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.