Irish Rail Dispute

Dieter, I learned my lesson on Friday (thankfully I wasn't impacted by the strike but it is always a possibility!). If I had checked the Railusers forum the night before, I probably wouldn't have travelled as they had posted up a warning that the disruption in Cork was likely to spread to other lines in and out of Heuston on Friday. Like a previous poster said, they do tend to keep actively informed about what is going on in Irish Rail.
 
the unions are saying that it was not the driver's refusal which caused the strike it was the fact that after he refused that irish rail took him off the payroll.

now i hate irish rail, their unions and generally the government for allowing such crap to happen year in year out but surely irish rail did not follow proper procedure (verbal warning, written warning, talk to union rep etc etc) ?

anyway, same auld shi*e from irish rail & their unions. you look at them sideways and they would probably strike.
 
Does anyone know why the driver in question refused to drive the other train,
 
Don't underestimate the abilities of organisations like Irish Rail to play the PR game by bringing things to a head and ensuring that the ire of the general public is directed at the unions.
 
Mpsox, the following threads from Railusers discusses the "why". If there is any truth in it it would appear that there may possibly more to this than just a cantankerous or obstreperous driver.
http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=3790
http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=4225
http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=4041

some of these started a few months ago.

Complainer, to some extent I agree with you in this case, it does seem to me that Irish Rail are certainly subject to more benign coverage in this teacup than they usually get.
 
Complainer said:
Don't underestimate the abilities of organisations like Irish Rail to play the PR game by bringing things to a head and ensuring that the ire of the general public is directed at the unions.
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At the end of the day the reality is - drive. Public transport is rubbish at the best of times, but with sudden strikes like this (regardless of who is to blame) the public cannot be blamed for relying on themselves and taking their car.
 
I looked at some of the threads on the railusers forum and they don't really explain why the drivers walked out/stopped working/were removed from the payroll by the company etc etc.

There is reference to the driver being asked to do something that was not in accordance with LRC proposals, but no one seems to be saying from what I can see what he actually did/refused to do
 
shnaek said:
At the end of the day the reality is - drive. Public transport is rubbish at the best of times, but with sudden strikes like this (regardless of who is to blame) the public cannot be blamed for relying on themselves and taking their car.
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Gross exaggeration. The rail service is generally extremely reliable on these long journeys, though they struggle to maintain cost competitiveness with the air services. Strikes are a rare event, probably rarer than the risk of getting a puncture, or having a major road closed due to a serious accident.
 
Complainer said:
Don't underestimate the abilities of organisations like Irish Rail to play the PR game by bringing things to a head and ensuring that the ire of the general public is directed at the unions.
Click to expand...


I agree that Irish Rail have been and are very bad at staff management and planning. Added to a heavily unionised workforce it's amazing that the service they provide is of the standard that it is. The bottom line is that the only real sanction that staff have is to withdraw their labour, the management hold the rest of the trump cards. It is also the function of management to create and maintain a culture of engagement within the company where all employees feel that they are valued and have pride in what they do. This requires the ability to both reward and sanction all employees, be they management or not. In fact the higher anyone goes in an organisation the higher the standards of ability, accountability and work ethic should be by which they should be measured.
 
Complainer said:
... though they struggle to maintain cost competitiveness with the air services.
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I wonder why that is?

They struggle to remain cost competitive with roads too. I can drive to dublin and back on my own, door to door, for €40 of diesel. A train would cost me €65 for the same journey, and I'd have to get to and from the station - an added expense. Though I would put up with the added expense if the train cost around €40.

Now, if I have one other person in my car, the cost of driving falls significantly. When there is a motorway between Cork and Dublin the journey will be even quicker.

I lived in Germany ten years ago and I could get trains from Nurnberg to Prague, Salzberg, Berlin, Munich etc all for less than €10.

But I am going off topic here. I feel that wildcat action by the militant traindrivers in Cork is disgraceful. If they have a grievance and need to air it in this manner, then they should serve the public with some notice, even if it is a short period like a week. Then the public may have more sympathy for them.
 
Anyone remember the Ali G interview with Tony Benn where he insinuated that the miners went on strike because they were lazy and wanted a few days off work?
 
Complainer said:
though they struggle to maintain cost competitiveness with the air services.
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On Monday night the Ryanair website showed the flight for this Friday Dublin-Cork at 21.15 hours at price of €19.99 one way+ taxes/charges.

Last night (Wednesday), with no obvious solution to rail dispute the same flight had become...wait for it.....€79.99 one way+ taxes/charges. Coincidence ? Of course. . Competitiveness, sheesh.
 
Last night (Wednesday), with no obvious solution to rail dispute the same flight had become...wait for it.....€79.99 one way+ taxes/charges. Coincidence ? Of course. . Competitiveness, sheesh.
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Excellent.
Ryanair are right to do this, after all they exist to make money. A pity they don't run the railways.
 


It is well known that Ryanair have a policy of increasing ticket prices as the plane fills up.
Its a bit naive imho to expect that, heading into a Bank Holiday weekend, Ryanair would not be selling plenty of tickets on that route for a Friday night flight, particularly with a rail strike on. If you examine pricing trends on other popular routes for this weekend, you will probably find similar patterns.
 
It's a false comparison. Have you tried having a full Irish breakfast while driving your car? Or reading the Irish Times? Or preparing for your meeting in Dublin by reading documents on your laptop?

There are strengths and weaknesses of car over train, and plane over car, and train over plane etc. Blanket rants about public transport are meaningless. I guess those people who spent 2-4 hours stuck on the M1 at Donabate this morning wished they had taken the train.
 
Complainer said:
It's a false comparison. Have you tried having a full Irish breakfast while driving your car? Or reading the Irish Times? Or preparing for your meeting in Dublin by reading documents on your laptop?
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This of course is a valid point, and it is the reason that friends of mine choose the train when visiting me in Cork. That and the fact that they may well be over the limit the next day...

Complainer said:
Blanket rants about public transport are meaningless.
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Rants are in general meaningless, as anyone who listens to Joe Duffy can confirm, though they do serve the purpose of letting off a bit of steam!

However, one cannot argue against the fact that Ireland would be low in the league of public transport quality, availability and service when compared to Europe. There are many excuses for this. If anything our civil servants and politicians are masters of excuses. Why not put the excuses aside and offer some reasons for the public to use public transport? For example, a rail service without wildcat strikes! That would be a good start. Lower prices would be another. Bus Eireann lowered prices when competition arrived, as did Aer Lingus. This may not work for trains, but I'd rather hear suggestions than more excuses!
 
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