Irish Rail/Iarnrod Eireann cuts some fares by 50%

marmurr1916

Fair play to IE: they've cut some fares on some routes to/from Dublin by 50%.

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

Tickets are available on selected departures (in both directions) from Monday-Thursday and must be bought online via www.irishrail.ie

Full details here:

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=402

Hopefully a decent amount of tickets will be available at these fares and they'll remain in place for a long while.

It would be great if IE went one further and brought in discounted tickets for people who book in advance - the more in advance, the greater the discount.

This was done for French TGV trains (after opposition from some unions) and it's been a great success.

Chris_533976

Fair play to them. Ryanair and Aer Arann will feel the effects of this, thats for sure.

marmurr1916

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Fair play to them. Ryanair and Aer Arann will feel the effects of this, thats for sure.

Hadn't thought of that! I wonder why they didn't reduce fares on the Dublin-Sligo and Dublin-Wexford routes (I assume they can't reduce Dublin-Belfast fares without agreement from Northern Ireland Railways)?

I hope they do this and bring in significantly reduced fares for off-peak travel on all services.

fh041205

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Hadn't thought of that! I wonder why they didn't reduce fares on the Dublin-Sligo and Dublin-Wexford routes (I assume they can't reduce Dublin-Belfast fares without agreement from Northern Ireland Railways)?

I hope they do this and bring in significantly reduced fares for off-peak travel on all services.

Belfast should be alright. Translink did it up the North recently with 10 pound day returns to dublin while there was no reduction in the South.

kerry4sam

That's massive value ... I handed over 178euros to Aer Arann to get to Dublin 2days ago

Run_to_da_hills

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Fair play to them. Ryanair and Aer Arann will feel the effects of this, thats for sure.

This is probably the reason they are doing i


Like Ryanair I think that any online booking service that offers reduced fares over office bookings discriminates against the itinerant community because most of these people are computer illiterate.

markpb

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Like Ryanair I think that any online booking service that offers reduced fares over office bookings discriminates against the itinerant community because most of these people are computer illiterate.

It also allows them to predict load factors and operate more efficiently. If they weren't IE, it would allow them to better serve customer needs/demand.

MOH

These are just temporary sale fares though, aren't they? Not a permanent reduction.

marmurr1916

MOH wrote: »

These are just temporary sale fares though, aren't they? Not a permanent reduction.

The off-peak reductions on these routes are permanent going by the information available on the IE website.

MOH

marmurr1916 wrote: »

The off-peak reductions on these routes are permanent going by the information available on the IE website.

That wuold be pretty good. I assumed it was temporary since the link in the OP starts with:

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

so I assumed it was a time-limited sale.

Ckal

So does that mean a return ticket is €24 from Galway-Dublin?! :D:D:D

KC61

Ckal wrote: »

So does that mean a return ticket is €24 from Galway-Dublin?! :D:D:D

Yes - depending on which trains you travel on.

heyjude

Looks like a clear example of cross-subsidisation to me. The return fare from Dublin to Galway(€12) or Dublin to Limerick(€13) is now less than a day return ticket from Kildare to Dublin(€15.50), despite being several times longer in distance ! Me thinks that Irish Rail are using revenue from the commuter belt to subsidise these ticket prices on intercity services and you never see such special offers on one off, off-peak travel between Kildare and Dublin,as you do on one off return journeys between Dublin and the other major cities, even though the trains in the commuter belt are much less busy outside of the morning and evening rush hour and could easily handle the extra traffic.

Based on these prices, it would make more sense for somebody travelling from Dublin to Kildare return to buy a return ticket to Kilkenny or Waterford both of which cost €8.

Ham'nd'egger

heyjude wrote: »

Based on these prices, it would make more sense for somebody travelling from Dublin to Kildare return to buy a return ticket to Kilkenny or Waterford both of which cost €8.

Only if you use a Waterford/Kilkenny bound service both ways; the ticket is unlikely to be accepted on a suburban service. The fares only cover certain services at certain off peak times and days so it isn't quite as easy as that; good try though

I should add that they are only available online and in the case of Waterford services, only on 07.30/ 09.30/ 10.00/ 11.30 outbound services to Waterford and inbound to Dublin on the 10.45/ 13.15/ 15.00/ 18.25 services.

fh041205

heyjude wrote: »

Looks like a clear example of cross-subsidisation to me. The return fare from Dublin to Galway(€12) or Dublin to Limerick(€13) is now less than a day return ticket from Kildare to Dublin(€15.50), despite being several times longer in distance ! Me thinks that Irish Rail are using revenue from the commuter belt to subsidise these ticket prices on intercity services and you never see such special offers on one off, off-peak travel between Kildare and Dublin,as you do on one off return journeys between Dublin and the other major cities, even though the trains in the commuter belt are much less busy outside of the morning and evening rush hour and could easily handle the extra traffic.

Based on these prices, it would make more sense for somebody travelling from Dublin to Kildare return to buy a return ticket to Kilkenny or Waterford both of which cost €8.

10.1 Subject to Condition 8, any passenger using a ticket for any station, either
beyond or short of that for which the ticket is valid will be liable to pay the full
ordinary single fare for the journey made and he or she may be liable to

prosecution.