Meanwhile the public transport company has defended its provision as five special trains it laid on from the capital sold out each day, except a very early morning journey on Saturday which, as of Friday evening, still had around 260 unsold seats. Asked if that indicated there was demand for more services later in the day that isn’t being met, a spokeswoman told the News Letter the special trains had been available to book since April, adding: “We are closely monitoring demand and making adjustments where we can. “Thousands of passengers made their bookings in advance leaving limited availability on special services at this stage. “All our available resources are being deployed to cater for demand right across the Translink network.” Seats are still available on standard services to Portrush, she said, with tickets available “on a first come, first served basis” at stations, on board trains and through Translink’s mLink app. Attempting to buy standard train tickets from Belfast to Portrush for the Open on Translink’s website won’t work at this stage, however; the only online ticket available for that journey involves buying an iLink travel card, which are mailed out and take up to five working days to arrive. All week, Translink has been operating a Saturday schedule on all of its train lines, which has resulted in complaints about “standing room only” crowding on at least two commuter lines. And the reduced timetable has axed three departures per day from Belfast’s new Grand Central Station along the line that services Portrush. Normally 19 trains depart from Grand Central along the Belfast to Londonderry line per day; as a result of the reduced schedule, that’s been down to 16 and won’t return to normal until Monday – by which point the Open is over. One of the cancelled trains is the very earliest, a 6.05am departure. Now, the earliest to leave is at 7.10am. Translink stated the Saturday timetable running Monday to Friday this week is also found “at other peak holiday times including Easter and Christmas”. “This has been an exceptionally busy week across the network, with a range of events last weekend and continuing this week with the golf,” said the spokeswoman. “We recommend that passengers use the journey planner app and check timetables in advance on the Translink website.” The spokeswoman stated that “all available resources are deployed across the network” during the Open, adding that “additional rail, bus and coach capacity” was added to ensure “fans could arrive in time for early tee-offs”. The spokeswoman did not, however, provide details when asked what percentage of Translink staff are off on holiday this week, instead stating the firm “has coordinated staffing plans in place to meet increased demand and support the efficient delivery of public transport services”. Translink’s comments come as a last-minute pay offer called off strikes that threatened to punch a hole in bus and rail networks. While the world-famous golf tournament readied to bring a total 278,000 fans to Portrush, a pay dispute was set to spark a 48-hour strike on Friday and Saturday. Talks between bosses and unions scheduled to take place on Wednesday continued until late on Thursday, with Translink finally announcing on Friday morning that the industrial action was off. The 48-hour strike would have seen technical staff at Northern Ireland Railways and clerical and management workers at Ulsterbus walk out first thing on Friday, and not return to work until Sunday morning. Union the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) stated Translink “made last minute offers ahead of walkouts due to start at midnight” after extensive talks with the company over two days at the Labour Relations Agency. The offers will now be put to TSSA members across the relevant groups, with the union reinforcing that the pay dispute isn’t over yet, despite all planned industrial action being called off. Said TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust: “We feel that sufficient progress has been made with Translink to suspend the planned strikes.”