There will be no trains in Cork tomorrow morning, the bulk of the driving staff has been removed from the payroll or will be by tomorrow morning.

We have been informed by various trustworthy sources that services elsewhere are at serious risk of vanishing, including DART services. We understand that the various depots country wide are debating what will happen tomorrow.

We won't know until between 9 am and 11 am if things are going to be bad or not, the morning rush may escape. However there is very real chance that there will a partial if not total suspension of service on several routes. Whichever way it goes there will not be a full timetabled service tomorrow given the ongoing shortage of drivers.

Given we have this information and believe it to be accurate we have an obligation to pass it on. We are being upfront, the least we can expect from Irish Rail is admission that there is a real risk to all services and that you should check before you travel.

There could of course be a magic two in the morning development as happened so many times, the usual rules apply check before you travel.

Seriously before you accuse us of scaremongering take a look at the recent list of cencellations. Most have a post by Mark at least 24 hours in advance of said cancelation. We aren't making this up, OK!

Are the Enterprise staff sufficiently far removed from this debacle to run a full service tomorrow? Need to travel down tomorrow and haven't decided what train to take yet.

Trains staffed by NIR drivers should run normally, so first two enterprises Belfast Dublin should run.

Updates as of 5am

Galway services seem to be affected today.

Thankfully nothing else affected yet.

I need this like a hole in the bloody head. I have to get to Cork this evening because that's where my flight to the Heineken Cup final is. Well, first stop this morning is Sandymount station to see if the guy will refund me for my ticket that I advance-purchased.

To be honest, the people here seem to be on the ball. This topic was covered in the Cork Area Services thread yesterday and all the information was correct.

Did management actually ask them to do something unreasonable?
Or, is it another hissy fit ?

I don't want to defend the unions (ever) because their work practices are not really helping but this was all avoidable.

The real problem is that the only people who suffer in all of this is us, the customers.

The 10:30 from Cork will be departing Mallow at 10:50. What is the likelyhood of this train being delayed into Heuston, due to arrive at 13:20. Any info would really be appreciated.

Just about everything Galway & Westport Dublin will be cancelled, small chance a number of trains may run only Dublin Athlone, possibly Dublin Galway Dublin.

15:00, 16:00 and 17:00 Dublin Mallow likely as are the 18:30,19:30,20:30 Cork Dublin but from Mallow only

Expect the 17:00 Dublin Mallow to be the last train south of Thurles tonight

10:30 ex Cork runs from Mallow and is likely to be on time

Cheers Mark

My Father is in Mallow. The southbound train has arrived. He was telling me that everyone is really nervous and rumours are crazy around the platform. He is confident it will run, albeit the rumours are making him anxious.

One of the rumours he heard, which is complete heresay, is the driver will return to Dublin but will refuse to take any passengers.

looking at booking bus tickets but want to wait until last minute - any idea when we'll know about evening trains to galway???

Highly unlikely any trains to Galway to today all the evening trains are driven by Athlone and Galway drivers

If they are running we will know well in advance since a train would have to work from Athlone to Dublin

From Breaking News

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhgbmhkfcwoj/

thanks for the heads up - i'd feel a right chump wandering around heuston this evening - booked citylink instead - chaos ahead!

The 10:30, originally scheduled to leave Mallow at 10:50 left at 11:15. Not too bad over all I guess.

10:30 is meant to leave at 10:52.

Very much doubt it will be more than 10 minutes late into Dublin

No mention of local services to Kildare.

Am going to the Bruce Springsteen concert and had intended getting the last train at 11pm.

Whats the likeleyhood of them been affected?

Update

I'm told Today FM lunchtime news at 12:45 could be interesting

I presume Limerick trains via Limerick Jct are affected as well. Or are the bus transfers from Dublin\Mallow stopping at the Jct to drop passengers off to get train to\from Limerick?

All services Dublin Limerick direct are running

Where a train runs Mallow Dublin or Dublin Mallow the usual connection at Limerick junction is still there

14:00, 15:00, 16:00 and 17:00 Dublin Cork are running only to Mallow, connections at Limerick Junction still in place

17:30, 18:30, 19:30 and 20:30 Cork Dublin run and make the usual connections, but require a bus from Cork to Mallow and may be 10-15 minutes late as a result

Anyone on a cancelled Dublin Cork train looking for Limerick will be stuck on the next Limerick direct service. 13:25, 15:25, 17:05 and 17:25, I wouldn't be surprised if Cork passengers where brought to Thurles by rail first and bus on

did anything come out of the today fm programme i missed it.

Nothing really

Drivers are willing and standing by to return to work if their colleague is reinstated if no pre conditions are applied to that.

Drivers said they'd go back to work their rostered duties and enter talks with the company with no pre-conditions.

Ball in Irish Rail management's court now I believe.

I hope this resolves the issue.

updated

I'm on the 11.10 to Galway tomorrow morning along with 15 others !
Any chance of it running do ye think ?

What was that again?

Didnt have a reservation but do have a refund form so we'll see what happens. Arrived in cork at 10pm so should be entitled to 50%? no announcements about refunds ever made mind. In fairness things at Thurles were handled very well with buses waiting outside for Cork and Mallow, and an extra train from Limerick to take Limerick and Kerry passengers.

