Dublin commuters face no let-up from clampers

There will be no additional DART or suburban train services in Dublin during the two-day bus strike in the city, which begins this morning.

Nor will car parking restrictions be relaxed. Dublin Corporation, which contracts the Control Plus company to clamp illegally-parked cars in the city, said that the five clamping vans would be operating as usual today and tomorrow.

Gardai announced last night that motorists would be allowed to use bus lanes and Quality Bus Corridors for the duration of the strike.

Some 200,000 commuters - up to 500,000 passenger journeys - will be affected by the strike today, with an estimated 180,000 - about 420,000 passenger journeys - affected tomorrow.

The estimated 4,000 passengers who use the Nitelink bus service each Friday and Saturday will also be left to make their own travel arrangements.

Mr Barry Kenny, a spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann, said that there would be no additional services in Dublin, because all DART and Intercity carriages were already on the tracks and operating to full capacity.

"We are advising commuters to travel early, or outside peak hours, if possible. By `peak hours' we mean between 7 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. and between 5 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.", Mr Kenny said. He added that the company expected trains to be kept "very busy" throughout the two days of the strike.

"Traffic wardens and the pay-and-display system will be operating as normal", a spokeswoman for Dublin Corporation said last night.

Car parks in Dublin city-centre are expected to fill early.

Mr Paul Flynn, general manager of Irish Car Parks Ltd, advised anyone who wanted to be sure of getting a space to arrive before late morning.

"We were busier than usual during the last strike and we expect to be even busier this time", Mr Flynn said.

One bus company which will be operating in the capital over the coming two days, and which expects to carry about 8,000 passengers, is Aircoach. Its service, which operates every 15 minutes between Dublin Airport and the main hotels in the city, is open only to passengers travelling between the airport and the city-centre.

Although its route takes the airport coaches through O'Connell Street, Mount Street, Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Leeson Street and back to O'Connell Street towards the airport, Aircoach cannot pick up passengers along the way unless they are travelling to the airport.