[KevR]

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/22080

Originally Posted by Galway Advertiser

Rail commuters are being ‘ripped off’ by ‘expensive tickets’ says Athenry Greens

Galway Advertiser, February 11, 2010.
By Kernan Andrews

Rail commuters in the west of Ireland are being “ripped off” by having to pay for “the most expensive commuter rail tickets” in the country.
This is the view of Green Party representative for Athenry Patrick Creed. According to Mr Creed, the cost of an annual rail ticket from Athenry to Galway is €1,230 while “tickets for the same distance” in the rest of the country are “much cheaper”.
“If you buy an annual commuter ticket from Maynooth to Dublin it costs €1,030.” he said, “and Cobh to Cork is just €830.”
Mr Creed contacted Irish Rail regarding the Athenry to Galway route and he said the response he was given was that the route “is not designated as a commuter route but Point to Point travel and is therefore more expensive”.
As a result, Mr Creed is asking if the stations on the New Western Rail Corridor are to be designated Point to Point or commuter?
“The opening of the M6 motorway is providing commuters with a real alternative to the train with fast safe access to the city,” he said. “For a couple or family, driving would be much cheaper than taking the train.”
Mr Creed said if Irish Rail “is serious about getting people to take the train” then commuters should expect to “pay the same as commuters in other parts of the country”.

I can't see Irish Rail offering Commuter rates from Craughwell or Gort unless they start to offer it from Athenry because trains coming from Craughwell and Gort will have to go through Athenry.

It's no wonder people don't use the train. A couple of people who work with my father live in Athenry and it would be quicker for them to get the train into Galway for work but it's too expensive when compared to driving. I travel to/from Athenry once or twice every week - I could walk to the train station and get the train but it's cheaper (and a bit quicker in my case as I usually travel off-peak) to drive.

Funny how parking in Galway City is also more expensive than Dublin City. People are getting ripped-off no matter what way they choose to travel.

[T Corolla]

I hate to side with Irish Rail but the train journey is non stop from Athenry to Galway so they would only have a market for one station but are offering a non stop journey from Athenry to Galway and the train is Intercity the Cork-Cobh service is a commuter carrage with stops on the way as is Dublin-Maynooth. In future they may reduce the price when the Limerick-Galway line comes online and the passenger number increase to meet demand.

[munchkin_utd]

its not actualy that dear.
1230 over 48 weeks works out at 25.60 a week
Thats about a fiver a day return
Or 2.50 each way!

And that's before you count in the tax benefits that you get with an annual ticket which makes it cheaper again.

Heck. If you are complaining about paying 2.50 all in to get to the city centre, think about those north of Kells commuting by car to Dublin. Their toll (when the motorway opens) will be about 2.50 each way, BUT thats on top of running a car incl. petrol/ insurance/ tax/ depreciation/ services/ tyres.

[JHMEG]

€1.73 each way between Cobh and Cork. That's very competitive.

[munchkin_utd]

alternatively, heres a handy calculator that shows the cost of yearly tickets after the tax benefit.
http://www.taxsaver.ie/en/Ticket-Cal...r/Calculators/

Athenry to Galway after tax is only €602.70 so works out at 12.50 a week or a mere
1.25 each way

**If you are only on say minimum wage you dont get the tax benefits. But on the other hand you dont pay tax anyways, so heck, youre doing well. I wouldnt mind a zero% tax rate either buddy!!

[Cookie_Monster]

Originally Posted by munchkin_utd

alternatively, heres a handy calculator that shows the cost of yearly tickets after the tax benefit.
http://www.taxsaver.ie/en/Ticket-Cal...r/Calculators/

Athenry to Galway after tax is only €602.70 so works out at 12.50 a week or a mere
1.25 each way

**If you are only on say minimum wage you dont get the tax benefits. But on the other hand you dont pay tax anyways, so heck, youre doing well. I wouldnt mind a zero% tax rate either buddy!!

Someone might want to show that to Patrick Creed.

[KevR]

Originally Posted by T Corolla

I hate to side with Irish Rail but the train journey is non stop from Athenry to Galway so they would only have a market for one station but are offering a non stop journey from Athenry to Galway and the train is Intercity the Cork-Cobh service is a commuter carrage with stops on the way as is Dublin-Maynooth. In future they may reduce the price when the Limerick-Galway line comes online and the passenger number increase to meet demand.

That is true about Cobh and Maynooth having stops into Cork and Dublin while Athenry is non-stop into Galway. But Maynooth and Cobh have much a higher frequency of trains (obviously as there are larger populations/greater demand). Is a non-stop service with a low frequency and very long waits between trains (sometimes a couple of hours) really better than a frequent service with some intermediate stops? I think you can argue that it's a worse service from Athenry and yet it costs more.

When the annual ticket is broken down into the cost of a single journey on a single day (€2.50/€1.25 after tax saver) it seems really cheap. But €1,230 is a lot of money up front, especially compared to €830. I think anyone paying for an annual ticket from Athenry would be well within their rights to be annoyed at the price difference. Also, not everyone uses the train everyday; some people use it occasionally. Single web fare from Athenry to Galway is €7! Don't know what it is if you buy in the station.

