No Fares Day - Dublin Bus FREE FREE FREE Tomorrow!!!

potlatch

>From Indymedia:

Passengers will be able to travel for free on all CIE routes on Friday, July 18th. It's part of a campaign of action drawn up by unions at CIE to protest at Government plans to break-up the company and privatise some Dublin Bus routes ... Liam Tobin of the National Bus and Rail Workers Union said today that the No-Fares Day in July was "a chance for people to hear our side of the story".

Both Iarnród Éireann & Bus Éireann have messages on their websites pledging to run full services, though warning about possible overcrowding ;-)

Reference:

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=52389
http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=48
http://www.buseireann.ie/site/news_centre/travel_reports.asp?action=view&news_id=142

[edit]link fixed[/edit]

sligoliner

What do ya all think about this?

hussey

don't think they warned about overcrowding on car-free day!!
(though it wasn't free all day!)

Stark

Wouldn't want to be one of the people who normally travel home on weekends. The trains are going to be jointed with oppurtunistic people especially weirdos (you know the ones with the free bus passes that you always see riding the bus, especially in Cork). Plus people normally travelling home for weekends aren't really going to save money as a single fare isn't that much cheaper than a return fare.

GerardKeating

Since the Fare-Free days is Thursday midnight to Friday midnight, it will be the Thursday night nite-link that will be free, not fridays...

sligoliner

I agree with Enda Kenny here:

From: Enda Kenny TD Leader of Fine Gael

CIE Unions Fooling No-one with "Free" Fares Day Protest - Kenny


Customers Wont Pay for Tickets but Will Pay for Protest

The CIE unions are fooling no one with their self-interested "free" fares day protest, according to Fine Gael Leader, Mr Enda Kenny TD, following a Front Bench meeting of the Party. He pointed out that the lost revenues to CIE of more than 1 million euro will ultimately have to be recouped through increased fares down the line or by increased Government subvention via the taxpayer.

"The Unions within CIE may think that they are pulling off a painless protest in relation to, as yet, unannounced plans for the break up of the CIE group, but the reality is that someone, somewhere always ends up footing the bill. Time and again it is the customer that ends up shelling out for the posturing of protected workers in cosseted sectors of the economy. The "free" fares day will allow the public to travel without paying for a ticket but they will still end up paying for the cost of the protest.

"This type of industrial action would be unthinkable in the commercial sector and it reflects a dated mindset that is more interested in retaining the status quo than delivering real improvements for customers. The Unions within CIE would be better advised focusing on improving the commercial viability of their operation than pulling off what they hope will be perceived as a populist stunt.

"Fine Gael is convinced of the benefits of competition for the consumer. More than that, competition ultimately ends up benefiting the people employed in the newly competitive sector by providing long-term sustainable jobs in a commercially viable company. What is vital is that this opening up of the bus markets is done in a manner that actually delivers increased and improved levels of service - not just establishes additional quangos or allows for the cherry picking of lucrative routes.

Victor

This piece seems quite disingenuous - what they are saying is they have asked the companies to operate unprofitable services, give free fares to some benefit recipients and have invested a large amount of money on infrastructure - but are presenting it as a loss.

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/1037003?view=Eircomnet

Final notice for CIE: this squandering can't go on
From:The Irish Independent
Thursday, 17th July, 2003
Gene McKenna and Gerald Flynn

CIE has been given final notice that it must put its troubled house in order.

The transport company's finances have reached crisis point and there is now major concern within Government that the taxpayer is not getting value for massive subventions.

The semi-state body has accumulated losses of €1.3bn in five years.

Its operating deficit has increased from €105m in 1998 to €394m in 2002.

This situation, the Irish Independent has learned, has led Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy to issue a strong warning that the trend cannot be allowed to continue.

The warning from Mr McCreevy to Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has emerged on the eve of another damaging financial blow for CIE where union members are refusing to collect fares tomorrow. Free-for-all Friday will increase CIE losses and the knock-on effects seem likely to spark an industrial relations nightmare.

Management of Iarnrod Eireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann plan "to recoup any costs incurred" and will decide next week whether to start disciplinary cases or impose a blanket one-day pay cut to cover the fares disruption.

Siptu and the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) are planning a further six days of disruption over the rest of the year. These strikes, stoppages and protests are estimated to cost at least €6m for the loss-making state transport companies with Dublin Bus alone taking a €1.8m hit.

It has now emerged that Mr McCreevy is deeply unhappy at the overall CIE performance, pointing out that in the 1998-2002 period it got a total of €1.2bn in Exchequer and EU grants, in addition to an accumulated €900m in State subventions.

It is known that Mr McCreevy has expressed particular alarm about the Iarnrod Eireann situation, as it has gone from "a modest surplus" in the year 2000 after the subvention is taken into account to a projected loss of €40m after subvention in 2003.

