Bus strike

thee glitz

A two-day bus strike due to cause disruption to hundreds of thousands of commuters
nationwide has began, following the breakdown of talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

The row is over plans to put 10% of public bus routes out to private tender.

Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus last night confirmed they will take legal action to recoup the costs of the
two-day bus strike set to commence at midnight.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0430/697799-bus-strike/

The private sector shows how bus services can and should be run. I'm lucky to be able to commute using
a private operator, which costs costs €35 a week. The same is €53 with Bus Éireann. I know lots of bus drivers
who'd love to work for DB or BÉ. I'm delighted legal action is being taken over this. How dare some union
hold public transport users to ransom.

RobbingBandit

Union Mafia Bastards.

Cookie_Monster

Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus last night confirmed they will take legal action to recoup the costs of the
two-day bus strike set to commence at midnight.

At least thats some good news to come out of it

errlloyd

Uber have a deal on fare splitting for the next 48 hours. Promo code is something like "keep Dublin moving" which is a not so subtle stab at the bus, and a general attack on unions which Uber isn't too fond of. Details in bargain alerts.

Anyway, if you have a few mates living on your route to work, and you're all used to paying 3 quid for the bus journey, it probably will end up being not much more expensive.

Faith+1

At least town will be free of all the ole codgers tomorrow and Saturday. They seem to disappear when there's no buses.

dfx-

The daily Luas Crush at Heuston in a few hours will be entertaining, if there's room for anyone else to get on at that stage.

Probably lots forced to walk along the quays.

Jester252

Just another reason why private transport is the best option for travelling around Ireland

iDave

As usual the ordinary citizen gets fcuked over.

fxotoole

Can't understand how these unionised drivers expect sympathy from the public when they continually throw their toys out of the pram any time their respective companies try to implement change.

Maybe there was a time when unions were needed, but these days they only ever get in the way of progress.

anncoates

thee glitz wrote: »

The private sector shows how bus services can and should be run.

Not if you live on a unprofitable route.

weldoninhio

anncoates wrote: »

Not if you live on a unprofitable route.

If it's tendered to include the unprofitable routes, like the govt are doing, then it would make no difference

anncoates

weldoninhio wrote: »

If it's tendered to include the unprofitable routes, like the govt are doing, then it would make no difference

If that's true it would be good, but I'll believe it when I see it that private companies will essentially 'hardcode' loss making into their business.

Qualitymark

We haven't had great results from privatising the rubbish collection.

thee glitz

anncoates wrote: »

Not if you live on a unprofitable route.

What is unprofitable to one may not be to all. I do believe in subsidies where necessary, within reason. How can the unions credibly fight the privatisation of something they don't own... maybe they could set up their own bus company and bid for some routes. I understand why they left the talks with management - their only argument against privatisation must be 'because we don't like it'.

Mr. Incognito

They know that the private tender will threaten their over paid entitled culture.

Sooner we privitise the lot the better

iDave

Anyone know how many strikes theres been by employees of the CIE group of companies since 05. Must be close to double figures

anncoates

thee glitz wrote: »

I do believe in subsidies where necessary, within reason.

It's kind of a lousy situation. I do believe that some semi-states (and public service) need to be reformed and that in some cases, unions have lost their way from the purpose for which they were originally intended.

That said, I also don't want to see wholesale privatization of state services or unions being abolished.

Ironically enough, I think some a lot of people in my age group were sold a pooch in terms of unions. My industry wasn't and isn't unionized and I never cared because there was/is well-paid work and when you're younger, you're more flexible and mobile. Now though, I see the fallacy of thinking you'll always be completely invaluable to business and see the worth in having some kind of collective bargaining strength. Not, I should add, the right to demand insane wages and unrealistic work conditions, but just not to be treated as completely expendable. A lot of people are going to begin to see this, I think.

somesoldiers

nice to see Irishrail picking up the slack anyhow, with extra trains/ carraiges....not. The 7.15 Maynooth to Connolly was choc-a-bloc by the time it hit Ashtown, with dangerous levels of overcrowding and I left an hour earlier than I normally do, shudder to think what it's like now

Qualitymark

Odd how in Ireland some people reflexively say "Privatise it!" whenever there's a problem with a public service. In many other European countries they're more intelligent with their solutions.

homerjay2005

Hope Dublin bus runs the unions into the ground with this one, they are so out of touch it's unbelievable.

