Price of Trains I mean WTF!!!

Mr. Incognito

I took a train from Killarney to Dublin yesterday return. Almost coughed up the contents of my dinner €81.50 Return.

It's cheaper to rent a car in Killarney, fill her up. drive to Dublin and drive back. No joke!

I just check flights- last minute flights going tomorrow- 66 euro with Ryanair. cheaper to FLY!

CIE are losing a fortune becuase of their high prices and shoddy service and what do they do -Jack up the prices 30% -Are they TRYING to run it into the ground.

And what the fcuk are the greens doing- the bastions of public transport.

I'll be flying in future. What a joke.

L1011

there's an airport in killarney? Our train prices seem high till you see other eu countries anyway - they're actually among the cheaper.

talkingclock

i have moved to germany 5 weeks ago and it's like arriving eventually in the 21st century. the level of infrastructure, public transport and service makes me speechless. if they are able to run a reliable local bus service that sticks to a time table - why can't CIE???

for the train you can get a weekend ticked (valid one day either sat or sun until 3am the next morning) for €37 and you can travel as far and long as you want in local trains (which are btw far superior and even faster then IE's new "intercity" trains). you can make a round-trip from the alps to the baltic sea as long as you are back before 3am the next day!

in addition to that every bundesland (county) has his county ticket. like €6 for a roundtrip up to 50km or €19 for a day ticket for up to 5 adults!

if you book in advance via internet you can get tickets as cheap as €29 for a journey no matter what distance. and those tickets are for the high-speed trains that make everything back in heuston station look shoddy.

fh041205

You could try any of these........

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



The same as flying. Its cheap if you plan ahead. For the casual traveller or tourist it can sting quite a bit.

paulm17781

talkingclock wrote: »

i have moved to germany 5 weeks ago and it's like arriving eventually in the 21st century. the level of infrastructure, public transport and service makes me speechless. if they are able to run a reliable local bus service that sticks to a time table - why can't CIE???

Because our government have no real desire to invest in proper public transport. What we have is the bare essentials. Simple things like integrated ticketing would be a massive step in the right direction for us but the government won't pay the increased cost. It's not (really) CIE's fault. It's our government.

Run_to_da_hills

MYOB wrote: »

there's an airport in killarney? Our train prices seem high till you see other eu countries anyway - they're actually among the cheaper.

The OP hasn't bothered to check out online prices which can be up to half the price and cheaper.

schween

MYOB wrote: »

there's an airport in killarney? Our train prices seem high till you see other eu countries anyway - they're actually among the cheaper.

I've been on trains in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands so far...all were far cheaper and the service far better. I think we payed something like 30 or 40 euro to go from Brussels to Amsterdam once. And another time we payed about the same to get from Venice to Milan.
Trains in this country are outrageously overpriced and the service is crap. Galway to Belfast is €90. How is that justified?
Although I have to say I haven't been on one of the new trains yet.
I wonder how much the new Galway - Limerick train will be.
We're still not there yet, but we'll be there eventually, what's the hurry.

Fighting Irish

The reason its €81.50, is because people are paying it. People like you. But keep complaining, you're doing a great job!

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I took a train from Killarney to Dublin yesterday return. Almost coughed up the contents of my dinner €81.50 Return.

It's cheaper to rent a car in Killarney, fill her up. drive to Dublin and drive back. No joke!

I just check flights- last minute flights going tomorrow- 66 euro with Ryanair. cheaper to FLY!

CIE are losing a fortune becuase of their high prices and shoddy service and what do they do -Jack up the prices 30% -Are they TRYING to run it into the ground.

And what the fcuk are the greens doing- the bastions of public transport.

I'll be flying in future. What a joke.

L1011

schween wrote: »

I've been on trains in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands so far...all were far cheaper and the service far better. I think we payed something like 30 or 40 euro to go from Brussels to Amsterdam once.

That fare is now 51 euro on Thalys, booked as an advances offer. Would be dearer on the day.

KC61

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I took a train from Killarney to Dublin yesterday return. Almost coughed up the contents of my dinner €81.50 Return.

It's cheaper to rent a car in Killarney, fill her up. drive to Dublin and drive back. No joke!

