Cork Area Services

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/...ew&news_id=379

Cork & Kerry, service disruptions, Thursday 29th May by Corporate Communications

UPDATE: 07.30hrs, Thursday 29th May

Talks convened by the Labour Relations Commission to assist a resumption of rail services in Cork and Kerry have concluded yesterday evening in Mallow.

A document has been agreed by both Iarnród Éireann management, and driver trade union representatives from SIPTU and NBRU, to facilitate a return to work by drivers, following disruption to services since last Thursday.

Drivers will meet with trade union representatives today to discuss the document, and should it be accepted, services will begin to resume this afternoon. Full services would operate from Friday.

The company thanks the LRC for assisting in this process, and sincerely hopes that services can begin to be restored later today.

Regrettably, services will be disrupted again this morning, as follows (afternoon and evening service arrangements will be confirmed later pending the outcome of drivers meeting):

Service disruption, Thursday 29th May

The following services are expected to be cancelled on Thursday 29th May:

05.15 Cork-Heuston
06.30 Cork-Heuston
07.30 Cork-Heuston
09.30 Cork-Heuston
10.00 Heuston-Cork
11.00 Heuston-Cork
12.00 Heuston-Cork
13.00 Heuston-Cork
07.15 Tralee-Heuston

Morning Cork/Cobh and Cork/Mallow services

Morning Cork/Tralee services



Services operating on Cork and Kerry routes are:

07.00 Heuston-Cork (with bus transfers Mallow to Cork and Tralee)
08.00 Heuston-Cork (with bus transfers Mallow to Cork)
09.00 Heuston-Cork (with bus transfers Mallow to Cork and Tralee)
10.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow, and between Tralee and Mallow)
11.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow)
12.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow, and between Tralee and Mallow)


Limerick Customers should note:

Some Services to and from Limerick that connect with Cork services at Limerick Junction may be affected by the cancellations, outlined above. Limerick customers are advised to ring 1850 366 222 or contact their local station before travelling. All direct Limerick services are operating as normal.

Please note bus transfers from Cork and from Tralee depart 30 minutes earlier than scheduled train time.

All other routes will operate normally.

[ThomasJ]

Looks like good news!

Update: 14.15hrs Cork & Kerry, service disruptions, Thursday 29th May by Corporate Communications


UPDATE: 14.15hrs, Thursday 29th May

Iarnród Éireann is pleased to announce that Cork & Kerry services are expected to resume on Friday 30th May.

Regrettably,the following services will remain disrupted today, as follows (evening service arrangements will be confirmed later today on this website)

Service disruption, Thursday 29th May

The following services are expected to be cancelled on Thursday 29th May:


13.30 Cork - Heuston

14.30 Cork - Heuston

15.30 Cork - Heuston

16.30 Cork - Heuston

15.30 Cork - Heuston

18.30 Heuston - Tralee

Afternoon Cork/Cobh and Cork/Mallow services

Afternoon Cork/Tralee services

Services operating on Cork and Kerry routes are:

11.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow)

12.30 Cork to Heuston (with bus transfers between Cork and Mallow, and between Tralee and Mallow)

14.00 Heuston - Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork)

15.00 Heuston -Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork, and Mallow and Tralee)

16.00 Heuston-Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork)

17.00 Heuston - Cork (with bus transfers between Mallow and Cork, and Mallow and Tralee)

Limerick Customers should note:

Some Services to and from Limerick that connect with Cork services at Limerick Junction may be affected by the cancellations, outlined above. Limerick customers are advised to ring 1850 366 222 or contact their local station before travelling. All direct Limerick services are operating as normal.

Please note bus transfers from Cork and from Tralee depart 30 minutes earlier than scheduled train time.

All other routes will operate normally.

Iarnród Éireann apologises for the inconvience caused to customer during these disruptions.

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/...ew&news_id=379

[Donal Quinn]

the question is - was this a fudge or have some of the crappy practices on both sides been sorted out?

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by Donalq

the question is - was this a fudge or have some of the crappy practices on both sides been sorted out?

I hope so! Too many times issues like these crop up again and again. Lessons need to be learned. Something needs to come out of the past week, hopefully the talks have done that!

[Mark]

I know its not as black and white as this but isnt it amusing that the drivers complain that they work too many days and that IE havent increased their numbers while refusing to train new drivers?

[Mark Gleeson]

They changed the training program compared to the one agreed back in 2000. The whole driver mentor thing

Had a driver been rostered specifically for the job on Thursday there would not have been a problem. That was the normal case

A large amount of the training requires the trainees to sit with a driver and simply watch and learn the road thats the biggest part of the training course, however a driver has the right to operate alone, indeed in the UK recently trained drivers are not allowed to have someone with them. The practical drive under supervision is actually a very small part of the job

[ACustomer]

Two points: the return to normal service does not seem to be exactly a matter of urgency: nothing restored to-day. And this coming from drivers who said a few days ago that they wanted to drive and were being prevented from doing so.

Also "a driver has the right to operate alone". That really made me laugh. Do you mean that hey are unwilling to have a trainee colleague sit alongside and learn the road. Any normal person should love to have someone along to whom they can pass on a few comments. Don't tell me they might be distracted: after all drivers in the UK used to go on strike in defence of double-manning in the (alleged) interest of safety.

There has been far too much mollycoddling of drivers in this descussion.

[ThomasJ]

RTE News

Cork train drivers to return to work
Thursday, 29 May 2008 14:28
The meeting of train drivers at the centre of the dispute in the south has ended.

Union officials said the workers have voted to return to work at a minute past midnight.

But the unions have stated that they were angry at management comments over the past few days, which portrayed them as mavericks.

A meeting convened by the Labour Relations Commission will now take place next Thursday between management and the unions to thrash out the core issues at the centre of this eight-day dispute which caused havoc for more than 100,000 commuters and travellers.

Management at Iarnród Éireann have welcomed the Cork drivers' decision to resume normal services.

Spokesman Barry Kenny said they are delighted that they will be able to restore full services on the Cork and Kerry routes and added that the LRC meeting and the document accepted by both sides, has strengthened the company's ability to provide service continuity in the future for customers.

The meeting at a Cork city centre hotel began shortly after 11am this morning.

Earlier, a letter Irish Rail management demanded drivers sign has been withdrawn.

The letter instructed drivers not to engage in unofficial industrial action.

But the unions said they will commit to working with management to ensure unofficial action does not happen again.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0529/rail.html

[Mark Gleeson]

20:00 and 21:00 Dublin Cork only made it to Mallow last night as there was no driver available in Cork to handle the incoming trains

7:00 Cork Cobh and 7:30 Cobh Cork where cancelled this morning

[Mark]

Why do the Cobh service problems not have the users up in arms. Is it due to low patronage? Im just saying that I dont hear much about the cancelled services except from this board.

[Mark Gleeson]

There are about 450,000 journeys per year

Cancellations are common as services are killed to ensure the Dublin Cork service stays running, this is the flexibility Irish Rail talk about

Rail is the fastest way to Cobh given the layout of the Cork

[Mark Hennessy]

Presumably Cork-Cobh service fall under the service level agreement between the DOT and Irish Rail?

Makes you wonder why not a single local politician has even raised a peek about this.

If DART's were being canceled like this, there would be war.

[Mark Gleeson]

Management of course are selling this as the strike, when in fact they are so desperate to keep the Dublin Cork running everything else is sacrificed

Remember this is an operational matter for Irish Rail......

And yes it is in breech of the DOT agreement