Public transport services appear ready to slide into chaos today, with up to 400,000 commuters facing uncertainty on the availability of buses and trains.
No peace talks are likely before tomorrow at the earliest. The impact of any unofficial action by various groups of shop stewards and rank-and-file groups will be clearer by then.
"No one is in control," one senior trade union source said last night. "Everyone knows people are coming out but nobody knows how or when they are going to get back to work."
There are not expected to be any suburban bus services in Dublin, Cork, Limerick or Galway. Provincial bus services are expected to suffer serious disruption.
The DART service is not expected to operate, nor are several inter-city train routes. It is unlikely that there will be train services between Galway and Athlone and services between Dublin and Belfast are expected to be delayed because of speed restrictions on the line.
The lines between Cork and Cobh, Kilkenny and Waterford, Greystones and Rosslare, Athlone and Westport, Athlone and Ballina, Limerick and Ennis, and Waterford and Rosslare are likely to be closed if permanent way maintenance crews continue their unofficial action and fail to make safety checks on these lines.
The Garda has once again announced that private motorists may use bus lanes but that normal parking restrictions apply. Motorists are advised not to make unnecessary journeys and Iarnrod Eireann customers are advised to phone 1850 366 222 before setting out. The help-line will be open from 6 a.m. today.
While sympathetic action by members of the National Bus and Rail workers Union (NBRU) had been expected to disrupt train and bus services today, that of the 800 line maintenance staff of Iarnrod Eireann was totally unexpected. Most are members of SIPTU.
Their action is unofficial. Pickets were organised by shop stewards after they rejected a Labour Court productivity pay award worth 20 per cent without even holding a ballot. At one stage pickets were placed on 10 stations, including the Connolly station and Fairview depots in Dublin.
As a result, four DART drivers failed to report for work, causing the loss of 16 trains between Howth and Bray. The company obtained a High Court injunction against the picketers. An attempt to serve it on pickets at Connolly station was frustrated after the picketers caught an early train home.
It is unclear what effect the injunction will have today. Some picketers may defy it while others may remain at home.
Last night the SIPTU regional secretary, Mr Noel Dowling, called for the withdrawal of the injunction to facilitate talks and "a speedy return of services to the public". He said: "In the current climate resort to the law in this matter is likely to be counterproductive."
Tentative contacts are understood to have begun among the Labour Relations Commission, the Labour Court and the unions yesterday to try to establish a basis for renewed negotiations on the bus drivers' claim.
However, the sudden escalation in unofficial action by permanent way maintenance staff and the threat of further unofficial action by other CIE workers today saw these collapse.
The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, told the Dail that the suspension of strike action and resumption of negotiations was the only way to resolve the dispute. She welcomed the cost-saving measures worth up to £2 million proposed by the NBRU in talks earlier this month as a basis for further discussions.
But the NBRU general secretary, Mr Peter Bunting, said later that he was "perplexed by the Minister's statement" and expressed regret that she had not voiced her opinion when talks collapsed on March 9th.
The Irish Locomotive Drivers Association, which represents 119 train drivers, has advised its members to work normally, but says it will defend the right of members not to pass pickets.