Rail strikes: Taxpayers will not be blackmailed

Severe traffic congestion in wet miserable weather and gross personal inconvenience inflicted on tens of thousands of locals and tourists are unlikely to inspire much public sympathy for the cause of striking rail workers.

Rail workers may believe that they are supremely useful and that the country would somehow fall asunder without them. But the number of rail passenger journeys reported by Irish Rail has dropped by over 15% from 43.3m in 2008 to under 37m last year. During this period the average rail fare increased by a hefty 12% from €4.31 to €4.82 – while the net increase in the consumer price index was just 3.4%. When compared with alternatives — a bus, bicycle, privately operated coach or car — rail journeys are simply not considered good value.

The arguments advanced to justify this strike are reminiscent of the process of collective self-hypnosis by which hereditary aristocrats attempted to convince the public ... that their distinctive claims on caste survival made them indispensable. If the strikers participating in this ritual of rebellion fail to take a reality check on the limitations of public tolerance the railways may well be brushed aside like the hereditary peerage, or privatised, because neither taxpayers nor the public will be barracked or blackmailed.