[Article] Passengers forced to pay rail prices for bus to Dublin

The “ongoing” Iarnród Éireann driver dispute caused yet more disturbances on the Dublin-Sligo line at the weekend when three of the afternoon services were replaced by a bus service to Dublin last Saturday and Sunday.

One furious passenger who turned up for the 12.50 service to Dublin said that he was outraged that the train company expected him to pay the full train fare despite the fact that he was being forced to travel by bus with an infant in tow,

“At the very least I would have expected that we be bused in for free,” he said. “ I take the train with my child and pay the extra for comfort. If I wanted to get the bus I would have taken the hourly Bus Éireann service but I didn`t want to do that. I wanted to be able to feed the baby, change her and walk her up and down if I wanted to and I can`t do that on the bus so that is why I was prepared to pay the extra to get a train.

“When I tried to buy the ticket I was first of all told that the cancellation was due to engineering works and that the next train running would be at 14.50.

“So I said to another woman `how can they have fixed the problem in time for the next train?` and it was then that she told me that it was down to not having enough drivers and had nothing whatsoever to do with engineering works.

“The other man was very rude and was trying to rush us onto the bus which wasn`t a modern coach but an old jalopy and they expected my to pay a full fare and sit in the traffic on it all the way into Dublin.

“I have heard that it is common enough now and that people have just accepted it but they shouldn`t. Iarnród Éireann should be compensating passengers for the inconvenience instead of charging them full price,” he said.

Yesterday a spokeswoman for Ianrod Eireann said that the intermittent problem was solely due to drivers who refused to cover the full schedule of services or cover colleagues` sick leave and would not commit to necessary job training.

“Unfortunately this latest round of problems has hit the Dublin-Sligo line the hardest,” said Jane Creggan, company press officer.

“This is an ongoing issue and is solely due to drivers` refusal to co operate with covering sick leave or with training. Iarnród Éireann apologises for any inconvenience caused and is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

“Details of the disruption were available on the website from Thursday afternoon and we endeavour to let passengers know as soon as possible.

“Iarnród Éireann is holding a meeting with drivers this afternoon (Monday) and hope to have the issue resolved at the first opportunity,” she said.

No disruptions were noted on the company`s website yesterday afternoon but the customer service helpline said that they could not notify the public of any likely service disruptions from Mullingar to Dublin this afternoon.

“It`s too soon to give out that information,” said the agent. “You`ll have to check the website or phone back tomorrow.”