Passengers face chaos after rail talks breakdown

Talks to avert a three-hour national train strike by drivers completely brokedown last night, leaving tens of thousands of passengers to seek alternative travel arrangements on what is one of the busiest days of the year for Irish Rail.

At 9.30pm last night, there were reports the marathon talks on productivity measures had broken down meaning all intercity, commuter and Dart services due to depart between 6am-9am this morning — and several intercity services after that period — would not operate.

When this morning’s action goes ahead — and it is due to be repeated in two weeks — Irish Rail will face hundreds of thousands of euro in lost fares and State subvention this morning alone. It has already admitted it is losing “in excess of 1.5m per month”.