Belfast to Dublin with bike on Public Transport

andun84

Going down on Thursday to my sisters in Tramore to see the ToI on Friday then going over to Cork on the Sunday to see them suffer on St Patrick's Hill

I'm looking to take my bike down however I'm not sure how wise it is.

Train journeys are just way too expensive in the South - 86 Euro for a through ticket (plus another 11 odd Euro for the bike) each way from Belfast. Ridiculous - how do you guys afford to pay those prices?

Belfast to Dublin by train though is reasonable and if I start in Belfast no bicycle charges either however that means getting a bus down from Dublin to Waterford or at least quite close to it and I can cycle the rest. Was going to cycle down from Dublin but that's a no goer as bikes are banned from buses and trains before 9.30am which means I can't get down to Dublin before 1pm which leaves me running into bad light even without any problems.

Problem is I could get to Dublin and find that no one will let me on any of their services as it is a the discretion of the driver. So for any of you with any experience of bringing bikes on public transport is this a disaster waiting to happen?

petethedrummer

andun84 wrote: »

Problem is I could get to Dublin and find that no one will let me on any of their services as it is a the discretion of the driver. So for any of you with any experience of bringing bikes on public transport is this a disaster waiting to happen?

In the last few months I've taken a bike from Dublin to Newbridge and back, Dublin to Dundalk and back on bus eireann with no problems. Was charged very little or nothing as the drivers don't seem to be sure what to charge.

You should be fine on off-peak services. As far as I know the driver does have some discretion to not allow the bike on the bus, but this I imagine would only happen on a very packed service.

There may be a private service that operates Dublin-Waterford and they are usually pretty accomodating.

andun84

petethedrummer wrote: »

In the last few months I've taken a bike from Dublin to Newbridge and back, Dublin to Dundalk and back on bus eireann with no problems. Was charged very little or nothing as the drivers don't seem to be sure what to charge.

You should be fine on off-peak services. As far as I know the driver does have some discretion to not allow the bike on the bus, but this I imagine would only happen on a very packed service.

There may be a private service that operates Dublin-Waterford and they are usually pretty accomodating.

Yeah I've always used JJ Kavanagh's on the Dublin-Waterford route in the past without a bike and its been great however there is no info on their site so I wasn't sure about it but that seems encouraging.

Do they make you wait until everything else is in the hold before you put your bike in. Don't want other people's luggage thrown on top of my bike :eek:

cunavalos

I have brought the bike to and from dublin with jj kavanaghs a couple of times recently and didn't have a problem any time but the decision to carry the bike is at the drivers discretion but there usually isnt a problem i got on a full bus leaving the quays at 6pm on a weekday evening and i was probably the last to board . it cost me 5euros each way for the bike. so you should be ok on the waterford dubin route

mcgratheoin

andun84 wrote: »

Yeah I've always used JJ Kavanagh's on the Dublin-Waterford route in the past without a bike and its been great however there is no info on their site so I wasn't sure about it but that seems encouraging.

Never had a problem with Kavanaghs - especially if you're going all the way to Waterford so there's no hassle with somebody trying to pull out a bike at the side of the road somewhere.

petethedrummer

mcgratheoin wrote: »

Never had a problem with Kavanaghs - especially if you're going all the way to Waterford so there's no hassle with somebody trying to pull out a bike at the side of the road somewhere.

There's often some steel struts you can lock the frame to if you have the time. Or lock one of the wheels to the frame to stop anyone cycling off with it.

Victor

Bike should be free on Belfast-Dublin, but perhaps not on Dublin-Belfast.

Bikes on trains
http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/bicycle_information.asp
http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/Bikes%20on%20Services%202009_19012009.pdf

Use this for cheap trains
http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=402

You need to pick and choose between cheap with restrictions and standard with restrictions.

andun84

Brilliant stuff everyone - definitely feel a lot more confident of being able to get the bike down and back up again and great spot on all those offers on the irish rail site as that certainly makes the costs a lot more pallatable. Even if I don't get on the first service that's available there is plenty of options between all the different services that I should be able to get on one pretty quickly (well let's hope so).

andun84

Interesting looking at those Irish Rail links as it gives information about bike spaces on Belfast-Dublin services before 9.30am but NIR according to the Translink website bans bikes before 9.30am so not sure whether I can get an earlier train or not now?