I just check flights- last minute flights going tomorrow- 66 euro with Ryanair. cheaper to FLY!

CIE are losing a fortune becuase of their high prices and shoddy service and what do they do -Jack up the prices 30% -Are they TRYING to run it into the ground.

And what the fcuk are the greens doing- the bastions of public transport.

I'll be flying in future. What a joke.

As several posters point out, there are cheaper fares available online on many trains (standard Sunday online return fare is EUR 72), and can be as cheap as EUR 40 depending on which train you take.

As for a "shoddy service", well the Kerry line has never had as many trains as it currently has - 9 return trains on weekdays, with 8 offering connections to/from Dublin, and 7 return trains on Sundays (5 services from Dublin and 6 to Dublin).

KC61

talkingclock wrote: »

i have moved to germany 5 weeks ago and it's like arriving eventually in the 21st century. the level of infrastructure, public transport and service makes me speechless. if they are able to run a reliable local bus service that sticks to a time table - why can't CIE???

for the train you can get a weekend ticked (valid one day either sat or sun until 3am the next morning) for €37 and you can travel as far and long as you want in local trains (which are btw far superior and even faster then IE's new "intercity" trains). you can make a round-trip from the alps to the baltic sea as long as you are back before 3am the next day!

in addition to that every bundesland (county) has his county ticket. like €6 for a roundtrip up to 50km or €19 for a day ticket for up to 5 adults!

if you book in advance via internet you can get tickets as cheap as €29 for a journey no matter what distance. and those tickets are for the high-speed trains that make everything back in heuston station look shoddy.

I find it difficult to believe that the local trains in Germany are superior to the new Intercity railcars?

Until the new timetable is introduced, we are not going to see the improvements that the new railcars can deliver. This could be up to 20 minutes on the old schedules on certain routes.

People forget that train timetables change at fixed points in time, and not necessarily when new trains are introduced. We should see the new timetable be introduced in August and at that point the potential of the new railcars will be delivered.

D'Peoples Voice

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I took a train from Killarney to Dublin yesterday return. Almost coughed up the contents of my dinner €81.50 Return.

It's cheaper to rent a car in Killarney, fill her up. drive to Dublin and drive back. No joke!

I just check flights- last minute flights going tomorrow- 66 euro with Ryanair. cheaper to FLY!

CIE are losing a fortune becuase of their high prices and shoddy service and what do they do -Jack up the prices 30% -Are they TRYING to run it into the ground.

And what the fcuk are the greens doing- the bastions of public transport.

I'll be flying in future. What a joke.

I hear you brother, I was going from Dublin South East to Kinsale, and thankfully could book 6 weeks in advance (was also going down on a Friday morning and back monday morning).
A Ryanair flight was way cheaper BUT the waiting around in Dublin & Cork Airport negates the time savings!
Still the savings in the cost was the deciding factor for me to fly.

Flying is for the coping classes, the train is only for the bourgeoisie :-)

MOH

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

The OP hasn't bothered to check out online prices which can be up to half the price and cheaper.

I didn't believe the OP so I checked the online price for a return next sunday (coming back Monday) and it's 72 (+ 2 euro booking fee, so 74). Not an awful lot cheaper.

talkingclock

KC61 wrote: »

I find it difficult to believe that the local trains in Germany are superior to the new Intercity railcars?

have you ever seen one? seeing is believing!

Victor

There is a huge problem in this country with people preferring to travel from Dublin on Friday evenng and returning to Dublin on Sunday evening to the detriment of other services.

KC61 wrote: »

I find it difficult to believe that the local trains in Germany are superior to the new Intercity railcars?

In international terms, the 22000s are regional trains, not intercity.

ardmacha

There is a huge problem in this country with people preferring to travel from Dublin on Friday evenng and returning to Dublin on Sunday evening to the detriment of other services.

It is hardly a "problem" that people have jobs. Perhaps you'll be happier now that people are free to travel all day any day since they are unemployed.

Alun

ardmacha wrote: »

It is hardly a "problem" that people have jobs. Perhaps you'll be happier now that people are free to travel all day any day since they are unemployed.

