Iarnród Éireann is to go ahead with a major increase in commuter and inter-city rail services to Dublin, Limerick and Cork - despite a strike ballot by train drivers due for Monday next. Tim O'Brien reports.
Announcing the increase in rail services which result from the deployment of an additional 80 new rail cars, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, yesterday said the threatened strike was an "operational matter" for the company.
Iarnród said it was determined its new train timetables would come into force on December 14th and would introduce "the benefits of the major investment programme which has seen the rebuilding of the railway" over the past five years.
While more than €1 billion had been spent on replacing about 90 per cent of its track, the new outer suburban and inter-city carriages were the first visible signs of upgrading for many of its customers. The company said the new railcars would deliver vital capacity on key commuter routes in and around the capital and key regional cities.
It was, according to Mr Brennan, the first phase of action which would see the company's ageing inter-city and outer suburban fleets replaced within three years. He said the company had received an additional €40 million in addition to the figures in this year's and last year's budget estimates to speed up the process of rejuvenation.
However some train drivers are not happy with the proposals. In a letter to Iarnród Éireann's Athlone offices, Mr Brendan Ogle described the new drivers' roster as "unacceptable" and said it was already "rejected" by the drivers.
Mr Ogle, now a member of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union, was president of the Irish Locomotive Drivers Association in 2001 when that organisation closed the rail lines to the west for extended periods throughout the summer.
About 100 of Iarnród Éireann's 400-plus drivers are members or former members of ILDA.
At the announcement of the new capacity yesterday, Mr Joe Meagher, the managing director of Iarnród Éireann, acknowledged that a complaint about the new work rosters had been received from Mr Ogle threatening industrial action.
He said he was "confident" that the ATGWU would not back Mr Ogle's call for industrial action and he looked forward to implementing the improved timetables.
Included in Iarnród's proposals are:
a 33 per cent increase in capacity on the Dublin to Kildare route with additional peak services to Newbridge and Portlaoise;
capacity increases of up to 43 per cent on the Dublin-Drogheda peak services with improved off-peak frequency;
capacity increases of up to 25 per cent on the Maynooth route with two additional Connolly-Longford services in each direction each day, and
an extension of the morning and evening peak services to Arklow to Gorey, Co Wexford, from December 14th.
More frequent services around Cork and Limerick are also planned with the number of trains from Ennis, Co Clare, to Limerick increasing from two a day to seven.
Some of these will continue to Limerick junction offering connections between Ennis and Dublin or Cork.
Additional services are also to be deployed on the Mallow/ Cork/Cobh route. An additional inter-city train will also run in each direction between Dublin and Galway and Dublin and Waterford each day.
The strike ballot has been called for Monday and is expected to take a week to complete.