Cork Area Services

[Colm Donoghue]

"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.

[Mark Gleeson]

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

[sean]

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.

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.

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.

[Mark Gleeson]

Galway, Athlone and Westport are back working

Cork & Kerry area service disruptions, Saturday 24th May by Corporate Communications

UPDATE: 07.00hrs, Saturday 24th May

Iarnród Éireann is pleased to advise customers that all Galway and Westport line services will operate normally today, following yesterday's disruption.

However, a refusal by drivers based in Cork to work their normal rosters continues to cause significant disruption to rail services in the Cork & Kerry areas.

The stoppage by drivers commenced following a refusal by a Cork-based driver to drive his train within his core roster on Thursday, to facilitate training of new trainee drivers.

Full updated service information will be available on this webpage.

Iarnród Éireann apologises to customers for the inconvenience caused.

Service disruption, Saturday 24th May

The following services are cancelled.

05.15 Cork-Heuston

06.30 Cork-Heuston

07.30 Cork-Heuston

08.30 Cork-Heuston

09.30 Cork-Heuston

10.00 Heuston-Cork

11.00 Heuston-Cork

12.00 Heuston-Cork

13.00 Heuston-Cork

13.30 Cork-Heuston

14.30 Cork-Heuston

15.30 Cork-Heuston

16.30 Cork-Heuston

17.30 Cork-Heuston

18.00 Heuston-Cork

19.00 Heuston-Cork

20.00 Heuston-Cork

21.00 Heuston-Cork

07.15 Tralee-Heuston

18.30 Heuston-Tralee

All Cork/Cobh and Cork/Mallow services

All Cork/Tralee services



Services operating on affected routes are:

07.00hrs Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork, and between Mallow and Tralee)

08.00hrs Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork)

09.00hrs Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork, and between Mallow and Tralee)

10.30hrs Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow)

11.30hrs Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow)

12.30hrs Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow, and between Tralee and Mallow)

14.00hrs Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork)

15.00hrs Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork, and between Mallow and Tralee)

16.00hrs Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork)

1700hrs Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork, and between Mallow and Tralee)

18.30hrs Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow, and between Tralee and Mallow)

19.30hrs Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow)

20.30hrs Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow, and between Tralee and Mallow)

All other routes, including Galway and Westport are operating normally.

[Mark Hennessy]

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.

[Mark Gleeson]

Something happening in Cork this morning.

8:45 to Cobh

Update: driver there but no train

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/travel_alerts.asp?action=view&news_id=379

Cork & Kerry area service disruptions, Sunday 25th May: UPDATE by Corporate Communications
UPDATE: 01.00hrs, Sunday 25th May

Iarnród Éireann is pleased to advise customers that all Galway and Westport line services are operating normally again, following Friday's disruption.

However, a refusal by drivers based in Cork to work their normal rosters continues to cause significant disruption to rail services in the Cork & Kerry areas.

The stoppage by drivers commenced following a refusal by a Cork-based driver to drive his train within his core roster on Thursday, to facilitate training of new trainee drivers.

Full updated service information will be available on this webpage.

Iarnród Éireann apologises to customers for the inconvenience caused.

Service disruption, Sunday 25th May

The following services are cancelled on Sunday 25th May:
11.00 Heuston-Cork
12.00 Heuston-Cork
14.00 Heuston-Cork
15.00 Heuston-Cork
17.00 Heuston-Cork
18.00 Heuston-Cork
19.00 Heuston-Cork
19.10 Heuston-Tralee
21.00 Heuston-Cork

08.30 Cork-Heuston
10.30 Cork-Heuston
12.30 Cork-Heuston
13.45 Tralee-Heuston
14.30 Cork-Heuston
15.30 Cork-Heuston
17.30 Cork-Heuston
18.30 Cork-Heuston

All Cork/Cobh and Cork/Mallow services

All Cork/Tralee services


Services operating on Cork and Kerry routes are:

08.10 Heuston to Tralee (with bus transfers Mallow to Tralee, and Mallow to Cork)
10.00 Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers Mallow to Cork,and Mallow to Tralee)
13.00 Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers Mallow to Cork,and Mallow to Tralee)
16.00 Heuston to Cork (with bus transfers Mallow to Cork)
13.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow)
16.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow), and between Tralee and Mallow)
19.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow)

All other routes will operate normally.

Customers are advised to check this website before travel on Sunday for up to date information.

[Mark Gleeson]

Don't get too excited here

The drivers have always said they would go back to work, Irish Rail refused to let them on Friday

Drivers are willing to work under the LRC proposals issued March 4th. Will Irish Rail management let them work? If they don't its about time questions have to be asked as to the philosophy of a company where its staff are available to work under a LRC proposal that all sides have accepted, but won't let them

http://www.railusers.ie/resources/lrc_march_2008-1.jpg
http://www.railusers.ie/resources/lrc_march_2008-2.jpg

[CSL]

I see we are back to the "Great Loyalty Oath" documents. Isn't that a calm and measured response to the issue. Somewhere Brendan Ogle is giggling.

[plant43]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Don't get too excited here

The drivers have always said they would go back to work, Irish Rail refused to let them on Friday

Drivers are willing to work under the LRC proposals issued March 4th. Will Irish Rail management let them work? If they don't its about time questions have to be asked as to the philosophy of a company where its staff are available to work under a LRC proposal that all sides have accepted, but won't let them

http://www.railusers.ie/resources/lrc_march_2008-1.jpg
http://www.railusers.ie/resources/lrc_march_2008-2.jpg

Walking through Heuston this morning, 1000 and 1100 to Cork were cancelled, the 0900 was being operated by a MkIII set.

[Thomas Ralph]

I am hearing that some Waterford services are affected too.

[ACustomer]

Why no update on the IE website? The latest information was put up at 4.45 am (it's now after 12pm).

And why the sympathy with the drivers so evident on this site? Public sector unions (and above all those of the NBRU/ILDA tendency) are a huge obstacle to the development of a high quality, dependable public transport system. Problem is no-one else knows how to drive trains, so one can't sack them. (OK the quality of management is nothing to write home about either, but at least they are not actively sabotaging things)