Friday 16:00 Heuston-Cork reservation only

[plant43]

There are signs up in Heuston Station indicating that from today, the 16:00 Heuston - Cork will be reservation only on Fridays.

[Mark Gleeson]

This seems to be part of the culture change plan to get people to book ahead. The booking system is not booking for coaches B, F or G so its not reservation only.

Over 130 seats available to book and a further 150 which can't be booked, could be interesting to see what happens in Heuston tonight.

[plant43]

This was eventually deferred until this Friday.

Notice about it on the website now too

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/...ew&news_id=762

Iarnród Éireann is to pilot a Reservation Only service on the Dublin-Cork Intercity route from this Friday 21st May 2010.

The initial service selected is the 16.00hrs Heuston / Cork each Friday until further notice.

The pilot is being undertaken to gauge customer views on reservation only trains, particularly at times of high demand.

By providing this train at one of our periods of highest demand, all customers will be able to plan their travel in advance and assure themselves of a seat at times of peak demand. We have expanded frequency in recent years to an hourly service on the Cork route to meet demand, but reservations-only trains are a feature of rail travel in other countries, and we want to give our customers this opportunity and assess feedback.

This train will be available to be fully reserved on the web. Passengers who book online for this train will receive their Seat Reservation as part of their booking at no charge. Passengers with pre-existing valid tickets (e.g. return portion of open return ticket, season ticket or other travel pass) may avail of the Seat Reservation facility on www.irishrail.ie and reserve their seat on this train. In this instance, the existing “reservation only” option from the website, with a charge of €3, applies.

Customer service staff and duty manager will supervise the reservations-only arrangements. While all customers are encouraged to reserve seats on all Intercity services at peak times, both to reserve a seat and to get our best fares, those customers without reservations seeking to travel from Heuston to Cork on Friday evenings should travel on services other than the 16.00hrs Heuston to Cork. With the hourly timetable, there are a wide range of departure times available.

[Mark Gleeson]

Coaches B, F and G still not reservable online

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Coaches B, F and G still not reservable online

For use by Doom players only.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Coaches B, F and G still not reservable online

F & G now reservable, still B is not reservable

Does this finally mean we can go to the dining car for dinner and return to our seats just like the rest of the world?

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Does this finally mean we can go to the dining car for dinner and return to our seats just like the rest of the world?

I used do that all the time back on the mark 3s before reservations were invented

[finnyus]

How is this going?

I just booked a seat for my dad on it today and there were still a lot of seats not reserved. What is the story with it? Passengers with seat reservations are allowed on first, then anyone else?

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by finnyus

Passengers with seat reservations are allowed on first, then anyone else?

Well, strictly speaking, that should be the way it is already, but I imagine, yes.

[Eddie]

18 hours to go before the next 1600 Friday departure leaves and of the 5 reservable coaches you could get all those with reservations currently into one coach.

Is this train going down half empty?

As usual the 7pm (€20 ticket) train is fully booked for the 3 reservable coaches.

[plant43]

It's no longer reservation only, it's now reservation priority (which was Colm points out is the way it should be already).