Irish Rail - Ticket Collection Machines

highgiant1985

I booked a ticket on Irish rail there and was disappointed to see the following.

Note: We are removing the facility to collect reservations via credit card swipe. Please ensure you have this number with you when you are collecting your reservation.



I use to love the ability to just swipe my credit card and have the ticket come out rather than having to make note of the reservation number as usually I'm in a rush when booking and its just ease of use really.

Does anyone know why this is being stopped, is it due to security concerns? or other reasons? i.e. cost?

Mountjoy Mugger

I did have an issue now and again with the card reader being faulty - problem with chip etc..

Although, that's probably not the reason for the facility being withdrawn. Hazarding a guess, I'd say there's a cost involved.

foggy_lad

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

I did have an issue now and again with the card reader being faulty - problem with chip etc..

Although, that's probably not the reason for the facility being withdrawn. Hazarding a guess, I'd say there's a cost involved.

I would think it is due to faulty card readers and people may have been left stranded at unmanned stations with no way of getting tickets they have already paid for.

parsi

It also caused no end of difficulties when the ticket was booked and paid for by a cardholder on behalf of another person.

Zoney

I generally just take a mobile phone photo of the computer screen when I've made a booking, then when at the station sure I have my mobile on me and so it's easy peasy to just type in the number while looking at my phone.

Incidentally, haven't yet made a successful booking *on* my phone. I've tried once or twice with no joy - but it's possible it was just the website as sometimes on the PC I have to start over (somehow the booking fails at the last hurdle?) On the phone of course that's a bit too slow to do over again.

L1011

parsi wrote: »

It also caused no end of difficulties when the ticket was booked and paid for by a cardholder on behalf of another person.

Doesn't justify removing it as an option, though. Just implement the code system *also*.

bk

I agree with MYOB, I can't see any justification for its removal. Certainly *add* the ability to get the ticket without your credit card, but it is stupid to remove the existing functionality.

Hopefully when the leap cards arrive, you can *opt* to have your ticket added to your leap card.

highgiant1985

MYOB wrote: »

Doesn't justify removing it as an option, though. Just implement the code system *also*.

on the machines I used previous it was always possible to either swipe your credit card or use the code. I had assumed this was the case for all machines but perhaps not?

Either way I find its a pity as while it still won't effect me as long as I take care when booking to note the number but just from a user friendly point of view it would have been nice to retain this functionality.

NuMarvel

What I do is log onto my mobile phone service provider's website, and use the free webtext function to text the number to myself by just copying and pasting the number into the message window. It's a few extra steps, but you're rarely if ever going to leave your phone at home so you're nearly guaranteed to have the number with you.

bk

NuMarvel wrote: »

What I do is log onto my mobile phone service provider's website, and use the free webtext function to text the number to myself by just copying and pasting the number into the message window. It's a few extra steps, but you're rarely if ever going to leave your phone at home so you're nearly guaranteed to have the number with you.

IR could add a feature to their online booking system to automatically text you the booking number.

Personally I just check the mail on my iPhone, but not everyone has a smartphone and data plan yet.

foggy_lad

bk wrote: »

IR could add a feature to their online booking system to automatically text you the booking number.

Personally I just check the mail on my iPhone, but not everyone has a smartphone and data plan yet.

They could probably do this fairly easily but it may be as a premium rate text considering they charge for credit card ticket bookings and reservations online

L1011

foggy_lad wrote: »

They could probably do this fairly easily but it may be as a premium rate text considering they charge for credit card ticket bookings and reservations online

Standard in the UK is to add the cost of a "standard" text message (10p, 8 or 9 cent here then) to the booking fee for the privilidge of getting a text

Seeing as you can buy text messages in low bulk (800 messages or so) for about 2.4c a message, there's a little bit of profit to be made there. Buying them in 10,000 or 100,000 bulk gets further discounts.

Zoney

In fairness you would have needed to note the reservation number back when the card-only method was possible, in case the card didn't work.

bk

foggy_lad wrote: »

They could probably do this fairly easily but it may be as a premium rate text considering they charge for credit card ticket bookings and reservations online

I know, I thought exactly the same and it would be completely bonkers.

As MYOB points out commercial operators like this can get text messages for less then 3c per text, so charging a premium for such a service on a €74 return ticket to Cork would show just how bonkers IR are.

schemingbohemia

bk wrote: »

I know, I thought exactly the same and it would be completely bonkers.

As MYOB points out commercial operators like this can get text messages for less then 3c per text, so charging a premium for such a service on a €74 return ticket to Cork would show just how bonkers IR are.

I love the way you can take a non-existent charge and bash IE with it, your bitterness knows no bounds.:rolleyes:

1huge1

Hope it still works with laser/debit cards.

goingnowhere

You were supposed to have the booking reference email with you for collection.

