Bus drivers on routes to Tallaght, Co Dublin, are continuing to refuse to drive into some housing estates after 6 p.m. because of increasing attacks and violence on buses.
A meeting yesterday between Dublin Bus management, drivers' unions, gardai and residents broke down after just five minutes.
Bus drivers' unions walked out "in pure frustration" at what they feel are completely inadequate measures to protect the safety of drivers and passengers on bus routes in Tallaght.
No date has been set for further talks and a spokesman for the National Bus and Rail Union, representing about 200 of the drivers involved, said they were now seeking a meeting with the Garda Commissioner.
Almost 300 drivers on routes 50, 65B, 77, 56A and local link 201 and 202 have been cutting their routes short at The Square shopping centre since last Friday. Residents in a huge area straddling Fettercairn, Killinarden, Brookfield and Jobstown, a considerable distance from The Square, now have no bus service beyond the shopping centre.
Bus drivers have restricted their routes in Tallaght five times in the last year, and fortnightly meetings are held between residents, gardai and the bus drivers' unions, the NBRU and SIPTU. But no resolution has been found and there has been no decline in attacks.
Drivers are being beaten and attacked, drivers of foreign origin are being called "all the names under the sun" and bus windows are being kicked out regularly, according to the general president of the NBRU, Mr Martin Byrne.
He said two weeks ago a 15year-old boy "drove off with a bus across a green" after a group of teenagers tricked the driver into leaving it to help another driver whose fuel line had been cut off. A driver was shot at with a pellet gun around the same time, and so far this year up to 12 drivers have been attacked in assaults of varying severity.
"Thirty to 40 windows have been kicked out on the top deck of buses while they were being driven, which is a major danger to drivers and passengers," Mr Byrne said. The action will continue "until somebody with authority" meets the unions to guarantee their safety, Mr Byrne said.
"Our unions are anxious to get the service back, but the longer they stay out the harder it'll be for us to get them back," he said.
While the bus drivers' unions are not blaming gardai, who they say "are doing their best in a huge, huge area", they are frustrated that after so many meetings at which the Garda has given commitments to tackle the violence, the attacks abate only temporarily each time.
Dublin Bus has been largely supportive of the drivers' action, and is similarly concerned about the violence and abuse. A spokesman last night said the management was trying to get the drivers' unions to meet them today to find a solution.