I think the opening of the Galway-Limerick line would be a good opportunity for Irish Rail to launch a commuter fare from Athenry (and maybe Craughwell and Gort). The extra trains running through Athenry will make it more attractive for commuters....if the price is right.

[patrick creed]

The issue is not complaining about paying ...it's to do with the inequality of commuter cost accross the rail network

Using the taxsaver calculator on Irish rail website

at tax rate of 41% the commuter ticket cost is


Athenry to Galway 22 km - 7 services per day
E602.70 /year

E12.55 / week ( based on 48 weeks)

E1.25 per journey ( based on 10 journeys per week)




Maynooth to Dublin 25 KM - 32 services per day
E504.70 /year


E10.50/ week ( based on 48 weeks)

E1.05 per journey ( based on 10 journeys per week)






Cork to Cobh 24 KM - 24 services per day
E406.70 /year

E8.47/ week ( based on 48 weeks)

E0. 84 per journey ( based on 10 journeys per week)



Athenry to Galway - Less Distance - Less services - higher costs


We want to encourage people to use the train ...to do that they must pay the same as commuters in other parts of the country taking similar distance services

[antoinolachtnai]

I think you have to take into account how expensive it is to actually run a rail service.

It is really really really expensive. You need a lot of volume to make it worthwhile. Even having a station attended and maintaining it costs a lot of money, maybe over 100,000 a year.

500 commuters from Athenry at that rate will only yield 600,000 euros in in revenue. There are only 3246 people in Athenry and it is unrealistic to expect anything like that level of patronage. You really cannot operate much of a train service for that price.

[JHMEG]

Galway has a population of 72,000 and Athenry has a population of 3,200. Aside from a few Govt offices there are shag all jobs in Galway city centre. I am curious as to how used a commuter service will be.

[penexpers]

The designation is important. As far as I am aware, Irish Rail get a higher subsidy per passenger for the commuter designated areas. I think the Green Party should be taking this up with Noel Dempsey.

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by antoinolachtnai

I think you have to take into account how expensive it is to actually run a rail service.

It is really really really expensive. You need a lot of volume to make it worthwhile. Even having a station attended and maintaining it costs a lot of money, maybe over 100,000 a year.

500 commuters from Athenry at that rate will only yield 600,000 euros in in revenue. There are only 3246 people in Athenry and it is unrealistic to expect anything like that level of patronage. You really cannot operate much of a train service for that price.

I guess that's the problem with public transport as a whole in this country - the cost to run services is unjustifiably high.

It's cheaper and quicker for me to drive to Galway and back from Dublin than take the train. And you don't have to put up with delays and broken-down trains/signal lights/whatever. Why would you bother?

[KevR]

Originally Posted by antoinolachtnai

I think you have to take into account how expensive it is to actually run a rail service.

It is really really really expensive. You need a lot of volume to make it worthwhile. Even having a station attended and maintaining it costs a lot of money, maybe over 100,000 a year.

500 commuters from Athenry at that rate will only yield 600,000 euros in in revenue. There are only 3246 people in Athenry and it is unrealistic to expect anything like that level of patronage. You really cannot operate much of a train service for that price.

500 commuters with an annual ticket would yield €600,000. As I said in my other post, not everyone has annually tickets. It's almost 3 times more expensive for a one-off single ticket purchased on the website.

Irish Rail have spent money on improving Athenry station quite recently. Improved parking facilities, 2 new lifts, a new/additional pedestrian bridge, information screens on platforms and more ticket machines. Clearly they think they can entice more people to use the train by improving facilities at the station. If they didn't think they could attract more passengers or if they didn't want to, they wouldn't have bothered carrying out these costly improvements.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that they could increase passenger numbers further, and revenue also, by lowering ticket prices. I think it would be worth giving it a go when the Limerick-Galway line opens (providing more trains per day through Athenry). If passenger numbers don't increase with the new lower fare, then they can revert to the higher fare to cover their costs with my blessing.

Ideally, the station in Oranmore would actually get built (with a Park and Ride). Passenger numbers would definitely increase significantly then. The Bus Park and Ride in Ballybrit over the last few Christmas periods was apparently a big success. There is talk of having a Bus Park and Ride off the M6 at Oranmore. I think it would be better to build the planned train station with a P&R. A Bus P&R won't be as attractive as the bus will get stuck in traffic at peak times. I think building an Oranmore train station and a seperate Bus P&R would be a mistake and a waste of money.

[dowlingm]

The reason there's a problem with catchment is that IE can't deploy feeder buses with integrated fares and which complement the train route counter-flow/off-peak. If you brought a GO Transit executive over and showed him a Galway/Cork/Limerick/Dublin rail commuter map he'd ask you "where's the rest of it" i.e. the buses which bring people to the railhead.



The area shown is approx 100km radius.

(sorry about the size of the linked image - don't know how to reduce it)

[JHMEG]

500 commuters

Is 500 commuters from a town of population 3,200 likely?

I would have thought 100 would be doing well.