Another uncertain day for rail and bus travel

Rail passengers and commuters face another day of uncertainty in Dublin and throughout the State with members of the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA) threatening to resume secondary picketing of bus depots, DART stations and railway lines.

Talks on the dispute were held yesterday between the the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, and senior management in both CIE and Iarnrod Eireann. After 1 1/2 hours of discussions, no initiative emerged.

A spokeswoman for the Minister said the meeting had been called at Ms O'Rourke's request, mainly for briefing. She stressed the Minister was precluded by law from intervening in the dispute, now in its eighth week.

Among those at the meeting were Mr Joe Meagher, managing director of Iarnrod Eireann, CIE chairman Mr John Lynch, and senior officials from Ms O'Rourke's Department.

Iarnrod Eireann, meanwhile, has strongly condemned yesterday's escalation of the unofficial action, particularly the alleged intimidation of a train driver on the Dublin-Westport route who has since refused to work.

The driver, a member of the National Bus and Railworkers Union, had returned to work on Tuesday but allegedly subsequently came under pressure not to pass the unofficial pickets. When he arrived last night at Claremorris station a taxi was waiting to take him to his home in Co Mayo.

Passengers for Castlebar and Westport were transferred to buses for the remainder of the journey. Passengers for Ballina, who always transfer from the main train at Claremorris, completed their journey by train with a different driver

Services on the route will now end at Claremorris with bus transfers operating to Westport and Castlebar.

Secondary picketing also brought disruption in Dublin yesterday with up to 200,000 Dublin Bus commuters affected. Many bus passengers had to make alternative arrangements to get to work or else wait lengthy periods for buses. Commuters leaving work were also affected as a number of bus drivers failed to turn up for evening shifts despite the lifting of unofficial pickets by ILDA members at around 5 p.m.

The ILDA's executive secretary, Mr Brendan Ogle, said the unofficial pickets were the result of growing frustration among train drivers. While he could not say whether further unofficial action could be expected, he said: "I am not in a position at this point in time to tell our members that we are expecting a change in company policy."

He welcomed the latest offer for outside mediation - this time from South Kerry Independent TD Mr Jackie Healy-Rae - and urged the company to consider it seriously.

However, Iarnrod Eireann's human resources manager, Mr John Keenan, said that while he did not doubt the motivation of the people who had offered themselves as mediators "the history of the ILDA and mediators has not been good".

Mr Ogle yesterday also renewed his attack on SIPTU which had called on its members to pass the unofficial pickets at bus depots and DART stations. "SIPTU are being proactive in preventing a resolution to this dispute."

However, Mr Noel Dowling, SIPTU's regional secretary, said: "We are not fighting against a resolution of the dispute. We are fighting to preserve democracy in the union."