The current rail dispute is causing "social misery" in the west of Ireland with counties Mayo and Roscommon being "victimised", according to the region's business interests.
"If this was anywhere in the Dublin area, there would be ministers intervening immediately to resolve it. Yet Westport has had no rail service for the last three weeks and not a word has been said," Mr Peter Shanley, chairman of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) - West Region, said yesterday.
Iarnrod Eireann confirmed yesterday that only one train had served Westport since the dispute began, and that a limited transport service was being provided by bus to and from Athlone, Co Westmeath.
The restrictions also affect Ballina passengers, who join the Westport train at Manulla junction. Of the four drivers based at Westport, two are in SIPTU and two are in the ILDA, but one affiliated to each union has been out on sick leave.
By contrast, services between Galway and Dublin were relatively unaffected for the first two weeks of the dispute, and 80 per cent of trains on the route are running this week. There was an improvement in the passenger train services out of Limerick yesterday with four direct services to Dublin operating each way.
Mr Jim Gallivan, business development manager, Iarnrod Eireann, said that the same services were expected to operate between Limerick and Dublin today. Services to Cork are still interrupted, with bus connections operating between Mallow and Cork.
Mr Shanley of the CCI said tourism interests were feeling the effects, particularly hostels serving backpackers and outdoor-adventure centres, such as Glenans sailing school. Hospital patients travelling to Dublin for treatment were also undergoing considerable hardship.
The CCI-West Region, which represents business interests in Mayo, Roscommon and Galway, led a long campaign to upgrade the Westport-Dublin line. "Now that this improvement work is taking place, a breakaway group is trying to close it down," Mr Shanley said.
"By confining this dispute to parts of the country, Iarnrod Eireann may be hoping to break it, but we are caught in the middle."
Mr Sean Staunton, vice-chairman of Ireland-West Tourism and a member of Westport Urban District Council, said it was hard to understand why the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) could not "do something, at the behest of the Minister for Public Enterprise to get people talking".
People with disabilities had been very badly affected, he added. "There are very limited facilities for wheelchair users on trains, but none at all on buses," he said.
"We are not interested in the rights and wrongs of this. We are just interested in it being resolved," Mr Staunton, who is also editor of the Mayo News, added.
Mr Finbar Masterson, Westport train driver and executive member of the ILDA, said the key to resolving the problem lay with the LRC. If "normality prevailed" relief drivers from Athlone would stand in for the two sick drivers in Westport, he added.