But the whole "working in Dublin and going 'home' for the weekend" thing (which is what I think he was referring to) does seem, to me at least as one of those feelthy furriner types, to be a very Irish phenomenon. At least I've never come across it elsewhere to the degree I have here.

Vic_08

Victor wrote: »

In international terms, the 22000s are regional trains, not intercity.

In international terms all destinations apart from Belfast and maybe Cork are large regional towns at most.

People never tire of comparing major European links to our own but always ignore the simple fact that we do not have large cities to provide the passenger numbers that make high speed rail links viable at consistently low fares.

pointofnoreturn

Victor wrote: »

There is a huge problem in this country with people preferring to travel from Dublin on Friday evening and returning to Dublin on Sunday evening to the detriment of other services.In international terms, the 22000s are regional trains, not intercity.

And the Fair's increase on these days, no €15 offer either, i'd take it for €15 or 20 from Galway, but chose to take a bus or drive, They only introduced the new trains partly on the Galway line, I remember a friend and I refund our ticked because they ran the old train! we made our point to them that their efforts where still useless.

It's true the 22000's are Inter regional trains, even that said ,i've traveled on far better regional trains then what they got. + prices vs quality are still same price in the end, you can get a half-price + T7 card in Europe to travel free after 7pm, and 1/2 cost on all rail/tram/bus transport. CIE don't offer anything remotely similar
Also to make matter once, we have a different distance between the rails in Ireland, even if we wanted to buy second hand trains we can't!! unless retrofitted as our track gauge is bigger.

Damn it! and i wanted to buy one of those 80's orange TGV's

bill_ashmount

Alun wrote: »

But the whole "working in Dublin and going 'home' for the weekend" thing (which is what I think he was referring to) does seem, to me at least as one of those feelthy furriner types, to be a very Irish phenomenon. At least I've never come across it elsewhere to the degree I have here.

That'll never change. A hell of a lot of people have to move to Dublin for work but have no interest in being there other than that. I had to do it myself for a very small period of time, nightmare. Got out quick enough though

Singer73

Dublin to Cork, went last Sat, returned Sunday. Train every hour from Heuston, and half past every hour coming back. I used to take this quite a bit as a student and the service was ridiculous. This time the train left on time and arrived on time - I thought I was in a foreign country!
Granted, there is no dining car, and the trolley service is crap, and the staff don't give a toss, but to get from A to B in relative comfort, it was great.
€71.50 btw
IN reference to renting a car Op, after the first couple of hours, driving becomes a hassle. Add to that the traffic, and the frustration, not to mention the danger of other roadusers, and the train fare seems to be a bargain..

Judgement Day

Singer73 wrote: »

Dublin to Cork, went last Sat, returned Sunday. Train every hour from Heuston, and half past every hour coming back. I used to take this quite a bit as a student and the service was ridiculous. This time the train left on time and arrived on time - I thought I was in a foreign country!
Granted, there is no dining car, and the trolley service is crap, and the staff don't give a toss, but to get from A to B in relative comfort, it was great.
€71.50 btw
IN reference to renting a car Op, after the first couple of hours, driving becomes a hassle. Add to that the traffic, and the frustration, not to mention the danger of other roadusers, and the train fare seems to be a bargain..

Don't get it - no dining car, crap trolley service and the staff don't give a toss and for €71.50 you think that is great?? That is why CIE/IE get away with it - people like you are prepared to accept abysmal standards. :mad:

MOH

Victor wrote: »

There is a huge problem in this country with people preferring to travel from Dublin on Friday evenng and returning to Dublin on Sunday evening to the detriment of other services.

All of whom are have to pay more now with the withdrawal of Weekender fares, despite IR's claims that cheaper web fares make up for this.

seamus

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

It's cheaper to rent a car in Killarney, fill her up. drive to Dublin and drive back. No joke!

I just check flights- last minute flights going tomorrow- 66 euro with Ryanair. cheaper to FLY!

If both of these are cheaper options, then why didn't you take them?

