The current system is staying in place on the pure and simple grounds that its a public service and the public have the right to turn up and expect to be accommodated. There is a fundamental requirement that the booking office can always issue a ticket and that ticket is charged at a fare appropriate for the journey being undertaken
At the moment the fare layout is structured such that unless you know exactly how it works you are likely to get ripped off by up to 30 euro, which is impressive when you consider the maximum day return fare is 65.50. The journeys in question are so rarely made they go unnoticed. Regardless of any fancy yield managed system all these glitches have to be fixed.
The vast bulk of the country still hasn't got decent internet access (myself and Tom live with phone lines so poor even modem dial up is flaky) which makes using web sales as the primary sales method unacceptable. Irish Rail manage to charge more online than at the station in a long list of cases
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