Online Fare Changes from Monday 25 Feb
 

Passengers travling to Limerick, Cork, Tralee or Ennis must now book online fares 7 days in advance and not 3 days

To me this move suggests Irish Rail are getting plenty of higher revenue between 3 days and day of travel so they want to maximize this. Just wonder if these could drive some passengers away.

No changes to Galway, Waterford, Mayo, Sligo or Rosslare time frame yet.

http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_offers.jsp?i=4577

This has been flagged since Christmas, all the posters have 7 days advance booking required

Note cheapest Cork fare is now 19.99

Booking fees are somewhere in the process of going as well

Little suprised Galway not included in that bunch but then when you think about it, they will lose Galway passengers easier than the likes of Limerick, Tralee or Cork.

It's 11-12 weeks over here...

19.99 fare to Cork is not available at certain times, any peaks times like Friday afternoon, Sunday etc are now all 32.99 no matter how long booked in advance.

you would expect that since they are always going to be selling those seats. Webfares are a tool only to get a return from those seats you would never be able to sell otherwise.

You would expect it but I don't expect that passengers traveling home on Friday afternoon and back on Sunday are going to start an extra €22 weekly. On line its now €64.99 to do a weekend trip booked 7 days in advance, it now defeats the on line fare purpose as a ticket from station isn't much more and there is greater flexibility.

Irish Rail always go one step to far with ticketing pricing and restarting peak online fares will not have good affects.

It doesn't defeat the purpose of an on-line fare at all which is to extract the greatest possible revenue from every seat on every train while reducing the cost of sale. Peak Friday afternoon tickets shouldn't be sold off for a pittance if you want the railway to stay in business.

Friday evening is the only time the discounted fare is not available and only then on the 15:00-19:00 trains, the 14:00 & 21:00 are still offering the discount.

There are no restrictions on Sunday

52.98 is the cheapest return in that case, which is still significantly less than the cash fare.

The entire point is to discourage passengers from traveling on already busy services and push them towards other services which have spare capacity.

Same with Thurles as well you now have to book 7 days in advance to get the cheapest fare of €14.99. Between the 27th-5th you save zero on fares. €43+€3 booking fee (€2 laser) Thurles-Dublin is €46 in the booking office.

Booking office fares from Thurles are
Single is 38.00
Day return is 46.50
Monthly return is 51.50

Online fare is 14.99/24.99 single

It's only €14.99 if booked 7 days in advanced though. If you are buying a ticket today you will need to book it for the 6th to get the €14.99 fare. Between today and the 5th is €24.99 single and €43 return online + €2-3 so you will only save a maximum of €1.50. Day saver fares are gone too sine January.

We are on the busiest most profitable line in the country and we still get ripped off compared to other towns and cities. We have no choice here in Thurles but to use it. If I lived in Cork/Limerick I would have switched to the bus long ago.

Booking fee is also on the way out.

The trains are hardly bursting with crowds on board, maybe its time to push OAP's to services with spare capacity and not have people paying extra to accommodate them.

Is there a date for the abolition of booking fees? This seems to have been mentioned/promised repetitively over the last year.

Sounds like you have 'ageism issues'. :D

Another way of looking at is that the DSP should pay something close to full price for in-demand services.

All other Intercity that currently have 3+ days for the cheapest fares will change to 7+ days from 3 April. No prices changes.

Yip all change. Went to book my ticket for the weekend to Sligo up to 21.99 from 14.99, have to book a week in advance now, unbelievable.

Ryan-Rail now....

its a price increase by stealth and is a disgrace.

I don't think its a major issue as trains have a core customer base:
1 - Passengers who travel weekly on same train at same time and same day. (people who work in Dublin during the week)
2 - Passengers who go on weekends away. (plan few weeks in advance)
3 - Passengers who travel daily or certain days to Dublin on same train at same time.

This will only affect people who are not organized or have a last minute trip which is fair in my book.

It would be good to see stats for the Cork and Tralee lines to see if they have (A) lost passengers and (B) the peak Friday prices since it started in Feb.

Price to Cork and Tralee went down in the change

I mean the 7 day changes so are passengers booking earlier, paying more or using other transport. Clearly it must of worked with the others following.

Notice peak Friday afternoon services accross the board now have higher fares. Can see why they have done it with them needing to close the gaps in finances but I don't think all these fare changes within weeks is the way to go.

Also on other days selected services are higher to. Example 10.15 and 13.15 to Waterford on Saturdays and 11.00 from Waterford everyday.

Two words: Supply and demand.

http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_offers.jsp?i=4847

Private bus operates must of lead to this.

They do this every summer. In 2011 it was only €35 return special. As for competition I see the GoBe a lot on the motorway and it's never that full. Last week on one service that passed me it only had 3-5 people on it. Aircoach the X8 it's all the same very few passengers. It might have stolen a few passengers from Iarnród Éireann but it's not like the trains are leaving Cork empty. Busy stops like Limerick Junction, Thurles, Portlaoise the numbers taking the train are increasing all the time.

The buses mightn't be full, but there are a lot of them and they don't all have only 3-5 passengers.

And yes the trains are'nt empty leaving Cork but they don't have hundreds of passengers either. Would guess loadings out of Cork for Dublin would be somehere in the range of 500 to 900 per day.

The main impact of the coaches is for people going to Dublin Airport. It no longer makes sense to take the train to Heuston and connect when it takes another hour to get to the airport between waiting for the bus and the slightly odd route used by it.

Having actually used them occasionally, it seems not many people are using the buses to go to Dublin itself. Take 20 minutes off the train journey time and I doubt many would at all.

I'd be interested to see how they do as unlike Galway, Waterford, Wexford etc., there is a fairly significant time lag for Dublin-bound passengers relative to the train, while Cork Airport has 40+ direct destinations, reducing the demand for direct access to Dublin Airport.

9.99 fares back on selected Cork services.

http://www.irishrail.ie/999

Strangely, €9.99 fares available Dublin to / from Mallow and Cork, but same trains on shorter journeys to / from Thurles and Limerick Junction are not maxed out at the same fare.

They don't have any real competition at LJ or Thurles.

I've just noticed that myself and that is odd. Would it be allowed to buy a ticket to Cork and then get off at Limerick? It is quite a steep price increase. :eek:

I am pleased the €9.99 Cork fare is back though. :D

You would have no ticket between Thurles/Limerick Junction and Limerick, and it's also a violation of the byelaws to end your journey short of your destination where the fare for the intermediate journey is higher. You could be issued a penalty fare for €151.50 or prosecuted.

You could be, but if you get off / on at an unmanned intermediate station or if you change trains and hold a valid onward ticket for the next segment of your journey, I'd say the chances were slim to none.

You read in the UK of fines being imposed on those who get off early, but this is most likely to happen at busy mainline stations where there are ticket barriers and the passenger knows that their ticket won't work, and is therefore forced passed a ticket inspector.

In the past here in Ireland I don't think it's been an issue with on-line fares because there has always been this "max-ing" out on shorter journeys. As pointed out, it becomes a problem because the longer journey needs to compete with other forms of transport which are not necessary on the shorter journeys.