As the dispute at the Luas light rail system intensifies ahead of a planned strike on St Patrick's Day, trade union Siptu has said that picketing will be peaceful and within the law.
The union has said there will be no move to block buses that Luas operator Transdev has announced it will bring in on Thursday to transport passengers to the city centre from park-and-ride facilities on the outskirts of Dublin.
Tram drivers, who, the union argues, have been excluded by management from talks on a pay claim, are reportedly furious at the Transdev move.
The union described the decision by management to bring in a bus service as “provocative”.
Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe said Transdev's plans to provide special contingency buses represented "an effort to deliver a level of service to the travelling public on our national holiday".
The National Transport Authority declined to comment yesterday on whether the financial penalties imposed on Transdev under its contract with the State for failing to provide light rail services during previous strike days would be lessened as a result of the introduction of the bus service.
Talks between Siptu and management in relation to pay for three other non-driver grades of staff at Luas commenced yesterday and will reconvene after the weekend.
Strike days
Luas drivers are scheduled to strike on St Patrick’s Day, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday as as well as on four other days in April.
In a dramatic development yesterday, Transdev announced that it would operate a bus service to run between a number of park-and-ride facilities to the city centre from 7.30am to 7pm on March 17th.
However, there will be far less capacity on the bus service than the Luas service would normally provide.
Buses will run every 10 minutes between 7.30am and noon; every 15 minutes between noon and 2pm; and every 10 minutes between 2pm and 7pm.
Luas prepaid tickets and Leap cards will be accepted on the buses, while bus tickets can also be purchased at Luas/bus stops.
Red Line
On the Red Line, buses will depart Cheeverstown and Red Cow park-and-ride stops and travel directly to Wolfe Tone Quay (beside Croppies Acre memorial park).
Outbound buses will depart Victoria Quay (between Guinness entrance and Heuston Station) and travel directly to Red Cow and Cheeverstown park-and-ride stops.
On the Green Line, buses will depart Carrickmines, Stillorgan and Balally park-and-ride stops and travel directly to Adelaide Road.
Outbound buses will depart Hatch Street Upper (near the Dublin Bikes station) and travel directly to Balally, Stillorgan and Carrickmines.
The buses were sourced by Transdev via a broker and are expected to be run by independent operators.
However, it seems unlikely that Transdev will be able to secure buses for the strike days planned over Easter as they are expected to be already engaged.
Siptu divisional organiser Owen Reidy last night again urged Transdev management to engage in talks with drivers over their pay claim.
Drivers earlier this week reduced their pay demands.
Mr Reidy said drivers were seeking 27 per cent over five years and were prepared to negotiate and to look at productivity measures.
