online ticket price rip off - Clonmel Dublin

[Colm Donoghue]

online price day return Clonmel to Dublin 52euros
on the train price 20 something euros according to pricewatch in todays irish times.
I'll post it all up when I go home.

[Mark Gleeson]

Online doesn't do promotional fares

It is correct the opposite way around
http://www.platform11.org/passenger_...ng.php#weird_1

[packetswitch]

Here's the rail-relevant bit (full article at http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/pri...43028473.html). What puzzles me is that according to the journalist, the customer said:

"When I was given the choice of stations to choose from, Clonmel did not feature, so I could not proceed."

and also

"The cost for an adult fare day return was €52"

How could he not proceed yet still get a €52 fare out of the system?

Adriaan Bartels got in touch to alert us to an anomaly in Irish Rail's online pricing apparatus, which he noticed recently while booking travel from Co Tipperary to Dublin to attend an exhibition.

"As I live in Clonmel, I decided to try the train and do the trip in one day. There is only one train out of Clonmel in the morning that takes you to Limerick Junction to connect to Dublin and one that leaves Dublin to allow for a connection back to Clonmel, but all the timings suited me fine," he writes.

Figuring that it would be better to be organised, he decided to book his tickets online the day before he was due to travel. After arranging his seat, he was asked to pay, and also asked where he'd like to collect his tickets.

"When I was given the choice of stations to choose from, Clonmel did not feature, so I could not proceed. The cost for an adult fare day return was €52. I decided not to buy the ticket online and wait until I got to the station."

And he was glad he did. "The station was closed at that hour but I was able to buy the ticket from the very friendly and chatty conductor on the way to Limerick Junction. He assured me that even though our train was late that there was no way we would miss our connection to Dublin." Bartels had his €52 ready for him but when the conductor gave him the ticket he said it would be €20.50. "I asked him was this each way and he said no, that was a special price for the adult fare day return. I couldn't stop smiling all the way to Dublin," he writes, adding that he has now been convinced not to use the internet for his tickets as the only way to get the special prices would appear to be to buy the ticket on the train.

We contacted Irish Rail to find out more about this anomaly. A spokesman said the fare which was available to our reader on the train was "a local promotional fare" and as a result was not included on the centralised website. "Situations like this are very rare," the spokesman said.

[Mark Gleeson]

Clonmel is not on the booking system you can't start a journey from there with a reserved ticket unless you book a week in advance since the ticket must be sent by post

And its not unusual we know a few weird journeys, entire point is the website should always return the correct fare at all times

[Colm Donoghue]

By correct, you mean cheapest right.

[Thomas J Stamp]

adding that he has now been convinced not to use the internet for his tickets as the only way to get the special prices would appear to be to buy the ticket on the train.

He should take a photo proving that his station is closed prior to doing that. We dont want him to get a special price on the train ie a fine.

[zag]

I think it's time to start using smilies on some of these posts. It's a bit hard to know whether some of these comments are straight up or not, or whether they are supposed to be accompanied by shoulder shrugs and sighs.

For example - Mark, you say that "you can't start a journey from there with a reserved ticket . . .", but looked at from a purely logical viewpoint (i.e. the viewpoint of Joe Customer) this place is a station, trains stop there, they pick up passangers, they drop them off again, where's the problem ? We should be asking why the station isn't in the ticketing system instead of just stating that it's not possible to book a reserved seat from there.

Same goes for the childrens fare from a vending machine issue. I appeciate the clarification that they don't sell them and *I* won't waste my time trying to get one next time, but shouldn't we be trying to get IE to get their act together and make these things work ?

I can just see a whole heap of IE David Brents sitting around saying things like . . . "Oh yeah, well we could sell those tickets from that station or from that machine, but then, you know, that would give the punters the upper hand and the secret in sales is to always keep a few surprises up your sleeve"

z

[Mark Gleeson]

IE plain don't care, case in point is the 90 bus add on, still waiting

IE failed to lock out all stations where booking is not permitted, stick in any station on the Sligo line

You can book starting in Clonmel if you book far enough in advance and get the tickets posted out the example here was too close to travel date for that, without a booking office they can't be printed, they need to be hooked up to the booking system and Clonmel clearly lacks that. No point really since the booking system can't understand the A-B is not B-A fares IE use.

There is no legal avenue since the ticket sold online is not the same as the one sold at the station, its a different set of conditions and since it has value add, as in a reserved seat (yeah I know its unlikely to be there but still) its not the same

I would point I posed a question to Veolia on the fact no fewer than 4 tickets are missing off the Luas TVM, they never replied

[dowlingm]

On VIA Rail you pick up your reserved ticket at the station. Here's how it works - go up to the portal, present the printed online receipt. It scans the barcode then asks you to swipe the credit card for verification. It prints the ticket and spits it out. In the event that a reservation change was made by phone you go to the ticket desk as the portal can't issue it for some bizarre reason.

IE should have TVMs with a similar facility without the farce of posting tickets FFS.

[Mark Gleeson]

You could never justify a TVM in somewhere like Clonmel the demand is in single digits. IE system requires only a credit card

Ticketless travel is under consideration but that hits issues with Luas and Bus connections and exit validation

[ACustomer]

Waterford-Dublin return tickets vary between €23.50 and €30.00. Clonmel - Dublin distance is about 20% more than Waterford-Dublin by rail, although the more direct road distances are within 10% of each other. Moreover the quality of service from Clonmel is cr*p by comparison with Waterford. So no wonder the trains don't attract many punters.

However the real kiler is that Limerick Junction to Waterford is closed on Sundays (and public holidays) thereby making it useless for the weekend trade. It is practically unique in this respect: even the Nenagh line has a Sunday service of sorts.

Why? because it was always thus, and because it would be too much bother to change anything. Surely weekend traffic should be all-impportant for a fairly slow route like Clonmel-Dublin (it's hardly going to attract the executive travel market)

[dowlingm]

Mark G - if the service, including ticketing, was better more than single digits would travel, no? Maybe there's a bit more demand since clockface?