I took the same train this weekend - Dublin - Killarney on Friday lunchtime, returned on Sunday afternoon. Cost us €74 return and it was well worth it. Hadn't been on an Irish train in 11 years and I was expecting the same crap carriages we had back then. I checked Ryanair and equivalent flights (i.e. around the same time of day) were coming out at roughly €130 return.
On top of that is the hassle of getting to Dublin airport, the hour waiting around, then the hassle of getting from Kerry airport to Killarney. Not to mention the hassle of Ryanair and their non-existent customer care.

The actual comfort of the transport is the big difference. You have a generous seat on the train. You have a large table in front of you. There were five of us on the train and we had a few beers and played poker all of the way down. At no time were we cramped or stuck for room, or left sitting there with no table and your rubbish on top of you because someone hasn't come by to collect it.

By all accounts, it was the equivalent of sitting in a small pub having a laugh for a couple of hours. If you needed to go to the toilet, you got up and went. If you needed something to eat, you got up and bought it - it wasn't cheap, but it wasn't Ryanair prices either. One of the lads even got to smoke when we pulled into stations.

I don't understand why people expect trains to be cheap. They're not cheap to run. What were you hoping for - €40 return? You wouldn't even get a taxi across Dublin for that price.

You pay for the comfort, simple as. If you want to get there in the shortest possible time, you fly. If you want to be able to leave and stop whenever you want, you take your car. If you're not fussed too much about time and you want to be able to relax, you take the train.

On the note of the Irish going "home" for the weekend, I'd say it's largely because we're a small country and you actually can go home for a short trip without it feeling like you spent half your time travelling. If you really wanted to, you could travel from Donegal to Waterford for half a day and still be home in your own bed that evening.
So I'd say this is why we're quite so eager to go home at the weekends.

Tbh though if it was me I would use a car for going home every single weekend. Public transport is great for incidental trips, but for regular journeys there's nothing like your own steam.

Cookie_Monster

Alun wrote: »

But the whole "working in Dublin and going 'home' for the weekend" thing (which is what I think he was referring to) does seem, to me at least as one of those feelthy furriner types, to be a very Irish phenomenon. At least I've never come across it elsewhere to the degree I have here.

Seemingly it happens quite a lot in Germany. A lot of the industrial cities basically empty at the weekend as people go home, as it is feasable to have a house in country and rent a cheap apartment for during the week in the city.
I can't back this up though, just going on what friends have told me from living there.

KevR

I find it amazing that Virgin Trains in England offer £1 single fares from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly on some mid-week services if you book online and print your ticket at home.

Granted it is only on the less busy services and I would imagine that it's only a very limited number of seats on each train for this price but still amazing to think that they offer these fares. I suppose it's like what Ryanair do - offer unbelievably low fares on a limited number of seats and subside these seats with regular/more expensive fares.

If you could be flexible at all and book in advance you could get one heck of a bargain there.

seamus

There are a number of important factors which prevent us from making comparisions with the UK, but the two most important are the population difference and the size difference.
They have 15 times as many people as we do, and they have much larger distances to traverse. Rail has always been considered a serious contender for travelling across their country and they've never had to dig up tracks to save money, leaving big chunks of the country without any rail at all. Not to mention the chunnel link with the continent.

It's a bit like wondering why Galway doesn't have two light rail tracks across the city charging €3 a pop.

amacachi

seamus wrote: »

It's a bit like wondering why Galway doesn't have two light rail tracks across the city charging €3 a pop.

Give it some time. :P

graduate

Seemingly it happens quite a lot in Germany.

Don't be quoting facts, it interferes with the anti-culchie prejudice on this forum.

Cookie_Monster

graduate wrote: »

Don't be quoting facts, it interferes with the anti-culchie prejudice on this forum.

No facts there, just random uncontrolled wanton speculation:D

dereko1969

I was just looking at trains from either Frankfurt or Dusseldorf to Hamburg there, thinking of heading to see Manchester City play on April 9th. The cheapest fare I could get was €120 return and that's booking 2 weeks ahead, the standard fare (for what is a similar journey time to Killarney from Dublin) is €220 which is what I would presume you'd pay if you decided to go into the station on the day.
Having said that I have previously gotten great fares on the TGV from Angouleme to Paris day return for €30 but that was off-peak.

thebman

Alun wrote: »

But the whole "working in Dublin and going 'home' for the weekend" thing (which is what I think he was referring to) does seem, to me at least as one of those feelthy furriner types, to be a very Irish phenomenon. At least I've never come across it elsewhere to the degree I have here.

