The JOKE that is Irish Rail!!!

Sharlovesjohn

StephenM_smc wrote: »

If you got your card September last year, it should last until December 31st. Normally the are Jan-December cards but the next years card is sold from September onwards, giving a full 16 months worth of use. Even if you use the train twice in the next month it'd nearly be better for you to get a new card before September (Providing the trips are to Westport).

Yea I know about that but if you dont have a valid student card to back it up its not valid ie Im finished second year so need a third year card, so IR doesn't consider my Travel Student Card valid. I've been stopped twice over it

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

elekid

The first and only time I reserved a seat on Irishrail I chose, let's say, seat D in row 32. When I got on the train I discovered that the carriage I'd booked in only had 30 rows! There was no sign of my name anywhere either so after a bit of confused wandering around a fellow passenger figured out what I was looking for and advised me that reservations are meaningless so I might as well sit where I like. The train wasn't busy so I let it slide but if it had been crowded I'd have been very pissed off.

kingshankly

Scien wrote: »

Cork - Dublin rtn is something like €68 sure...
People who use Irish Rail on a regular basis should have their Brain revoked.

Got a train from London to Liverpool a few weeks ago and it cost 124 pound for a single I'm sure you can get cheaper online but it was a spontanious thing . And any experience I have had in the uk has always been more expensive than a comparative trip here

Waterfall1975

Annual ticket.
- I have one. Why can't I reserve a seat for my commutes?

Concourse crowding.
- A delight for pickpockets!

Heuston toilets.
- Why must I pay to use them? I have a valid train ticket.

Heuston bike parking.
- Overcrowded / too few hitching posts.
- Posts too big for bike
- Posts too close together

KC61

elekid wrote: »

The first and only time I reserved a seat on Irishrail I chose, let's say, seat D in row 32. When I got on the train I discovered that the carriage I'd booked in only had 30 rows! There was no sign of my name anywhere either so after a bit of confused wandering around a fellow passenger figured out what I was looking for and advised me that reservations are meaningless so I might as well sit where I like. The train wasn't busy so I let it slide but if it had been crowded I'd have been very pissed off.

By the sound of it that sounds like the rolling period when the new railcars were taking over services from the old locomotive hauled stock. When this was happening the seating did differ for a short period as both sets of coaches have different layouts. The changes took place at fairly short notice I understand, hence there wasn't really time to update the IT system to reflect the new seating layouts for the reservations.

KC61

Scien wrote: »

Cork - Dublin rtn is something like €68 sure...
People who use Irish Rail on a regular basis should have their Brain revoked.

Online it is far cheaper - avoiding peak time trains it is only EUR 20.

The reality is the company have brought in differential pricing, with peak heavily used services priced at standard rates, but with off-peak services now operating at a heavy discount.

Carawaystick

KC61 wrote: »

Online it is far cheaper - avoiding peak time trains it is only EUR 20.

The reality is the company have brought in differential pricing, with peak heavily used services priced at standard rates, but with off-peak services now operating at a heavy discount.

Online is only cheaper when their systems are online. Irishrail.ie was offline last Saturday from after midday til at least 4pm.

kc61 wrote:

Seat reservations do not work in the ticket barriers and there is a large sign indicating that passengers with such tickets should go through the gate beside where the barrier operator stands where he will let you through

Is this written on the ticket? Does the operator tell people with such tickets or all customers experiencing difficulties with the ticket barriers this?
Why are there new barriers that don't work for all tickets in any case? is it to keep a job for a boy?

kc61 wrote:

Platform numbers for trains are not shown anymore on the departure boards until they are ready to commence boarding. Again there is another sign on the main departure board indicating this. This is common practice in Britain also - people wait on the main concourse until the platform is announced on the departure board. Even though the train may have arrived, the staff may have to do a brake test or other pre-departure checks/cleaning that is easier to do without having passengers on the platform.

How come there is no issue with trains starting in Connolly or Pearse with passengers on the platform?
Airports manage to indicate the gates ahead of time - If they waited til the planes were ready to board to tell passengers this ther'd be late departures - which happens to the trains here.....

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

djpbarry

Scien wrote: »

Thank God for Michael O'Leary and his subsidised €8 flights to Cork.

FYP

KC61

Carawaystick wrote: »

Online is only cheaper when their systems are online. Irishrail.ie was offline last Saturday from after midday til at least 4pm.


Is this written on the ticket? Does the operator tell people with such tickets or all customers experiencing difficulties with the ticket barriers this?
Why are there new barriers that don't work for all tickets in any case? is it to keep a job for a boy?


How come there is no issue with trains starting in Connolly or Pearse with passengers on the platform?
Airports manage to indicate the gates ahead of time - If they waited til the planes were ready to board to tell passengers this ther'd be late departures - which happens to the trains here.....

I just pointed out that the online fares are cheaper. I presume that the IT system in your company has NEVER crashed?

The sign over the ticket barriers in Heuston is pretty big. I don't know why they don't work.