The Finance Minister says the cost base of Iarnrod and particularly its operating costs are increasing at an "unsustainable" rate and "this must be reversed".

The stark figures come as the unions begin to flex their muscles over government plans for the break-up of the companies and particularly privatisation of part of the Dublin Bus service.

As the unions are technically not in dispute with the CIE companies, it is more difficult for management to recover the losses from the protest action.

Any move to dock pay or take disciplinary action may lead to an outbreak of local disputes or an instant walk-out.

An alternative option is to withhold the 3pc pay rise due in October to recover the additional losses. This might require a clear direction from Transport Minister Seamus Brennan to delay implementing the 'Sustaining Progress' pay terms but any such move would have serious implications for the partnership arrangements with the Irish Congress of Trades Unions.

An Iarnrod Eireann spokesman said that next week "we will examine options to recoup any lost revenue and all three companies will take the same stance".

The unions decided on a novel 'no fares' tactic two months ago as part of their campaign against government proposals to separate the three CIE companies into stand-alone entities. Because it is not traditional industrial action, there is little scope for the LRC to intervene.

Among the unions' main complaints is the pledge by Mr Brennan that he will ensure that a private company will be operating one-quarter of all bus routes in Dublin by next February.

mike65

I think its a bad idea, mainly on two counts - first its asking for trouble with the knuckledraggers who might just think spending all day on the buses would be a hoot (yeah right..) and second it wont achive whatever stoneage result the unions are looking for. Oh and it'll piss most of the regular law abiding public transport users.

Mike.

sligoliner

From RTE

CIE unions launch 'no fares' day protest

July 18, 2003

(07:13) Passengers on buses and trains operated by the CIE group of companies are not being charged for their journeys today as unions protest against the Government's plans to break up the semi-state organisation.

All Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann services will operate as normal.

But CIE has appealed to the public to make only their normal journeys because of the danger of overcrowding.

advertisement


advertisement
The so-called 'no fares' day is expected to cost the group more than €1m.

Further losses are expected as the unions step up their campaign over the coming months.

Unions at CIE say they do not want to disrupt the public as they vent their objections to Transport Minister Seamus Brennan's plans to break up the group and privatise bus routes.

CIE has appealed to the travelling public to make regular journeys only.

Both unions and management have appealed to the public not to exploit the 'no fares' day by making unnecessary journeys as overcrowding could have safety implications.

Sources within Iarnród Éireann say they may limit the number of people using their services if they feel advantage is being taken of the unions' no-fares protest.

It is understood that each station has been given a quota, based on average passenger numbers for Fridays, and this quota will be imposed.

Meanwhile it is expected that the row over CIE and Aer Rianta will be raised at today's meeting of the social partners at Dublin Castle.

The employers group, IBEC has accused the unions of paying lip service to the industrial peace clause provision of the national agreement, 'Sustaining Progress' while dipping their hands into the taxpayers pockets.


This is on the Platform11 site:

Tomorrow in yet another assault on the Irish taxpayer, the self-absorbed CIE unions will be implementing their “No Fares” day in a futile effort to win public support against Minister Brennan’s break-up of CIE. Platform11 believes abolition of CIE is vital if Ireland is ever to have a 21st Century public transport system.

On a day when 200 workers at the Waterford Wedgwood and 170 Volex workers have been told they are to lose their jobs, Platform11 calls on the CIE unions tomorrow to demonstrate real solidarity with the current plight of the public sector worker, and donate their pay from tomorrow’s protest to a fund supporting the families of the soon-to-be unemployed Waterford Wedgwood and Volex employees.

We call on Liam Tobin, of the National Bus and Rail Union, to go down to a bank tomorrow and be the first CIE union member during the “No Fares” day, to deposit his Friday’s pay into a special fund the NBRU should set-up to support the Waterford Wedgwood and Volex employees who will soon be enjoying many “No Salary” days in the weeks and months ahead.

Mr E

An Iarnrod Eireann spokesman said that next week "we will examine options to recoup any lost revenue and all three companies will take the same stance"

No doubt this means a bump up of prices in the near future? Bets its a permanent increase too...

- Dave.

sligoliner

It has now emerged that Mr McCreevy is deeply unhappy at the overall CIE performance, pointing out that in the 1998-2002 period it got a total of €1.2bn in Exchequer and EU grants, in addition to an accumulated €900m in State subventions.

Typical, I believe that Charlie McCreevy gave Dr John Lynch the job of CIE chairman.

next thing McCreeey will be telling us that the Celtic Tiger and SSI saving scheme was a failure...

When is the next general election?

