About 100,000 commuters in the Dublin and east coast area had their journeys disrupted yesterday. As expected, there was no rail service on inter-city routes terminating at Connolly station in Dublin. These included trains from Drogheda, Dundalk, Maynooth, Arklow and Rosslare.
The DART service which has capacity for about 80,000 passengers in the morning peak was down to about 50 per cent of normal service. Customers' attitudes were said to be generally good and delays were in the order of 15 to 20 minutes.
A spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann reported no overcrowding, which he attributed to a large number of commuters making other arrangements. According to the company, service rose to about 66 per cent throughout the day, but was down to 50 per cent again by the evening rush.
All the main approach roads to Dublin city suffered severe disruption as commuters brought their cars to work. Especially badly hit were roads adjacent to the DART lines including the Merrion and Malahide roads as well as most roads in the vicinity of Clontarf and Blackrock.
Severe congestion was reported on the M1/N1 all morning and at the evening peak, while there was higher than usual congestion reported on the N11, particularly on the Still organ Road in Dublin. The N4/ N6 from Maynooth to the capital was also severely congested, according to AA Roadwatch.
The AA has advised Munster motorists to allow extra time for their journeys this morning as the ATGWU switches the focus of its strike to that province. There is expected to be no train service in Waterford, Cork city and county, Tralee and Killarney and Limerick.
On Thursday the strike is to switch focus again, this time affecting the west and north-west. Next week the ATGWU says it will reverse the pattern starting on Tuesday May 10th with a strike in the west and north-west.
