[18-3-2008] 18:18 connolly longford [from bray]

[ThomasJ]

Operated to maynooth only this evening.

[Mark Gleeson]

Bit late now but this was up at 6pm last night

Connolly commuter services - Tuesday 18th March by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann advises customers that the following services are affected this evening due to driver issues.

15.42 Pearse/ Drogheda cancelled

16.55 Drogheda/Pearse cancelled

17.48 Drogheda/Connolly cancelled

18.40 Connolly/ Dundalk cancelled

18.18 Connolly/Longford will terminate in Maynooth.

Iarnród Éireann apologises for the inconvenience caused.

Reads as 2 possibly 3 drivers short

[Kat]

It was unoffcial strike action by the driver, Irish Rail told me last night when I got off at Connolly last night to wait for the 19.05 to Sligo , in order to get home to Mullingar.

[Mark Gleeson]

The reason was no driver was willing to work there day off to fill in or a driver called in sick and there was no spare driver (there is meant to be 2 spare drivers on duty in Connolly)

Irish Rail rely on drivers working their days off since they haven't enough of them, this is denied however we have documents which say otherwise. I have personally overheard a district manager ringing around looking for a driver trying to drag someone in on there day off

There is no strike action in any form ongoing, staff have decided by ballot to no longer work their days off in protest at the lack of progress in ongoing talks. There is no obligation to work days off

Staff received a written commitment to 2 days off in every 7 in 2000, Irish Rail management have stalled on its delivery (remember May 2006) and have placed a block on recruitment in recent months

Simply put Irish Rail have massively increased the number of trains running but there is no matching increase in driver numbers which bodes very poor for the future

[Kat]

Hi Mark, I was just relaying what I was told at the Information Desk in Connolly Station, another display of poor Communication skills from Iarnrod Eireann.

Fair enough, don't blame them not working on their days off but it's the manner in which it is handled, lack of communication and unhelpful and igorant staff that gets up my goat!!!

[Mark Gleeson]

I know

Its a lot easier say strike, trying to explain the lack of staff is a lot harder

Bear in mind if you where over an hour late getting home you are entitled to 50% of the fare back

[chuggachuggachoochoo]

Well fair play to the drivers for standing up for their rights to days off.

I hope that more staff can be hired & trained up so that the situation of drivers not getting their 2 days off out of 7 doesnt happen again on a regular basis.

Do IR have the budget for hiring more drivers I wonder?

[zag]

It seems crazy that the setup is continuing without some official statement from IE and/or the drivers explaining what the 'plan' is. By plan I mean something that can be relied upon to deliver the scheduled services with as near to 100% reliability as can be expected.

If I understand it correctly, IE have scheduled more trains (good) but without providing for an increase in the number of drivers (bad). The shortfall is expected/hoped by IE to be made up by some drivers working their rostered days off. This is potentially a viable very-short-term solution which might work if the drivers are willing to do it. But they're not willing to do it and I don't blame them. It will also involve the drivers getting increased compensation in terms of further days off or overtime payments.

In the medium term IE need to get it into gear and recruit more drivers. Or else reduce the timetabled trains to a sustainable level.

They are doing nobody any favours by saying "look at our shiney new timetable, more trains, better, faster, etc . . ." and then not being able to deliver on the promise.

I don't take intercity trains very often, but if I turned up for the last train to somewhere and found out they had cancelled it because there was no driver available (and they didn't reasonably expect their to be a driver available) I would be very, very, very annoyed with them. It's very poor customer service to schedule these trains without adequate resources to back the schedule up.

z

[Mark Gleeson]

Obviously its not safe for drivers to work every day of the week, rest days are essential. Given the proposed increases in services between now and 2010 this problem will continue. Irish Rail could hire more full time drivers, but they don't really want to since they have a crazy solution in mind

There is a media blackout in force at the request of the LRC

Interesting to note Irish Rail don't pay overtime just the normal hourly rate

You are entitled to a honest explanation of why the train was cancelled which you are not getting which is a breach of the Irish Rail code of ethics

Failure to provide the timetable leaves Irish Rail in breech of there service level agreement, which sadly is not enforcable