Christmas Timetable 2009

Yoda

That's the Intercity Irish Rail timetable, I mean.

When is this available? I have a friend from Germany coming to visit in Westport for Christmas, landing in Dublin at 11:20 on Christmas Eve...

Do the trains run on a regular weekday schedule on the 24th? I want to book a seat for my friend; if his flight gets in at 11:20, unless there are extra trains put on he'd be on the 17:45.

KC61

Well, hopefully, by that time the new timetable will have finally been implemented. However, they usually release the bank holiday timetables at least two to three weeks in advance.

Certainly in prior years the 1745 would have always operated, but whether under the new timetable extra services will operate I don't know as it is still not finalised. The latest date that I've heard for the new timetable is now December, which means we should know sometime in November.

penexpers

New timetable withstanding - they generally don't run extra services on Christmas Eve. However, they don't stop running until about 1900 (last year, the last train from Heuston was the 1915 to Galway).

Yoda

The new timetable is out and one can see (but not book) the schedule for Christmas Eve... dare one assume that they will not change this?

KC61

Yoda wrote: »

The new timetable is out and one can see (but not book) the schedule for Christmas Eve... dare one assume that they will not change this?

It should not change - the 1830 should be the last train to Westport.

You should be able to book four weeks in advance.

steph1

Dublin Heuston Westport
24/12 12:30 16:00 InterCity

24/12 15:30 19:00 InterCity

24/12 18:30 21:55 InterCity

Your friend could get the 15.30 train it might be a bit tight for the 12.30 train depending if flight is delayed.

Yoda

Well, it is 28 days before the 24th... and I go online to book a seat on the 1530 train... and only the T box is checkable! "This ticket cannot be bought online". What do I do?

KC61

The 0730 and 1530 services to Wesport are combined Heuston-Galway & Westport services, with the trains splitting at Athlone.

Looking at the journey planner for a sample of dates in December it would appear that it is not possible to reserve seats on either of these trains. It would seem that the reservations system cannot handle split trains.

So, I'm afraid for the moment that no reservations can be made for the 1530, although you can book a seat on the 1830. It's a case of show up on the day for the earlier train.

Yoda

But you can't even buy the ticket online even without reservations. (I note that the website does not indicate that there is a change of train in Athlone... That's because the train actually splits?)

I looked to see if I could buy two tickets... one to Heuston-Athlone and one Athlone-Westport. I can't do that either.

KC61

Yoda wrote: »

But you can't even buy the ticket online even without reservations. (I note that the website does not indicate that there is a change of train in Athlone... That's because the train actually splits?)

I looked to see if I could buy two tickets... one to Heuston-Athlone and one Athlone-Westport. I can't do that either.

As I say there appears to be a glitch in the system - it cannot cope with the fact that the train splits, and as such is not selling tickets for those trains on any day.

Why I don't know, but one would hope that they can get it fixed as it means for the moment that passengers on the these trains can only buy tickets at the booking office.

You are correct that there is no change of trains. The front three coaches will go to Galway, while the rear three go to Westport.

Cookie_Monster

It seems strange that the system cannot handle the train split for booking. Surely from the ticket system point of view it is just a case of two different (3 carriage) trains that happen to leave at the same...

Ah well, not surprising really, one would have thought thaey may have thought of it when designing the new table but obviously not:(

Yoda

KC61 wrote: »

Why I don't know, but one would hope that they can get it fixed as it means for the moment that passengers on the these trains can only buy tickets at the booking office.

If I buy from a booking office, or over the phone, can I reserve a seat? I really don't want my German friend to have too much hassle getting to Westport on Christmas Eve!

KC61

I would imagine at the moment no. They access the same system as the public and at the moment the trains that split or join (0730 and 1530 ex Heuston) and the 0515 ex-Westport and 0605 ex-Galway) are all suffering the same problem on every day. In other words there are no seat reservations available.

Your point is entirely valid - hopefully someone in IE will either read this, or perhaps you should flag it to them via their contact page as it is completely daft that seat reservations are not available.

Yoda

Well I just spoke with a "Customer Service" representative, who told me that the Christmas time table won't be ready until December. She didn't have a date.

I said to her that the 0730 and 1530 trains Heuston-to-Westport were not bookable online on any date. She said "You have to buy them in the station". I said that I understood this, but that it was a problem; it was not convenient. I asked her to pass the word on up. She said she would.

I don't believe her.

KC61

I would believe that there could be a problem alright with the technology as this is the first time that IE have operated splitting services on routes with reservable trains since the reservations system was launched.

I would imagine that a fix will be found in due course, which, while not much comfort to you right now, is unfortunately the best that you will get at the moment.

dowlingm

the Platform 11 guys seem to have an in with the website folks - there's a thread on their board which has reported a number of IE website errors which have been subsequently fixed. Might be worth crossposting if it hasn't already shown up there.

dowlingm

on VIA Rail when the Toronto-Montreal/Ottawa trains run they are run as two separate trains on the timetable. When you make a reservation to a pre-split stop you see both and you book on one OR the other.

For example, if you look up Toronto-Kingston, it displays Trains 40 and 52 separately, both leaving at 0705, even though the trains run as a unit until a subsequent stop.