The pick up by card swipe required retention of the card number which conflicts with PCI/DSS rules which has issues with vendors retaining card details.

1huge1

Makes sense I guess, people would be complaining i'm sure if somehow their database got hacked. Shame though as it was a very fast and efficient way by just sticking in your credit card and printing off your ticket. A few more seconds to enter a code wont kill me by any means of course.

bk

schemingbohemia wrote: »

I love the way you can take a non-existent charge and bash IE with it, your bitterness knows no bounds.:rolleyes:

That is because I know IR loves to nickel and dime you at every turn possible.

- €2 online booking fee *
- €1 Credit card fee *
- Charge to use the toilets in Heuston
- No free wifi
- No onboard power
- Expensive food

And all on top of €71 return to Cork!!

* Other travel operators like GoBus manage to do these for free.

So forgive me for my cynicism.

goingnowhere wrote: »

You were supposed to have the booking reference email with you for collection.

In this day and age we are supposed to be moving away from paper. That is why I think the option of having it sent to you by text would be a good and convenient feature.

goingnowhere wrote: »

The pick up by card swipe required retention of the card number which conflicts with PCI/DSS rules which has issues with vendors retaining card details.

Fair enough, that is a good excuse.

Hope IR will improve the experience in future by adding the ability to send the reference by text and also allow you to add your purchased ticket to your registered leap card automatically (or at the very least retrieve your ticket using your leap card).

schemingbohemia

bk wrote: »

That is because I know IR loves to nickel and dime you at every turn possible.

- €2 online booking fee *
- €1 Credit card fee *
- Charge to use the toilets in Heuston
- No free wifi
- No onboard power
- Expensive food

And all on top of €71 return to Cork!!

* Other travel operators like GoBus manage to do these for free.

So forgive me for my cynicism.



In this day and age we are supposed to be moving away from paper. That is why I think the option of having it sent to you by text would be a good and convenient feature.



Fair enough, that is a good excuse.

Hope IR will improve the experience in future by adding the ability to send the reference by text and also allow you to add your purchased ticket to your registered leap card automatically (or at the very least retrieve your ticket using your leap card).

You don't have to pay €71 for your trip to Cork, you can get it for less than €20 but don't let that stop your bitterness, you don't have to buy food on the train either.

The booking fees I agree with you. The onboard power has only become an issue recently as far as I know I was able to charge my phone on a train to galway a few weeks ago.

I think the charge to use the jacks is to keep the junkies out, I've had to pay more in UK stations, but to be honest it's not really a capital offense.

goingnowhere

bk wrote: »

That is because I know IR loves to nickel and dime you at every turn possible.

- €2 online booking fee * (per booking not per passenger)
- €1 Credit card fee * (avoidable)
- Charge to use the toilets in Heuston (normally never pay walk in, free on train....)
- No free wifi (as of today its available)
- No onboard power (250 out of 321 intercity coaches fitted, every coach, DART and commute has sockets somewhere)
- Expensive food (vat reduction ?)

Cheapest ticket Cork Dublin is 5 euro...

Screen shot 2011-07-15 at 16.15.40.png

Its far from perfect but its not as bad is some like to think

1huge1

In regards to them not offering free wifi

Introduction of Free Wi-Fi for Dublin-Cork is underway
http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=1165

All trains should have it by the end of september.

Its the online booking fee that I can't get over, thats Ryanair tactics, they are urging people to buy their tickets online and punishing them in doing so, the cost to them per online transaction is less than 30c.

trellheim

The pick up by card swipe required retention of the card number which conflicts with PCI/DSS rules which has issues with vendors retaining card details.

What an utter bunch of toss. All they needed do was an SHA-2 hash of the creditcard number then its not stored, and you can forward hash the swiped card. . Bingo. Doesn't need decoding as it's already paid for so no need to go to payment processor, no PCI/DSS problem.

L1011

trellheim wrote: »

What an utter bunch of toss. All they needed do was an SHA-2 hash of the creditcard number then its not stored, and you can forward hash the swiped card. . Bingo. Doesn't need decoding as it's already paid for so no need to go to payment processor, no PCI/DSS problem.

Beat me to it.

Operators all over Europe do this.

penexpers

bk wrote: »

Hopefully when the leap cards arrive, you can *opt* to have your ticket added to your leap card.

I don't believe that this happens anywhere at the moment. I can't add an intercity rail journey onto my Oyster card in London, for example.

foggy_lad

1huge1 wrote: »

In regards to them not offering free wifi

Introduction of Free Wi-Fi for Dublin-Cork is underway
http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=1165

All trains should have it by the end of september.