There will never be progression in anything related to public transport while there are unions involved.

fxotoole

somesoldiers wrote: »

nice to see Irishrail picking up the slack anyhow, with extra trains/ carraiges....not. The 7.15 Maynooth to Connolly was choc-a-bloc by the time it hit Ashtown, with dangerous levels of overcrowding and I left an hour earlier than I normally do, shudder to think what it's like now

Meanwhile the later Intercity train from Sligo that stops in Maynooth at about 8.10 is practically empty. I assumed that it was because everyone decided not to come into work today on account of the strike

Specialun

Bus whankers

fxotoole

Qualitymark wrote: »

Odd how in Ireland some people reflexively say "Privatise it!" whenever there's a problem with a public service. In many other European countries they're more intelligent with their solutions.

Examples?

If I'm not mistaken Tfl in London do a pretty job by bundling profitable and unprofitable routes together and putting those bundles out to tender

vienne86

It's the wrong people who will suffer with this dispute.

And what's this about train services being disrupted this weekend due to maintenance.....did they have to choose this weekend?

Timberrrrrrrr

vienne86 wrote: »

It's the wrong people who will suffer with this dispute.

And what's this about train services being disrupted this weekend due to maintenance.....did they have to choose this weekend?

I think you will.find that this maintenance was planned way before the bus strikes.

Riskymove

fxotoole wrote: »

Examples?

If I'm not mistaken Tfl in London do a pretty job by bundling profitable and unprofitable routes together and putting those bundles out to tender

It isn't perfect in the UK either

Just for info:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/nationalise-buses-lose-500-routes-5162568


https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2012/08/16/privatisation-isnt-working.-we-need-to-re-nationalise-our-rail-network/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/11193776/Labour-steps-up-rail-re-nationalisation-campaign.html

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/05/11/why-do-people-support-rail-nationalisation/

Riskymove

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

I think you will.find that this maintenance was planned way before the bus strikes.

a bank holiday weekend is a good choice as they have three days without rush hour traffic

Riskymove

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

They know that the private tender will threaten their over paid entitled culture.

Sooner we privitise the lot the better

Just to point out:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-31409831

Bus drivers in London went on a 28 hour strike in February

They had planned two more dates but talks led to it being postponed

so privatisation doesn't directly mean no strikes

cloud493

I was quite annoyed, till I was told that since my location, I can have a paid day off now I just need to find something to do.

KomradeBishop

Fair play to them, it's quite obvious that the tendering process is the first step to a wider rollout of privatization, so they're not just putting up a fight for their working conditions, but for the entire future of our public bus transport system in Dublin - people should be publicly supporting them with this.

Bets are, that the main people who would deny that this is the first step towards wider privatization, are those who themselves call for or talk-up privatization.

Specialun

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Fair play to them, it's quite obvious that the tendering process is the first step to a wider rollout of privatization, so they're not just putting up a fight for their working conditions, but for the entire future of our public bus transport system in Dublin - people should be publicly supporting them with this.

Bets are, that the main people who would deny that this is the first step towards wider privatization, are those who themselves call for or talk-up privatization.

Spot the CIE worker

ThreepwoodG

Oh they are always on Strike... Whats going on?

suicide_circus

cloud493 wrote: »

I was quite annoyed, till I was told that since my location, I can have a paid day off now I just need to find something to do.

Wow! Generous employer, who do you work for?

Zxclnic

Specialun wrote: »

Spot the CIE worker

Just because he's not a 'foaming at the mouth' union basher - like most on this thread appear to be - doesn't necessarily mean that he's an employee of either Dublin Bus or Bus Èireann. He might even be supportive of workers in general and their right to use their collective strength to negotiate with their employers, or, horror of horrors, he might even be in favour of this specific strike. Imagine that!
More power to the bus drivers, I wish them well.

Specialun

Zxclnic wrote: »

Just because he's not a 'foaming at the mouth' union basher - like most on this thread appear to be - doesn't necessarily mean that he's an employee of either Dublin Bus or Bus Èireann. He might even be supportive of workers in general and their right to use their collective strength to negotiate with their employers, or, horror of horrors, he might even be in favour of this specific strike. Imagine that!
More power to the bus drivers, I wish them well.

Sarcasm is clearly lost on you

KomradeBishop

Oh That one was a bit lost on me too.

dfx-

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Hope Dublin bus runs the unions into the ground with this one, they are so out of touch it's unbelievable.

There will never be progression in anything related to public transport while there are unions involved.