Small country and people traveling to see parents and hang out with old friends.

I don't think being more social is a problem we should complain about really.

I don't think people should travel if they can't afford it either though. I don't go home every weekend and it is less than an hour from where I live. My parents give out to me all the time for it but I say I don't like to spend the time traveling which is true.

One of my friends from Donegal goes home every other weekend guaranteed and so does his brothers and sisters and they all go separately back up even though they all live within 20 miles of each other.

Can't really complain about costs if your getting up to these shenanigans IMO. Just go less often if you can't afford it. If everyone did this, Irish Rail would see a 50% drop in passenger numbers over two weekends and would wake up that their prices are too high.

Dob74

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I took a train from Killarney to Dublin yesterday return. Almost coughed up the contents of my dinner €81.50 Return.

It's cheaper to rent a car in Killarney, fill her up. drive to Dublin and drive back. No joke!

I just check flights- last minute flights going tomorrow- 66 euro with Ryanair. cheaper to FLY!

CIE are losing a fortune becuase of their high prices and shoddy service and what do they do -Jack up the prices 30% -Are they TRYING to run it into the ground.

And what the fcuk are the greens doing- the bastions of public transport.

I'll be flying in future. What a joke.

Its cheaper if you buy it on the web.
Cork, Dublin, oneway 20euro on the web, 61 buying at the counter

I think they want people to buy on the web and get rid of the counters.

Tom Dunne

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

The OP hasn't bothered to check out online prices which can be up to half the price and cheaper.

Which is exactly what I did last weekend, and to say I was shocked by the prices is an understatement.

Going from Enfield to Sligo, checked the IE website, can't book seats between those destinations. Fair enough.

Tried to book from Connolly to Sligo, sorry, can't reserve seats on this service, it's ticket purchase only.

Do I pay €44 return, for me and another €44 for herself, when we were most likely not to get a seat together from Enfield (that is assuming we got a seat at all)?

I did what most sane people would do, I took the car. Petrol cost me around €20.

fh041205

Pink Tiara wrote: »

Which is exactly what I did last weekend, and to say I was shocked by the prices is an understatement.

Going from Enfield to Sligo, checked the IE website, can't book seats between those destinations. Fair enough.

Tried to book from Connolly to Sligo, sorry, can't reserve seats on this service, it's ticket purchase only.

Do I pay €44 return, for me and another €44 for herself, when we were most likely not to get a seat together from Enfield (that is assuming we got a seat at all)?

I did what most sane people would do, I took the car. Petrol cost me around €20.

Sligo and Rosslare lines aren't available fully on the booking system. They're not the only two that aren't but they're the main ones.

Its quite ridiculous actually. The trip you were trying to make would be 2h20m. Thats the same duration as Dublin-Belfast!!!!

Mushy

Why do they not just charge the same price for the same trains when one walks into the station as they do online? I know it encourages early booking, but last time I was going Heuston-Cork, went to the office(decided to travel very last minute), and was asked for €60. Just walked away, straight to a computer, booked a ticket online for €20, went straight back to same guy, handed him the booking reference, got a seat on the exact same train. And I booked it online at 14.56, was sitting on train at 14.59, just in the nick of time.

Judgement Day

Dob74 wrote: »

Its cheaper if you buy it on the web.
Cork, Dublin, oneway 20euro on the web, 61 buying at the counter

I think they want people to buy on the web and get rid of the counters.

I can assure anyone who wants to hear that the cheapest option - by far - is to talk to the man in the ticket office. I recently bought a monthly return at the ticket office for €27.50 - the ATVM wanted €81.50 for the same ticket ......I kid you not! As I intend to avail of the same fare again in the near future I won't say any more.

bk

I'm shocked, I just checked online for these great €20 fares and I found Dublin to Cork (down on Friday, back up on Sunday) to cost €125 :eek:

Do people actually pay this ridiculous price when you can, go to the counter or even the machine and just buy a 4 day return for €71.50?