FinoBlad

well on the one hand you can make your point by having an all out work stoppage losing 1.2 million and nobody travels, on the other hand you can lose 1.2 million, make your point and most people wont be inconvenienced. I know which is the lesser of the two evils.

FGs Kenny is right about the country paying the 1.2 million but people havent a clue how much the breakup of CIE will cost everyone without carrying a single extra passenger. Seems that the unions say €500million, so it must be at least €250million and thats a crazy amount of money to risk somethink that we dont know will work to our benefit. It hasn't in the UK.

I really dont think that turning CIE/Irish Rail/Dublin Bus around is all that difficult and think the governments[past and present] are more responsible for their problems than is widely acknowledged.

Is there anyone with real imagination in irish politics, saying lets privatise the ba$tard$ doesnt take a lot now does it?

[agree with sligoliner] roll on the next election?

sligoliner

.[/QUOTE]

I really don’t think that turning CIE/Irish Rail/Dublin Bus around is all that difficult and think the governments[past and present] are more responsible for their problems than is widely acknowledged.

Believe it or not Irish Rail are already on the way back. Last April the Minister appointed a new CEO by the name of Dick Fearn. He is a 25 year veteran of British Rail and was one of the people who came out of the whole UK privatisation mess looking good. At his going away party some of the biggest names in UK transport were there to see him off. He started off a kid in the freight yards at Birmingham and worked his way up to the top winning respect of unions and management and polticians alike.

He oversaw the rebuilding of the Chiltern Line (vote best railway in the UK) which runs from London to Birmingham and it was finished and under budget.

Fearn, unlike the rest of CIE/Irish Rail management is true railway professional. He subscribes to the concept of "asset sweating" a proven strategy of maximising the number of trains on a line in order to reduce the public subsidies. This is why trains are so frequent in countries like Austria and Denmark and something CIE have had no interest in doing.

He was in Limerick the other day meeting Irish Rail staff and local business people from what I heard he left them with a very positive impression and he was very positive about Irish rail travel in general, especially with the Limerick area. He said that he thought that railcars were the answer to branch lines rather than have heavy locos & cravens on them. He said he would look at the spare railcar capacity, now that the 2900's are in service to see if commuter-like services could be operated though out the day between:
1. Limerick to Ballybrophy via Nenagh.
2. Limerick to Waterford.
3. Limerick to Ennis.
(these are lines Dr Lynch of CIE tried to close last year and here is Fearn saying they could be very sucessful!)

And sees no reason why this isn't achievable.
He sees Limerick Junction as a hub, but it badly needs car parking facilities.

His reasoning is that most people will start on their journey by getting into their car at home and then go from "A" to "B". If they can easily park their car at a station then they will go rail, travel to Dublin or wherever by train and be guaranteed a train home then they will use rail. (so logical, but yet the management of CIE could not see this)

I hear that he told the same scenario in Galway when he visited and suggested a 8 piece railcar DMU service at some stage between Dublin and Galway to be broken at Athlone with 4 cars going to Galway & 4 Cars going to Claremorris where 2 cars would go to Westport & 2 cars to Ballina. He is also looking at the Phoenix Park tunnel route and has order the speeding up of the Midland Line relay (the line to the south of Croke Park)
On the Cork route he recommended fast & frequent Dublin/Cork services and only direct services between Limerick & Tralee and Dublin at certain times probably prime times - morning & evening, and Friday & Sunday.

Basically all the things Platform11 and others have been screaming for to get done, Fearn appears to be doing. General impression is that the new broom is going to sweep the old IE management aside!

Don’t be surprised if by this time next year we have a radically different and more meaningful railway network in Ireland. If we can get past this stage of current bull**** Ireland could be on the verge of a real rail network that works.

FinoBlad

whats labours position on this?

hussey

On a day when 200 workers at the Waterford Wedgwood and 170 Volex workers have been told they are to lose their jobs, Platform11 calls on the CIE unions tomorrow to demonstrate real solidarity with the current plight of the public sector worker, and donate their pay from tomorrow’s protest to a fund supporting the families of the soon-to-be unemployed Waterford Wedgwood and Volex employees.

We call on Liam Tobin, of the National Bus and Rail Union, to go down to a bank tomorrow and be the first CIE union member during the “No Fares” day, to deposit his Friday’s pay into a special fund the NBRU should set-up to support the Waterford Wedgwood and Volex employees who will soon be enjoying many “No Salary” days in the weeks and months ahead.

brilliant!

Altough I can only comment on Dublin Bus(the only one I use)
I found that to me teh service has generally improved, and you dont get as many bad bus drivers

But I do think competition is good for the comsumer (as I said I can't really comment on outside dublin .. I heard some train/bus routes will be lost), so hopefully bus drivers will start to care more about the people (in future) who will pay their wages .. rather than being the ould 'union head' bus driver who doesn't care

sligoliner

whats labours position on this?