Dublin Bus are mostly the middleman in this one. It's basically a fight between the NTA and drivers. It would be massively in DBs interests for the drivers to go back.

noway12345

I support the bus drivers. You'll all be glad to hear that I'm sure.

WoollyRedHat

When I look at the likes of the 59 or the 111 which are up for tender on that list, it's a joke that they're still in existence. Half the time they are empty and when they do have people on it, the core demographic that uses them are those who would not have to pay: read OAPS etc.

So these routes make no actual profit and are often ghost buses.

Those who use Dublin Bus every day and year on year have had to put up with price increases are bascially subsidising loss making routes, why should we? They shouldn't even be up for tender, they should of been abolished ages ago.

Routes up for tender:http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/12/routes.jpg

Apparently Irish Rail are carrying out works this weekend as well. If Carlsberg did timing...

Zebra3

somesoldiers wrote: »

nice to see Irishrail picking up the slack anyhow, with extra trains/ carraiges....not. The 7.15 Maynooth to Connolly was choc-a-bloc by the time it hit Ashtown, with dangerous levels of overcrowding and I left an hour earlier than I normally do, shudder to think what it's like now

Apparently the reason that train was so full was because of people leaving an hour earlier than normal. :pac:

The_B_Man

If I hadnt' been told about the strike, I wouldnt have noticed. If anything, the LUAS was a bit emptier this morning. That was after 9.

A_Sober_Paddy

This strike affects all bus journeys in Ireland yeah? Need to get to Shannon tomorrow evening...

SterlingArcher

I'm confused, aren't Dublin bus agreeing to get its drivers that are on the set routes that are not making money. to transfer to working the route for a private company. And if the private company on the same route loses money ( don't see how it won't) and route has to get wound down... Its bye bye driver?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

WoollyRedHat

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

This strike affects all bus journeys in Ireland yeah? Need to get to Shannon tomorrow evening...

Affects some CIE routes too I think.

noway12345

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

This strike affects all bus journeys in Ireland yeah? Need to get to Shannon tomorrow evening...

You better start walking now so.

punisher5112

See this is how they get in off load the bad routes to make it look like ah sure db and be are grand but wait what routes go up next time of course all the good ones.


Whether db or be is driving these routes they are been kept so makes no sense to change as will cost the same and quite possibly more with a private operator as they must make money.

Db and be would lose and lose a fortune on these routes but are provided for the community and also I believe it is great that the service is there especially for the oap's.

WoollyRedHat

I think there are better ways that we can facilitate OAPS and the like that are in need of transport, through the use of car sharing schemes and on demand transport.

UCDVet

Dublin Bus is awful. I'm not blaming the drivers or the management or anything else, but as a whole, it's awful. And the near annual strike threats only serve to remind it's riders they can't trust that the bus will show up.

I stopped using Dublin Bus ~3 years ago. Best decision I ever made. I just wish we'd stop throwing away perfectly good tax money to keep this company afloat. If it were a private company, it'd have gone out of business years ago and been replaced with a better one.

LuckyLloyd

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

When I look at the likes of the 59 or the 111 which are up for tender on that list, it's a joke that they're still in existence. Half the time they are empty and when they do have people on it, the core demographic that uses them are those who would not have to pay: read OAPS etc.

So these routes make no actual profit and are often ghost buses.

Those who use Dublin Bus every day and year on year have had to put up with price increases are bascially subsidising loss making routes, why should we? They shouldn't even be up for tender, they should of been abolished ages ago.

Routes up for tender:http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/12/routes.jpg

Apparently Irish Rail are carrying out works this weekend as well. If Carlsberg did timing...

Yeah, **** the old and weak in society. Who cares if they need transport? It's not profitable so we'll abolish their buses. :rolleyes:

c_man

Normally I'd side with the staff on this kinda thing but bus eireann offer such a poor service, with the drivers being so rude and unhelpful that I say funk 'em. The private operators on the usual route I take are way ahead of BE.

homerjay2005

Zxclnic wrote: »

Just because he's not a 'foaming at the mouth' union basher - like most on this thread appear to be - doesn't necessarily mean that he's an employee of either Dublin Bus or Bus Èireann. He might even be supportive of workers in general and their right to use their collective strength to negotiate with their employers, or, horror of horrors, he might even be in favour of this specific strike. Imagine that!
More power to the bus drivers, I wish them well.

can you advise why you support them?