travelling public, then Irish Rail put another obstacle in the way of trains actually running

It was also interesting to hear that the drivers in Inchicore have been refusing to do the same duties for months without issue. The driver on Newstalk also said there was a row between someone in the Cork Management and one of the Shop Stewards and this is the result.

Basically to me it all smacks of Irish Rail trying to smash the unions. Now, you might agree or disagree with that aim, but at least lets be honest about who is causing the current round of stoppages. The Drivers have basically been locked out this time, whatever about the overall rights and wrongs of what is actually going through the mechanisms in the LRC at the moment.

[pete]

While it does seem pedantic for the Management to be asking the drivers to sign a document saying they will adhere to the agreement of a previous document it does seem strange the drivers won't sign it. I presume the driver was removed from the payroll because he refused to undertake working (train colleague) which he previously signed an agreement he would undertake & got paid to do us. If the driver has a valid case why does he not tell the media why he refused to work?

Using the LRC to negotiate a dispute between 1 driver & Irish Rail is beyond a joke.

The Cork based drivers have no credibility left as there are ongoing distributions. the only reason this happens is because they know they cannot be sacked. All these are unofficial which once again raises the question why his union is not backing him? Could it have something to do with the fact that they know that it is in breach agreements they previously signed so is illegal? Unions can be sued for that I think whereas harder to target 1 individual.

Irish Rail cannot smash unions as they are a public company

[Student Mullet]

While it does seem pedantic for the Management to be asking the drivers to sign a document saying they will adhere to the agreement of a previous document it does seem strange the drivers won't sign it.

We have to be fair to the drivers on this point. They were handed a legal document when they arrived into work and told to sign it. They were never going to do that without having a lawyer or someone from the union read through it to see if it was OK.

[Kingdom]

We have to be fair to the drivers on this point. They were handed a legal document when they arrived into work and told to sign it. They were never going to do that without having a lawyer or someone from the union read through it to see if it was OK.

They agreed to a document a couple of years ago, wages were increased based on this, which they failed to deliver. The drivers are to blame.

[Superhoops]

Using the LRC to negotiate a dispute between 1 driver & Irish Rail is beyond a joke.

Perhaps the LRC will use Kieran Mulvey who has experience of dealing with disputes in Cork, remember the GAA County Board/Players dispute earlier this year

......Could it have something to do with the fact that they know that it is in breach agreements they previously signed so is illegal? Unions can be sued for that I think whereas harder to target 1 individual.

Irish Rail did it in 2000 with Brendan Ogle and some of his colleagues in the ILDA.

[Macy]

They agreed to a document a couple of years ago, wages were increased based on this, which they failed to deliver. The drivers are to blame.

The declaration about future action was not agreed previously, and only their Union could negotiate any changes to agreements. Totally unnecessary by management in a deliberate attempt to make the situation worse. A situation brought about because management took someone off the payroll without following the agreed disciplinary procedures.

And pete, why is it only the workers side in Cork that have no credibility left? Could very well be a failure of management. In here, you could look at the disputes in the company and you'd find the same managers involved - the trouble has followed them as they've moved around because of how they handle issues...

[pete]

The declaration about future action was not agreed previously, and only their Union could negotiate any changes to agreements. Totally unnecessary by management in a deliberate attempt to make the situation worse. A situation brought about because management took someone off the payroll without following the agreed disciplinary procedures.

And pete, why is it only the workers side in Cork that have no credibility left? Could very well be a failure of management. In here, you could look at the disputes in the company and you'd find the same managers involved - the trouble has followed them as they've moved around because of how they handle issues...

I accept does seem overly confrontational to add the document. Irish Rail appear to badly run organisation from top to bottom.

The Minister who has overall responsibility should be taking action as neither side care about the passengers as they know cannot lose their jobs. If it was the private sector the managers would have to explain why revenue is down due to disputes & what actions they had done to prevent or solve.

[Macy]

If it was the private sector the managers would have to explain why revenue is down due to disputes & what actions they had done to prevent or solve.

No reason it has to be Private sector for that to be the case.