Waiting for train is a long journey

Complaints about the bus service were heard in train and DART stations at rush-hour yesterday evening.

In Tara Street Station, Mr Noel Casey, who was waiting to travel to Sandyford, said he had given up on the buses. "I was trying to get the 18 to the Naas Road this morning and I was standing around for an hour before I found out the buses were affected. I got to town and waited a good half-hour for another bus and I was waiting an hour this evening," he said.

He had come to get a DART because he considered them more reliable, only to discover the service had also been affected. "Public transport has never been the best but this brings it to new depths," he said.

Ms Joan O'Mara, from Clontarf, said she usually got the bus to her workplace in the city centre. Yesterday morning she waited for over half an hour before taking a DART instead.

"I agree that people should strike in certain circumstances but they shouldn't penalise the ordinary person trying to get to work. It's very unsatisfactory. They could strike on a Saturday," she said.

Mr Damien Langan had a bad experience in Dun Laoghaire DART station yesterday morning when a couple of trains in a row were cancelled. "I had to wait maybe 45 minutes longer than normal and the place was absolutely jammed. There were literally masses of people. They couldn't all come down to the platform because it was so packed," he said.

"I don't think the ILDA's militarism is a way of negotiating a position with anybody. It's a bad tactic, putting pressure on the public to get their own case across."

Mr Tom McGuinn, waiting to travel to Blackrock, said: "No group should be allowed to behave like this. It's desperate altogether."

Announcements over the intercom expressed apologies for the delays, and similar messages could be heard at Pearse Street Station, where things seemed to be running more smoothly after 6 p.m.

However, one ticket inspector said: "If you'd been here 10 minutes ago you would have seen hundreds of people up on that platform; they'd been waiting for 40 minutes."