Will have to phone translink just to clarify as I guess it will be their staff that I will have to contend with at the station

Victor

It think that may be different for Enterprise. It may be that its free (Belfast-Dublin, not Dublin-Belfast.) after 0930.

Phone ahead.

andun84

Translink says definitely no bikes on trains on any service before 9.30am so I don't think I will risk that one as I will be turning up at a Translink station.

Pity the 2 organisations operating this service can't talk to eachother and get accurate information out there.

Victor

AFAIK Enterprise has a dedicated room for bikes, its not like the other trains where you have fold-up seats where you put the bike.

petethedrummer

andun84 wrote: »

Pity the 2 organisations operating this service can't talk to eachother and get accurate information out there.

Take your pie in the sky dreams of an integrated transport system and away with you to Germany (or Switzerland).

andun84

petethedrummer wrote: »

Take your pie in the sky dreams of an integrated transport system and away with you to Germany (or Switzerland).

:D

andun84

Victor wrote: »

AFAIK Enterprise has a dedicated room for bikes, its not like the other trains where you have fold-up seats where you put the bike.

I don't doubt that this is the case however Translink obviously think a passenger taking a bike into the dedicated carriage is likely to delay the train or some other stupid reason

http://www.translink.co.uk/enterpriseconditions.asp

The first line says these rules apply to NI and line 2 says that the terms & conditions of carriage relating to the RoI so I guess if you get the Belfast to Dublin Train in Dundalk you can take your bike on the early services :rolleyes:

mcgratheoin

petethedrummer wrote: »

There's often some steel struts you can lock the frame to if you have the time. Or lock one of the wheels to the frame to stop anyone cycling off with it.

Never thought of someone stealing the bike - when I said someone getting out in the middle of the road, I meant that Kavanaghs always seem to be in a rush when they stop and don't like people having to get luggage out of the bus as it slows them down a bit.

gzoladz

Why dont you rent a car for the day? You can take the bike for free and it will be cheaper than the train!

Civilian_Target

You can take your bike on the Enterprise any time of day, it goes in the guards van. I've never had any problem, in either direction.

andun84

Civilian_Target wrote: »

You can take your bike on the Enterprise any time of day, it goes in the guards van. I've never had any problem, in either direction.

Have you done it from the North before 9.30am as Translink were pretty damn clear on the phone with me and their website is pretty clear as well as those terms & conditions I linked above are Enterprise specific and not their general terms & conditions.

Would be interesting to find out that they can bend

@gzoladz - I'm one of those few individuals who don't drive. Never got round to it. It's times like this I would appreciate it though especially now I have started to try the odd leisure event - would take the hassle out of it with all those early starts. Guess I should do it

Murph_D

Reviving old thread as I've just booked return trip with bike, Dublin-Belfast. Anyone done this recently, and is it as straightforward as it looks on the IE website? Bike supposedly goes in luggage carriage rather than regular carriage. Presume there's plenty of room and they don't allow overbooking? Just thought I'd ask as there are some horror stories re other routes on the site.

Breezer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195461#Comment_119195461

It’s grand. Plenty of room. There were 2 bikes in there on one leg to Belfast and just mine on the way back recently. Dublin to Cork is a similar setup.

The only thing was one of the doors to the guard’s van where they’re kept wasn’t working on the way back from Belfast. I was asked where I was getting off. Dublin was grand, but not sure what would have happened if I’d been getting out somewhere where the platform is the opposite side. It happened to me going to Cork as well, and the fella just said to bring it in and out through the door of the next carriage.

You probably know this, but the info in the OP is now way out of date. Trains are a lot cheaper and there’s no fee for bikes, but you do need to pre-book.

CramCycle

Definetly pre book and a mistake I see alot from the Irish rail site is make sure when you get to the page that says bikes on it (I think it is after te seat selection page), click the drop down arrow and tick the box for a bike for each direction as this seems to catch alot of people out

Murph_D

Thanks both - no problems on the northward journey anyway. Don’t think I took that extra step for the bike but I was the only bike on the train anyway - Ill double check for the homeward leg.

Hardest part is getting bike in and out of station if you don’t know where the lifts are, but survived!

Mercian Pro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195479#Comment_119195479

Not all Cork trains have a guard's van. For some of the less in-demand times, they run regular InterCity trains with just two bike spaces. You'll see it when you are booking if you chose the manual seat selection option.

Breezer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119211290#Comment_119211290

Good to know, I thought all the rolling stock on that route was the same.