Its the online booking fee that I can't get over, thats Ryanair tactics, they are urging people to buy their tickets online and punishing them in doing so, the cost to them per online transaction is less than 30c.

will be extended to all of the CAF Intercity trains (67 carriages) on the Dublin-Cork fleet by the end of September.

It will be the end of the year before it is extended to other trains not on the Dublin-Cork route.

As for the toilets at Heuston, the renovation was great but they are now much more attractive to Junkies due to the cubicles being much more private and out of the way. but anytime i have used them they were spotlessly clean!

As to the power situation, all trains have one or two sockets at either end of each carriage but there are generally not for passenger use and are well out of the way under and behind seats. The new trains had sockets at every seat untill they were found to be faulty and apparently beyond repair! Does anyone know is this covered by warrenty?

Cheapest ticket Booked a month in advance may be €5 one way but those fares are so rare and most people are not in a position to book so far in advance and would have to go through the hassle of changing their ticket and having to pay a lot more(€70) if their plans changed! you can walk up to a bus in Dublin or Cork and pay the standard fares of €15 one way and €22 return for an adult on aircoach http://www.aircoach.ie/aircoach.fares.php and €11.70 single and €19.80 return on Bus Eireann https://194.106.151.95/asp/NationalList.asp?Origin=Dublin&Destination=Cork&Date=--&__utma=1.2040088674.1310775394.1310843396.1310850605.3&__utmb=1.3.10.1310850605&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1310851351.3.3.utmcsr=google|utmccn=%28organic%29|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=dublin%20to%20cork%20bus&__utmv=-&__utmk=127282317

parsi

foggy_lad wrote: »

. but anytime i have used them they were spotlessly clean!

Quick , tell the mods, Foggy's account has been hacked and the hacker is posting nice things !!!!!!

On a side note the nickel-and-diming is wrong. Ryanair started this trend and now everybody seems to think that it's acceptable to state a price and then charge extra when you try to pay for it.

The webfares should include the handling fees - after all you can't get a webfare without paying with a card.

bk

Free wifi coming to Irish Rail, brilliant, IR deserve congratulations for this.

But why did it take so long? Does anyone seriously believe IR would have done this for free if private bus operators hadn't done it first?

But I asked about wifi being added to trains 5 years ago and IR's response was that it wasn't needed due to the rapid development of 3G technology. At the time I said thsi showed how clueless IR were, interesting to see this about turn now.

Cheap tickets, yes they exist, but the vast majority of people can't plan far enough ahead to get them. And even if people did, remember there is only a limited number of them, so the majority of people will always be paying €71 return.

The cheap tickets is just a smoke screen for IR's very high prices.

As foggy_lad pointed out, you can walk on an Aircoach anytime and pay just €22 return to Dublin. Non of this booking a month in advance nonsense. Yes, the bus isn't as fast yet as they aren't allowed to use the motorway. But as soon as new licenses are issued to use the morotway, the train is dead.

It seems that IR think they are Ryanair, but in reality they are not and face far more competition to get away with non sense like online booking fees.

Power on the train, only one socket per carriage on the Cork to Dublin trains and the power sockets at each seat on the commuter cars on other routes currently not working.

Good point by trellheim that credit card collections could continue using hashes. So no excuse there.

dowlingm

foggy_lad wrote: »

will be extended to all of the CAF Intercity trains (67 carriages) on the Dublin-Cork fleet by the end of September.

It will be the end of the year before it is extended to other trains not on the Dublin-Cork route.

Wouldn't it be great if the wifi gear was fitted to the 22000s arriving from Korea as they go into testing rather than pulling them from service later.

But that's not how we do things, is it? Like selective door opening.

foggy_lad

dowlingm wrote: »

Wouldn't it be great if the wifi gear was fitted to the 22000s arriving from Korea as they go into testing rather than pulling them from service later.

But that's not how we do things, is it? Like selective door opening.

At the moment it looks like it is fitted to only one train on the Cork route, but hopefully they can get it fully operational like the sockets on the 29000s before the end of the year.

Like with their credit card charges and now not allowing collection of tickets using credit card and the delay in getting wifi it is like some group within the company are fighting for failure?

Carawaystick

There's no charge for the toilets in Connolly or Pearse, although Pearse has the purple lights to slow junkies

penexpers

Carawaystick wrote: »

There's no charge for the toilets in Connolly or Pearse, although Pearse has the purple lights to slow junkies

There is also now no charge for the toilets in Heuston either.

L1011

The no charge in Connolly is down to broken gates I thought? Like Busaras...

foggy_lad

penexpers wrote: »

There is also now no charge for the toilets in Heuston either.

It was/is just mean to have pay toilets in a busy bus or railway station and using the junkie excuse is no good because they never pay anyway.