Proper, sensible discounted fares online finally

[Mark Gleeson]

Finally after nearly 2 years some sense has finally prevailed inside Irish Rail, you get a discount if you book and travel on off peak trains. No longer is it stupidly biased

And yes you can mix and match a discounted fare with a non discounted one. Just don't use Dublin City Centre as a destination since you miss out

Pity none offered on Friday/Saturday/Sunday there are plenty of empty seats in the morning out of Dublin

Great Web Prices-Intercity Sale Now On by Corporate & eMarketing

Irishrail.ie is delighted to announce even lower single fares on its website.

Dublin Heuston to Cork €16

Dublin Heuston to Tralee €16

Dublin Heuston to Ennis €13

Dublin Heuston to Limerick €13

Dublin Heuston to Galway €12

Dublin Heuston to Westport €12

Dublin Heuston to Kilkenny €8

Dublin Heuston to Waterford €8

Only on Irishrail.ie

Fares are available in either direction on selected trains and are only available on irishrail.ie. These fares are not available at the booking office of your local station.

These fares are available Monday to Thursday on the following trains.

Dublin to Cork 09.00/10.00/11.00/12.00/13.00/19.00/20.00/21.00

Cork to Dublin 10.30/11.30/12.30/13.30/14.30/15.30/18.30/19.30/20.30

Dublin to Waterford 07.30/09.30/10.00/11.30

Waterford to Dublin 10.45/13.15/15.00/18.25

Limerick to Dublin 05.35/06.35/11.55/12.35/14.15/15.55/19.50

Dublin to Limerick 09.25/10.00/11.25/12.00/20.00/21.00

Dublin to Tralee 09.00/11.00/13.00/20.00

Tralee to Dublin 09.15/11.15/13.15/17.15/19.15

Dublin to Galway 07.10/09.10/11.10/19.15

Galway to Dublin 10.50/13.10/15.05

Dublin to Westport 08.20/12.40

Westport to Dublin 13.10/18.05

Exclusion dates will apply to these fares and they are subject to online availability.

[MOH]

Although it does still list Student/Weekender tickets at a higher rate than the basic Adult ones.

[Thomas Ralph]

Well if people want to pay more than they need to, having been offered the opportunity not to, it's not really IÉ's job to stop them, is it?

[Laois Commuter]

The beginning of the end of the walk-on railway, as in the UK. RIP.

LC

[Mark Hennessy]

Originally Posted by Laois Commuter

The beginning of the end of the walk-on railway, as in the UK. RIP.

LC

The thin end of the wedge?

You think IE will be allowed to implement a new model based on expensive same day fares? I think the DoT bean counters set the prices still. Although in these tougher economic times, I wouldn't rule it out.

If so, they had better get the seat reservations in order, the trains hosts out of the guards car and start enforcing seating and numbers on the inter city trains.

[Mark Gleeson]

Its not, unlike the UK Irish Rail can't increase the open single and open return fares without the DoT ok not more than 5% pa, so we are saved from the £150 Liverpool London mess. Average fares can only go down with yield management, plus it solves the single fare issue

Standard return of 64.50 to Cork is still fairly cost competitive with Ryanair and Aer Arann, 32 return kills them and will start to scare Aircoach and Bus Eireann who can't compete on time

There are still a whole pile of discounted day tickets available on the day

[MOH]

Originally Posted by tralph

Well if people want to pay more than they need to, having been offered the opportunity not to, it's not really IÉ's job to stop them, is it?

No, but I'd expect a competent IT system not to charge more on a cheaper ticket tranche when the main tranche is discounted (if that makes any sense?)

Of course, I wouldn't expect IE to have a competent IT system.

[Mark Gleeson]

Its really simple, simple piece of code would simply compare the student/weekender/faircard with adult and not display the option if the adult was cheaper

Take about 30 seconds to write the code

[Colm Moore]

A question - are these tickets only valid on the specific train - if you miss your train you have to buy another ticket? If so, they are worth a lot less than a normal ticket.

The text of the notice has been change, some of it semantic - these are the material changes.

Originally Posted by Old

Fares are available in either direction on selected trains

These fares are not available at the booking office of your local station.

Originally Posted by New

*These fares are available Monday to Thursday on the following trains

(these fares are not available from booking office or telesales):

*These fares are standard class fares only.

Terms and conditions apply.

[Sealink]

I'm not a regular user of Irish Rail, so feel bad about slagging them off, but making special fares available only online is another headache. Effectively penalising people who don't have regular access to the internet.

Even in the mess of fares over here, "Advance" tickets can be bought online or at the station (this system is far from perfect, as the quota system is heavily biased towards railcard holders) and I think it's churlish of Irish Rail to restrict their cheapest fares to online booking.

I suppose the reasoning behind it is fair - they probably don't need more people at stations queueing for tickets in advance. But if that is the case, then er, get more staff.

[Thomas Ralph]

Well, it's a defect arising from there basically being three different types of physical ticket, the various colour ones from the staff-operated ticket machines, the orange and white ones from TVMs, and the bluish ones which are prebooked and have reserved seats etc. The staff machines can issue tickets in 30-45 seconds (faster if you happen to buy one of the tickets on their 9 preset buttons) whereas it takes 3-4 minutes to issue the bookings. It's not entirely unreasonable to give people a break on fares when they have to commit to a certain train and don't use staff time putting in the booking.

[plant43]

Does anyone know if these fares are permanent? The signs about them in Heuston Station indicate that they are valid for the summer only.

[Mark Gleeson]

Summer ends Thursday, but Irish Rail have a slight problem with seasons

Longer term there are plans for proper yield managed fares.

I doubt you will find any other rail company which will give a 73% discount if you book up to 1 hour before departure. Obviously there are lots of empty trains out there not on the discount system currently

[Jferb]

Summer in the temperate region of the northern hemisphere actually ends on August 31st! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasons) So I'm more than a little concerned that this offer will vanish come September.

Modernising the IE fares-structure is way overdue. Perhaps they might also remove the nonsensical requirement for an id card for weekender fares while they're at it..

[Thomas Ralph]

Depends on who you ask. I was taught in school that it was May-July. And other opinions are June 21st-September 21st.

[Jferb]

May-July seems to be a prevailing opinion in this country. I'm just pointing out that IE wouldn't be wrong if they do indeed follow the international norm with regards the definitions of the seasons but at the end of the day all I care about is how long I'll be able to travel between Dublin and Tralee for €16!!

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by Jferb

May-July seems to be a prevailing opinion in this country. I'm just pointing out that IE wouldn't be wrong if they do indeed follow the international norm with regards the definitions of the seasons but at the end of the day all I care about is how long I'll be able to travel between Dublin and Tralee for €16!!

As long as Ryanair are charging 25.00 to Farrenfore aka Kerry International Airport

[Thomas Ralph]

The only airport in the ROI with a nearby train station!!

[dowlingm]

Nearby being a relative concept... isn't it something like 500m? Long way dragging a suitcase

[Jferb]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

Nearby being a relative concept... isn't it something like 500m? Long way dragging a suitcase

I've walked it myself on more than one occasion, it takes about 10 minutes! And at least now there's a lit footpath the entire way, before one had to compete with traffic on a busy road without a hard shoulder!! Not for the faint-hearted but it didn't seem to bother the hordes of German backpackers..