Coming back today on the 1230 was a bus to Mallow and then a 22000 only calling at Portlaoise so only 10 minutes late into Heuston.

If I may....

I think Mark Gleeson was careless to suggest widespread cancellations. I am still privy to "insider" information and as early as yesterday morning, Inchicore and Connolly drivers were refusing to support the dispute. (APPARENTLY) When I was part of the set up, rule number one for me was, never say or suggest in public what you have been told in private by one side of the dispute, until it can be verified by subsequent actions. Its great to be the first with news, but it has to be delivered in a manner that is beneficial and credible. This announcement did look like scaremoungering. (in my opinion)

In fairness this issue is vastly different and has bigger implications, than any previous claim by RUI to be beating IE to the announcement finishing line.

For what its worth now, Western based drivers may be back at work sooner than we think. This strike is unlikely to go nationwide and thats another story altogether.

For now, my suggestion would be to call on the Minister for Transport to launch an independent inquiry into the industrial relations practises within Irish Rail. The results should be made public and include in dept examination of management's performance in dealing with disputes. We have heard argument and counter argument. Tom Stamp described it well today on Radio 1, as "two bald men arguing over a comb". Full transparency is urgently required in the interest of rail customers and the company itself. Particularly in an era of supposed investment. That would be my line in the media.

"Cork, Kerry, Galway, Westport & Athlone area service disruptions" is what IE say

"As of Friday May 23rd there is likely to be widespread cancellations

Services may run in the morning and then disappear, if you are looking to travel tomorrow, travel early or make alternative arrangements asap

All services Cork area and most Cork Dublin cancelled
All services Heuston likely to cancelled
All services Galway likely to cancelled

DART services are also at risk" is what we said. and there were Widespread Cancelations.
I do not think it would be a good idea to tell members that there would be no disruption to services on Friday if we were in possesion of reliable information on Thursday night that there *may* be considerable disruption to services outside the Cork area. Which there was, and people intending to travel may have been spared a wasted trip to their local station to avail of a cancelled service by being aware of the need to check before they travel.

Cork to Mayo *is* nationwide. ask Michael Ryan or Mary Kennedy. ;)

Last night was a point of decision for the various depots country wide, Cork Galway, Athlone and Westport showed up but walked out

We never said service would be cancelled except in Cork, we said cancellations where likely, Irish Rail provided no notification that services beyond Dublin Cork/Kerry where at risk, its hard to believe they didn't know

As things played out the Cork area saw one train Tralee - Mallow - Tralee, everything on the Galway route bar two trains was cancelled and everything on the Westport line was cancelled. Numerous trains ex Heuston where cancelled as a result

As we said services country wide where at risk, 4 out of 8 intercity routes where effected, staff in Dublin decided not to follow their colleagues elsewhere for which every passenger is most grateful. On Thursday evening there was a real possibilty of no trains running anywhere on Friday

As it stands the current situation is likely to continue. The labour court has contacted both sides. The drivers are available to drive if there are no preconditions to returning to work

Massive disruption to Cork (feck all running past Mallow), mass cancellations on Mayo and Galway services, looks like Marko got it bang on the money - as usual. No surprises there.

Sign me up for that. This crap just keeps happening too much for it to be isolated, not just the strikes and work-to-rules, but the lack of information provision, the customer service people that just don't care (like that w***er in Maynooth). Clearly a large scale review is now required.

Galway, Athlone and Westport are back working

Some good news for passengers at least.

The Dept of Transport need to step out of their policy vacuum in Merrion Row and actually start formulation proper service level agreements with Irish Rail.
If a service does not, subvention for that is not paid, simple as.

They should start asking questions about the constant bolshie activity in Cork.
They have to go beyond the usual "internal matter for Irish Rail etc" that they've conveniently used over the years.

Irish Rail management need to be completely removed from the negotiations as we have had two years of going round in circles. If the labour court make recommendations, then both sides need to stick to it.

As for the announcments on Thursday, i've woken up enough times in the past to find that no trains were running.

As I said last night.;)

Please spare me the damage limitation Colm. I've been there before and its a tough job.;) The above quote said it all and is the one I'm referring too. It was unnecessary and wrong. Perhaps a case of over eagerness instead of a cool head.

As I suggested last night, western drivers went back to work, while Dublin drivers stayed in work. Cork is where the real problem lies.There's lots of "insider" info available, but its best amalgamated to form an accurate assessment. But lets move on and be more positive.

I'll offer this up to readers. Dublin drivers are getting better treatment from IE management on the basis that they have the potential to cause real problems to hundreds of thousands. Western drivers supported Cork on the basis of a nationwide walk out that never happened, so they went back to work. Cork now stands alone. They have been divided and conquered by IE management. An end is in sight, but by numbers rather than real settlement. I have reason to believe that Cork is picked on by IE management, but nationwide there is still poor relations. Thats why I proposed a full inquiry into IE industrial relations proceedures. Morale is low in the Company. Its a time bomb. While I appreciate its historic arrangements and practises over the course of 60 years, management cannot expect to convert the company to "private sector" practises through provocation. What we have here is a classic example of old work ethics and public sector management trying to achieve a private sector result. It doesn't work that way. The Celtic Tiger has endowed a modern corporate way of working on IE management, but they have completely forgotten that it can't be applied by a hammer to a "traditional" industry with a long history.