The threat to night time Bus Éireann services at its main terminal in Dublin has receded after the company agreed to boost security at the facility.
The National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) said earlier this month that its members would not engage in loading or unloading buses at Busáras after 8pm from September 16th unless the company provided additional security resources.
The move followed an attack on a driver on August 29th at Busáras.
The company told the union in recent days it would be increasing the existing 24/7 private security operation at the bus station.
It said the CCTV system at Busáras had also been upgraded.
Bus Éireann said there would be two security personnel on duty at all times with a third working at Busáras every day between 8pm and midnight.
The bus operator added that issues of anti-social behaviour such as the recent assault on the driver at Busáras were “unacceptable and very worrying”.
In a letter to Bus Éireann on Friday, NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary said the initial reaction of members to the company’s commitment to boost security at Busáras was “favourable” and this should see services continue to operate at nighttime.
‘Epidemic of thuggery’
However he warned that the NBRU would continue to monitor all areas in which Bus Éireann operated.
He said NBRU members “would have absolutely no compunction in withdrawing services in the event of further incidents”.
“Put simply, there are no guarantees that frontline staff will provide a seamless service in the midst of an epidemic of thuggery towards transport staff and commuters.”
The recent NBRU biennial conference passed an emergency motion indicating that a curtailment of service in “blackspots” where anti-social behaviour or assaults on staff had taken place would be considered in the the run up to Halloween.
The union again called on the Government to establish a Garda public transport division.
In examples of incidents experienced by its members in recent times the NBRU conference last month was told that a bus driver was kidnapped at knifepoint and forced to drive from Dublin to Drogheda.
Delegates also heard that a bus driver in Wexford was assaulted and had the steering wheel grabbed by a passenger who had missed her stop. In this incident the driver lost a number of teeth.
The conference was told too that a driver in Cork had been shot in the face with a pellet gun. And in Athy a driver was so badly beaten he was out of work for eight months. Delegates were told that in this incident it had taken five passengers to restrain the assailant.
