Carrick on Shannon and buying train tickets online

[fergalfrog]

"It's easier by train"

...yet despite it being a year from my last post on this thread Irish Rail have still not bought a printer for Carrick on Shannon.

It still remains that a €50 printer is all that is needed.

Cancel one of those costly ads on tv and it really will be easier by train.

[Mark Gleeson]

In March 2011 we were asked for a list of places for a TVM to go

In order of priority (my list of fitted stations could be out of date)

1. ******* prize if you guess the first one
2. All stations Cobh Cork, Cobh urgently for coming Summer season cruise ships.
3. Rosslare Europort - entry point to country
4. Kilcoole (+ Smartcards)
5. Edgeworthstown (frequent issue with Sligo line booking)
6. Kilcock
7. Enfield
8. Carrick on Shannon
9. Rathdrum
10. Thomastown
11. Muine Bheag
12. Arklow
13. Ballymoate
14. Collooney

I understand the machines are due shortly.

A printer may be cheap but it requires staff on duty to operate, while a ticket machine will work 24/7 and can cope with credit/debit cards

[Jamie2k9]

Most passengers getting on at Thomastown are travling for free. Very few trains have ticket checkers and some that do they don't come around and check them.

[Thomas Ralph]

Is the top one Broombridge?

[Mark Gleeson]

nope, no one is willing to waste money on Broombridge yet

[Traincustomer]

Regarding the TVM for Enfield is it known if it'll be at platform or car park level? I consider the platform there to be somewhat secluded and one of the bins (on platform) was burnt out. Personally I think the TVM should be at car park level proximate to the steps leading down to the platform.

[fergalfrog]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

A printer may be cheap but it requires staff on duty to operate

The staff are there already and on duty. All I am asking is that it be similar to other stations whereby you can pick up your ticket when the ticket office is open.

This problem could be so easily fixed and as verified by a member of Irish Rail staff all that is needed is a €50 printer.

Wake up Irish Rail.

[Thomas Ralph]

Is Ck-on-Shannon networked?

[Mark Gleeson]

It should be but given the lack of a TVM might not be

The opening hours of Carrick On Shannon do not cover all trains and indeed the station is closed for lunch on weekends which reinforces the need for a ticket vending machine.

It must be noted that booking office collection is being phased out. Only the tickets issued by the ticket machines will work the barriers.

110 of 145 stations have ticket collection facilities

[jacko]

still no TVM at Cobh with impossible queues on mornings when cruise liners are in

Revenue Protection boys facing near impossible task on board trying to write out tickets for tourists after they are all ushered on to the trains ticketless asit departs

Booking Office also closes at 2.30pm so considerable revenue loss if no check en route to Cork

In good news- Cobh Booking Office now takes credit cards

[Mark Gleeson]

Cobh is near top of our list. Every entry point to the country should have a machine.

To be fair there is a second hut in place to sell tickets on the cruise ship visit days and staff are deployed.

Still no one has guessed which station is missing a ticket machine, hint its rather busy

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Cobh is near top of our list. Every entry point to the country should have a machine.

In my opinion every entry point to the country should have a booking office staffed at all times that trains are operating. Customers highly value face-to-face contact in these situations. A vending machine is important, but not as important as having staff on show.

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Still no one has guessed which station is missing a ticket machine, hint its rather busy

Farranfore?

[James Howard]

The patchwork nature of TVM availability, booking office opening and credit card facilities is crazy. How is a tourist supposed to know how (or indeed if) he can pay for a ticket?

Over the winter, Edgeworthstown booking office closed before 19:30 on Thursdays and Fridays but was open on Mondays and Tuesdays. Whatever about customers valuing face-to-face contact, a bit of consistency would be a start. In really cold weather it was kind of handy having the booking office open as you could get hot water from the toilet to clear the car windscreen when the inside had frozen but I guess that this isn't a core part of the service.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by James Howard

In really cold weather it was kind of handy having the booking office open as you could get hot water from the toilet to clear the car windscreen when the inside had frozen but I guess that this isn't a core part of the service.

My mother's neighbour doing this put me in the hospital!

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by James Howard

The patchwork nature of TVM availability, booking office opening and credit card facilities is crazy. How is a tourist supposed to know how (or indeed if) he can pay for a ticket?

Quite so. In the UK there is a franchise standard that all booking offices, TVMs, and guards must be able to accept Visa, MasterCard, UK Maestro, American Express, and JCB. And they do — the guards all carry around little Chip & PIN machines. Contrast this to Ireland, where credit card acceptance on-train is at best non-existent and at worst a ticket checker writing down people's card details on a scrap of paper and processing them later. Unless you're on an NIR-crewed Enterprise, as they carry card terminals (and accept American Express, which IÉ does not, but not Laser).

In the interest of tourists, IÉ should have card acceptance facilities at all staffed stations (you only need a phone line, which they all have).

A point I've also made several times before is that there is a large hole in ticket purchasing rules for where a passenger wants to purchase a ticket from a TVM-only station but the TVM doesn't sell the ticket (perhaps it's a season ticket, a ticket from another station, 16-25 Railcard ticket, whatever). Irish passengers are left in legal limbo and are faced with the choice of paying more than they need to or attempting to buy on train or at destination and risking a €100 fine.

Originally Posted by James Howard

In really cold weather it was kind of handy having the booking office open as you could get hot water from the toilet to clear the car windscreen when the inside had frozen but I guess that this isn't a core part of the service.

You really shouldn't use hot water, as Colm mentions. Cold water will be fine.

[James Howard]

In fairness, it isn't all sweetness and light in other countries. In my experience German TVMs seem to have difficulty with Irish credit cards (although perhaps they are just being sensible).

In the last two winters if you tried pouring cold water onto the windscreen at minus 12 degrees at Edgeworthstown where the station is in a frost pocket, you would just end up with a sheet of ice. It is perfectly fine to pour hot water on a car windscreen but it most definitely is not fine to pour boiling water on the windscreen. Up to about 60 degrees won't do any harm.

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by James Howard

In fairness, it isn't all sweetness and light in other countries. In my experience German TVMs seem to have difficulty with Irish credit cards (although perhaps they are just being sensible).

Most German TVMs (and many German businesses) don't take credit cards at all, only debit cards.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

You really shouldn't use hot water, as Colm mentions. Cold water will be fine.

/shakes fist!

[James Howard]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

Most German TVMs (and many German businesses) don't take credit cards at all, only debit cards.

Maybe that's why mine didn't work then. They didn't work with a colleague's English card either. I had put it down to chip and PIN incompatibility. It is a bit rubbish given that debit cards don't work terribly well internationally.

[peterh]

Originally Posted by fergalfrog

Does anyone know when Irish Rail plan to allow tickets to be bought online for Carrick on Shannon? I have just moved to Carrick and it seems the only way to buy tickets is at the station. This means you lose out on online specials which are often 50% cheaper.

Can you buy a Sligo ticket (currently 10euro each way) and still get on in Carrick?

Thanks in advance.

I heard a friend of mine said that you can order the €10 single ticket to Dublin from Sligo but you can get on at any of the stations between the 2 main stations and get away with it. It sounds only fair tho. Why is it that a €10 fare to Dublin from Sligo is possible but a €10 fare to Dublin from Boyle, Dromod or Carrick, towns that are closer to Dublin than Sligo is, isn't?