With the excellent new motorway between Cork and Dublin, not only is it far cheaper, but quicker too.

KC61

bk wrote: »

I'm shocked, I just checked online for these great €20 fares and I found Dublin to Cork (down on Friday, back up on Sunday) to cost €125 :eek:

Do people actually pay this ridiculous price when you can, go to the counter or even the machine and just buy a 4 day return for €71.50?

With the excellent new motorway between Cork and Dublin, not only is it far cheaper, but quicker too.

bk you selected 1st Class when you checked online on the web!!!

The standard class fare is EUR 71!!!

The EUR 20 fare is on off-peak trains that have lighter loadings in order to encourage people to use them.

The full list of trains that it is available on is listed at:
http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=402

transylman

If people stop using trains because of the crazy ticket prices IE will respond in the only way they know how, raising ticket prices.

bk

KC61 wrote: »

bk you selected 1st Class when you checked online on the web!!!

The standard class fare is EUR 71!!!

You are correct, my bad, the site isn't very well designed IMO.

Also, what is with the "Reserve Seat € 6.00" charge?

If you book online, isn't your seat reserved anyway? Or is this just an additional option for people who use those Credit Union tickets and standard tickets to reserve a seat?

BTW what happens if you miss your booked train, can you get a refund or change the ticket for the next train?

Terrontress

seamus wrote: »

There are a number of important factors which prevent us from making comparisions with the UK, but the two most important are the population difference and the size difference.
They have 15 times as many people as we do, and they have much larger distances to traverse. Rail has always been considered a serious contender for travelling across their country and they've never had to dig up tracks to save money, leaving big chunks of the country without any rail at all. Not to mention the chunnel link with the continent.

It's a bit like wondering why Galway doesn't have two light rail tracks across the city charging €3 a pop.

Seamus, I think you are mistaken in your assessment of UK railways. Each line is run on an individual basis. Take a line the same length as Dublin Cork with similar populations and there is no reason that the fact there are 60 million people in the UK has to come in to it. Each line has to turn a profit, the trains and lines have to pay for themselves by tickets and government subvention. There may be savings in branding or web booking set up costs but the actual nuts and bolts i.e. Train and track over a fixed length should not vary wildly.

As for the UK not having had to rip up line to save costs, you really should google the name Richard Beeching. I'd say it was the UK showed Ireland how to do it!

Let's not forget that parts of the Irish Rail network, and several of the rush hour routes, are amongst the heavily utilised in Europe. IE has economies of scale that some countries could only dream of.

Just because you are from Ireland does not mean you have to apologise for all which is sub-standard about the country. Come in to the real world, you'll feel better being a grump like me!

KC61

The EUR 6 charge is for people who have (for example) an annual ticket and wish to reserve a seat rather than just take their chances on getting one.

The ticket rules for online bookings are:

By using the Iarnród Éireann online booking service, you will be subject to the ticket rules applicable to the particular ticket purchased.

Where a reservation has been made a customer must travel on the train that they have reserved on.

If a Standard or Premier reservation has been made a customer may travel in standard class on another train that day as long as the journey is similar and the replacement train is not fully reserved. A supplement fare may be applicable.

Ticket Only reservations are valid on other services up to the end date of the reservation except in the case where other services are fully reserved.

munchkin_utd

just heard German mentioned so might add to the discussion

a) people do go home at the weekends in Germany. Theres a lot of east germans working in west germany and they are a right crowd of home birds. Same as in ireland too, country people living in the city will often enough pile on back home for a bit of craic with the lads at the weekend.
b) deals on german railways are not very plentiful at peak times. France is also the same. And now Irish Rail is doing the same.
If you want to travel Friday and Sunday then you pay regular price.

One BIG difference is that Germany (and I think france and italy too) have discount cards.
The BahnCard 50 costs 225 Euro but then gives you half price off all tickets with no need for advance booking. Theres also a 25% off card for 57 Euro.
The railway here tried to abolish the Bahncard 50 but there was such a massive outcry that the politicians put pressure on them to reintroduce it again.
And (back to the first point) the most outcry came from people who went home regularily at the weekend. So it shows how many go home at the weekend if it suddenly became a prime political issue.

