Dissident train-drivers are threatening to adopt more militant tactics in an attempt to force Iarnrod Eireann to the negotiating table as the dispute enters its eighth week.
Members of the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association are expected to mount further pickets at railway crossings and on tracks in the coming days similar to those broken up by gardai at the weekend.
Other secondary pickets are being planned throughout the State after ILDA members strongly backed the group's leadership strategy at an executive meeting in Tullamore, Co Offaly, yesterday.
Hopes of an imminent breakthrough in the dispute, which Iarnrod Eireann estimates cost the company £500,000 this weekend, remain slim.
An offer by the former general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union, Mr Tom Darby, to mediate in the dispute was welcomed yesterday by the ILDA's executive secretary, Mr Brenda Ogle. Iarnrod Eireann was less enthusiastic about the offer.
Mr John Keenan, head of human resources at the company, said he would welcome any initiative aimed at breaking the deadlock, but only if the drivers agreed to negotiate under the auspices of the two unions recognised by the company, SIPTU and the NBRU.
Another spokesman for the company said no formal approach had been made by Mr Darby. He pointed out that the drivers had already had an opportunity to air their grievances through internal procedures recognised by the Labour Relations Commission.
"They can use those procedures as individuals and we would invite them to do so", he said.
Mr Darby (72), a founder-member of the NBRU, which, like the ILDA, was once classified as an unofficial, "breakaway" group, said he would be willing to mediate if requested.
Mr Ogle urged the company to explore the "imaginative offer" to its fullest extent.
Speaking after yesterday's ILDA meeting, Mr Ogle said that he regretted the disruption caused to commuters by the dispute. However, he refused to condemn weekend pickets on the Dublin-Galway and Dublin-Belfast railway lines, which delayed services by more than an hour as gardai and Iarnrod Eireann staff struggled to remove protesters from the tracks.
Only five people took part in a picket at a level crossing at Carrowduff, between Athlone and Ballinasloe, and just three participated in a picket at Dromiskin, between Drogheda and Dundalk. However, both pickets on Saturday evening succeeded in slowing trains to walking pace or stopping them altogether.
A Garda spokesman said its policy on such incidents was that it would tolerate protests as long as no law was broken. "Our function was to ensure the line was not blocked and that no one was in danger", he said.
Apart from one cancellation on the Dublin-Waterford line, services yesterday operated according to revised schedules.
The Drogheda/Dundalk service will be seriously disrupted today, with only Enterprise services operating on the line. Today's 6.30 a.m. Carlow-Dublin service and this afternoon's 4.30 Dublin-Carlow service have been cancelled.
Bus transfers will operate on many other routes.
The Drogheda/Dundalk line will have an improved service tomorrow, operating at two-thirds of normal frequency.