From what I gather the rail workers seem to respect him as they see him a real railwayman and not a suit from the civil service who hasn't a clue. So that's good. Brennan see him as a genius and has been supporting him 100% for what's on the grapevine.

CIE and CIE unions are dead after today. Have you been listening to the callers on the radio shows? They are getting hammered and this "no fares" stunt has backfired badly. The public hostility is amzming. Do CIE really believe that the Irish peole hold them as this sacred, untouchable entity that have served the irish nation well for the last 50 years? Are they that out of touch with reality?

I have also heard rumours (unconfirmed) that the Dublin Bus end of the union bullied the Bus Eireann and Irish Rail members into today's protest.

I think today will be looked upon as a watershed. I doubt if there will be anymore carry on like this. Liam Tobin seems to have led his members into a bottomless pit. Hopefully many of them will see that he has no answeres. Dick Fern was quoted as saying he waned Irish Rail workers to have a career in rail transport and not a job working on the trains. Tobin very much represents a crap job for a crap company wih no future.

sligoliner

The Demeneted world of SIPTU:

"The trade unions claim this will result in a public transport system similar to that in London - which Mr Hugh Geraghty, secretary of the CIÉ group of unions, described yesterday as a "model for disaster".

yeah right.

commuterised

I use the DART every day(well 5 days a week) and have done so for probably the last 5 years of my life. I use a prepaid ticket so today's no fares had no impact on me except for the annoyance of being asked to sign a petition for the employees sticking their necks out today.

sligoliner

Morning Ireland: Barry Kenny of CIE says capacity may be an issue as people may take advantage of free access to train, bus and DART services28k

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0718/morningireland/morningireland1a.smil


Morning Ireland: Derek Wheeler, of the lobby group Platform 11. criticises both unions and management for the present state of events.28k

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0718/morningireland/morningireland1b.smil


Morning Ireland: While Noel Dowling, from SIPTU, defends reasons for the unorthodox industrial action, Declan Martin, policy director of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, defends the case for breaking up the CIE company28k

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0718/morningireland/morningireland1e.smil

Victor

Originally posted by sligoliner
Fearn, unlike the rest of CIE/Irish Rail management is true railway professional. He subscribes to the concept of "asset sweating" a proven strategy of maximising the number of trains on a line in order to reduce the public subsidies.

One has to be careful of asset sweating (using assets to their absolute limit) as this leaves no redundancy / spare capacity in the event of problems (accidents, break downs, etc.). It also limits expansion capability.

Originally posted by sligoliner
He sees Limerick Junction as a hub, but it badly needs car parking facilities.

I think he means a transfer hub, where you would change between trains, as oppossed to a park & ride station - very few people live near Limerick Junction.

dmeehan

Originally posted by commuterised
I use the DART every day(well 5 days a week) and have done so for probably the last 5 years of my life. I use a prepaid ticket so today's no fares had no impact on me except for the annoyance of being asked to sign a petition for the employees sticking their necks out today.

poor creators sticking out their necks:rolleyes:

is it just me or does everyone think the cie employees are the most strike-prone employees in the country? it seems there is something wrong with them every year

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1080086?view=Eircomnet

CIE (unions) to hold public meeting on break-up plan
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 23rd July, 2003

CIÉ unions are to hold a public meeting in Dublin tonight to outline their opposition to Government plans to break-up the company.

A union spokesman told ireland.com the meeting was designed "to put our case to the public".

The meeting follows last week's "No Fares Day" protest and comes ahead of a number of planned work stoppages in opposition to the planned restucturing.

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, is proposing the company be broken into three separate entities and that 25 per cent of Dublin's bus market be franchised out to private operators by next January.

Unions oppose the move saying it will result in large-scale job losses and the curtailment of vital services.

Speakers from the three main CIE unions, ATGWU, NBRU and SIPTU will address the meeting and explain in more detail what they believe will be the consequences of the move.

The unions have invited Mr Brennan to attend tonight's meeting in Liberty Hall but as yet he has failed to indicate if he will.

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/1084253?view=Eircomnet

Pay freeze after CIE no-fares day
From:The Irish Independent
Thursday, 24th July, 2003

CIE is to impose a pay freeze to recoup the €1.2m it lost in last week's no-fares protest.

Unions were told yesterday by management that a 3pc rise due in October will be delayed by four weeks.

The freeze will hit some 12,500 employees who will each lose about €100 for their part in the protest against proposals by Transport Minister Seamus Brennan to restructure Dublin Bus, Iarnrod Eireann and Bus Eireann and to franchise out a quarter of bus routes in Dublin.

CIE management is now bracing itself for possible retaliation by workers.