Strike - Have you been inconvenienced???? Tell us about it!!

[Donal Quinn]

This is an appeal to anyone reading this to post their stories of how this strike has affected them. if you or people you know have missed work or exams or flights or whatever let us know. I will gather all the stories together into one document to show the human side of the damage a strike does

Don't suffer in silence - this strike has caused avoidable stress and hassle for tens of thousands of passengers. Even if you have never posted before - register and let us know.

[why_does_planning_suck]

needed to get the 7 oclock to cork to catch and onward bus. furious. i could not get a bus , i would have been too late .what a joke

[Peter Turner]

Right well I had to take the bus home to Portlaoise last night and this resulted in 2 hours 10 minutes on the bus compared to 1 hour on the train. This morning I had to get up at 6.10am (compared to 40 minutes later when taking the train for another almost 2-hour bus journey. As long as this goes on I will be spending an extra hour on top of the two hours each way I spend a day commuting (I have to walk/cycle at both ends of journey). I have been informed that I can send in a photocopy of my annual ticket along with any bus tickets I have bought and get a full refund so I advise of course anyone in a similar position to do the same.

I have family arriving next week from NZ (where there has not been a rail strike almost in living memory - although there are very few trains to strike and the union membership is too low to be effective) who are coming to my wedding and they would be relying on the trains to make their journeys. I know it will leave not only a bad impression on people living here in Ireland but how many tourists are going to be affected over the days of these strikes too? All the routes affected are popular destinations for tourists for example. I mean sure they can take buses and some do because it is cheaper but many others will have their plans disrupted by this.

I also know someone who was delayed by the newish train at Broomebridge 'braking down' and was sitting exams. As far as I know they made it still but I am sure it gave them a bit of a scare.

Privatisation of rail has proved to be a bit of an 'out of the frying pan into the fire' scenario in other countries from the customer's point of view and I would put it as an unlikely outcome of this strike.

[Mark Gleeson]

All refund forms here
http://www.platform11.org/passenger_info/refunds.php

Passengers on the Broombridge train are entitled to refunds also, that was a once in a blue moon brake failure, it happens

[Slowcoach]

Couldn't get a train hope had to leave work early Monday. My car in Portlaoise needed to have my parents drive to Kildare. Drive me to Portlaoise. Had to get up 5:30am Tuesday drive to work, took 4hrs commute for that day. This for a price of 1960 euro a year, why don't we just say ... we're not there.

[Slowcoach]

While refunds were mentioned
I buy an annual ticket, can I claim a refund for each day. Annual fare is 1960 so daily fare is 1960/365= 5.37. Or if not can I even pursue this in the small claims court to set a precedent for others and the future. My hope is if the refund paid out is large enough the company will ensure we've never to endure this again. I've no time for the drivers argument but eitherway trains shouldn't stop for such disputes. You can make disruption in other ways than blankly withdrawing service. At the moment the first candidate that wants to privatise the transport section has my complete support I've no reason not too, they don't worry about me afterall. And I'll endure whatever disruptions the unions can throw at us.