Anyhow, if irish rail abolished student discounts but allowed EVERYONE (incl students but also including regular working people) who is a frequent traveller to buy a discount card, then we wouldnt even be having this discussion. Why do students get an open ended discount card but a working person cant?
One discount scheme for everyone cant be a bad thing?

p.s. the Bahncard is at a discounted price for students in germany, but indeed after that they dont get any extra preference.

Victor

Terrontress wrote: »

Seamus, I think you are mistaken in your assessment of UK railways. Each line is run on an individual basis. Take a line the same length as Dublin Cork with similar populations and there is no reason that the fact there are 60 million people in the UK has to come in to it. Each line has to turn a profit, the trains and lines have to pay for themselves by tickets and government subvention. There may be savings in branding or web booking set up costs but the actual nuts and bolts i.e. Train and track over a fixed length should not vary wildly.

With a high capital cost / high fixed cost asset (railways, telecoms) the trick is to maximise use. 20 people paying €1 is better than one paying €5. The core of the British system has much higher frequencies than the core of the Irish system.

transylman wrote: »

If people stop using trains because of the crazy ticket prices IE will respond in the only way they know how, raising ticket prices.

While nominal ticket prices went up last year, average intercity prices dropped.

Victor

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Why do students get an open ended discount card but a working person cant? One discount scheme for everyone cant be a bad thing?

I wonder will Irish Rail look at getting rid of student tickets on peak services.

MOH

Judgement Day wrote: »

I can assure anyone who wants to hear that the cheapest option - by far - is to talk to the man in the ticket office.

In my experience, that's not usually very helpful

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Anyhow, if irish rail abolished student discounts but allowed EVERYONE (incl students but also including regular working people) who is a frequent traveller to buy a discount card, then we wouldnt even be having this discussion. Why do students get an open ended discount card but a working person cant?
One discount scheme for everyone cant be a bad thing?

Not quite the same thing, but until recently there was the Weekender card which cost 7 euro a year and let you book at student fares (or close to) for returns over a Friday-Tuesday period. Which IE never really advertised, and withdrew with no notice around December/January.

Metrobest

I think if people we're aware of the fare differentials between peak and off peak then a lot of demand would shift to the off peak services. Why isn't Irish Rail doing more to promote off peak discounts?

Trains also seem to be popular with people who have a lot of time on their hands - eg the over 65s brigade and their free travel passes.

I think the free travel pass is outdated and unneccessary, and should be revised in light of Ireland's economic circumstances. Pensoners and free travel pass holders should get a four vouchers per year for a day's free travel on the network. Anything further is at their own expense.

Students should be charged full fare to travel after 5pm on Fridays or after 5pm Sundays.

And Irish Rail should introduce a discount card like the Dutch system with 40%discount for travel off peak. A journey like Amsterdam-Maastricht on a fast, efficient, frequent inter city train is far cheaper than the equivilent under the Irish system.

invincibleirish

Metrobest wrote: »

Trains also seem to be popular with people who have a lot of time on their hands - eg the over 65s brigade and their free travel passes.

I think the free travel pass is outdated and unneccessary, and should be revised in light of Ireland's economic circumstances. Pensoners and free travel pass holders should get a four vouchers per year for a day's free travel on the network. Anything further is at their own expense.

Students should be charged full fare to travel after 5pm on Fridays or after 5pm Sundays.

This post simplified: get the students and OAPs, all i ask is why? neither group has much money and what you are basically doing is pricing students off the trains and keeping OAPs at home.

I'd propose instead one combined standard fare for Kids, Students & OAPs.

Victor

invincibleirish wrote: »

This post simplified: get the students and OAPs, all i ask is why? neither group has much money and what you are basically doing is pricing students off the trains and keeping OAPs at home.

I'd propose instead one combined standard fare for Kids, Students & OAPs.

But why should the transport companies pick up where the state has failed to provide?

invincibleirish

Victor wrote: »

But why should the transport companies pick up where the state has failed to provide?

What has the state failed to provide though? do you mean why should the state offer discounted fares to segments of the population unable to afford full fare then surely its a case of encouraging use of PT?