Well better to have just one boy than 9? You are always going to need someone to help customers at the barriers. Look at any London Underground station.
Connolly and Pearse DART stations are through stations - that is a different issue. The trains are just passing through. It's the Intercity services starting from both Connolly and Heuston that are affected. People now wait in the concourse rather than queueing at the platforms.

Airport concourses tend to be a hell of a lot bigger than either Heuston or Connolly stations.... As I say take a visit to any major London rail terminus and you will see exactly the same practice.

Terrontress

kingshankly wrote: »

Got a train from London to Liverpool a few weeks ago and it cost 124 pound for a single I'm sure you can get cheaper online but it was a spontanious thing . And any experience I have had in the uk has always been more expensive than a comparative trip here

Trains in the UK are bloody dear. It's a legacy of the Thatcher days. People like Richard Branson who own train companies but don't own trains or tracks all have to be paid their cut!

But two wrongs do not make a right and what the English are doing should have no bearing on our prices!

Carawaystick

KC61 wrote: »

I just pointed out that the online fares are cheaper. I presume that the IT system in your company has NEVER crashed?


Connolly and Pearse DART stations are through stations - that is a different issue. The trains are just passing through. It's the Intercity services starting from both Connolly and Heuston that are affected. People now wait in the concourse rather than queueing at the platforms.

Airport concourses tend to be a hell of a lot bigger than either Heuston or Connolly stations.... As I say take a visit to any major London rail terminus and you will see exactly the same practice.

any online sales company should have reliable uptime. Google has this for example.
http://royal.pingdom.com/2007/09/26/google-availability-differs-greatly-between-countries/


Connolly has several services to Dundalk and Sligo that use an inside platform. Passengers can go through the barriers to any of these any time and wait on the platform. Often the doors are locked on Dundalk/Drogheda services in Connolly while these pre-journey checks take place.

Surely it'd be better to get customers off the main concourse and onto the platform sooner, so when the train is ready to board, they can get on sooner in a similar way to how airports work.

Not all airports are bigger than Heuston. Cork has only 8 departure gates, most planes take less than two hundred passengers. A full commuter train takes 1200 passengers, an IC train over 400.


If you have a reserved ticket returning to Heuston, do you need to go through a separate gate to exit the station?

KC61

Carawaystick wrote: »

any online sales company should have reliable uptime. Google has this for example.
http://royal.pingdom.com/2007/09/26/google-availability-differs-greatly-between-countries/


Connolly has several services to Dundalk and Sligo that use an inside platform. Passengers can go through the barriers to any of these any time and wait on the platform. Often the doors are locked on Dundalk/Drogheda services in Connolly while these pre-journey checks take place.

Surely it'd be better to get customers off the main concourse and onto the platform sooner, so when the train is ready to board, they can get on sooner in a similar way to how airports work.

Not all airports are bigger than Heuston. Cork has only 8 departure gates, most planes take less than two hundred passengers. A full commuter train takes 1200 passengers, an IC train over 400.


If you have a reserved ticket returning to Heuston, do you need to go through a separate gate to exit the station?

Well I'm sure there is some rationale for it - it appears to be generally accepted practice across major terminals in the UK that have barriers and Irish Rail appear to be following suit.

I imagine it has something to do with safety regulations concerning the amount of people that it is safe to have on the far side of the barriers standing around.

Carawaystick

KC61 wrote: »

Well I'm sure there is some rationale for it - it appears to be generally accepted practice across major terminals in the UK that have barriers and Irish Rail appear to be following suit.

I imagine it has something to do with safety regulations concerning the amount of people that it is safe to have on the far side of the barriers standing around.

There's no limit to the number of people on the platform in Pearse - Other than the physical space. I'm going to go with poor customer service.

fh041205

Sharlovesjohn wrote: »

Yea I know about that but if you dont have a valid student card to back it up its not valid ie Im finished second year so need a third year card, so IR doesn't consider my Travel Student Card valid. I've been stopped twice over it

I don't understand what you are saying. You do not need a college ID card to apply for a student travelcard. All you need is a stamp from your college. Also, the expiry date of the studetnt travelcard is clearly indicated on the card. You do not need any other ID to backup the travelcard.

I have a student travelcard which i got last year around christmas. It is valid until the end of this year. I'm going into 3rd year and have no problems buying tickets.

kingshankly

With regards to passengers on the platform it is acceptable for passengers to remain on the platform as long as the train in question isn't being altered.
But if a train comes in and has to be shunted, engine changed or remarshalled in any way it then needs a brake test and a and door test which can't be carried out with passengers onboard and as I'm sure youl understant as soon as the doors open for the arriving train people usually rush on, so under normal circumstances they are kept in the concorse

KC61

Carawaystick wrote: »

There's no limit to the number of people on the platform in Pearse - Other than the physical space. I'm going to go with poor customer service.

In Pearse the trains are passing through - there is nothing being done to them - it is not a terminus.