Anybody tried booking a bike on intercity trains?

ridertothesea_

I've been trying to book tickets on irishrail.ie to take the train next week from dublin to sligo with the bike & returning 4 days later from westport. To avoid busy periods I was planning traveling midweek on off peak times.

But every time I select the bike option the website tells me there are no seats available. I've checked the whole month and it's virtually all booked up. How can this be? Surely its wrong?

Anybody have any similar experiences or suggestions?

Chips Lovell

Have done this a few times. There's usually only two seats reserved for bikes. You need to select those seats. They are marked with little bike icons

ridertothesea_

But thats the problem. There are never any bike icon seats shown or available to click. The entire carriage is shown as being booked. But if I go back and try to book a seat without the bike there are always plenty seats available on the same carriages.

Chips Lovell

The two seats are always together at one end of the train. What trains are you trying to book?

ridertothesea_

Monday 8th August - Dublin to Sligo - 11.05

Friday 12 August - Westport to Dublin - 17.45

The entire train is shown booked up when I select the bicycle option. Out of curiosity I've looked at trains much later in the month on different times and days and its always the same story

Chips Lovell

That's odd. I think I had the same problem once. On a train to Westport too. I just booked as normal and then bought a bike ticket at the station and didn't have a problem.

ridertothesea_

Thanks ET, looks like thats what I'm going to have to do. On that occasion did you buy on line? should I just buy the fare without hitting the bike button?

nerraw1111

I had the same problem with booking a ticket on Westport.

It appears that only certain trains have spaces for bikes. Like you, the option of picking a bike spaces doesn't even come up, even if its sold out. Can probably stick it in a guard van. In the past that just means showing up, buying a bike ticket and putting it in the guard van

Chips Lovell

ridertothesea_ wrote: »

Thanks ET, looks like thats what I'm going to have to do. On that occasion did you buy on line? should I just buy the fare without hitting the bike button?

Bought the ticket online and then bought a bike ticket at the counter in Heuston. There was a bike rack on the train so I had no idea why you couldn't reserve the bike space online.

arodabomb

I had the exact problem on a kilkenny-dublin train. Sent an email, but heard nothing back. Just took the car instead, complete pain.

Moflojo

Word to the wise, if booking a bike onto the train arrive at the departure station at least 20 mins before departure time.

I booked 2 bikes onto a Dublin-Galway train last saturday morning, arrived 10 mins before departure and the two bike spaces had been given away, despite the fact that they were booked.

Irish Rail staff said they're obliged to give away the spaces if the booked bikes haven't arrived 20 mins before departure time.

Managed to get the bikes on anyway, but it could have been a different story.

dastardly00

Hey OP, I've had this exact problem too.
I was trying to book my bike on the Galway - Dublin service last weekand I wasn't able to find a train that had free bike slots. It took me absolute ages to find a train with an available slot.
From my experience it seems to depend on the particular carriages. On some of the Galway - Dublin services there are only 3/4 carriages and none of them have the 2 bike racks. Then the other Galway - Dublin services are 6 carriages long and one will have the 2 bike racks. So I had to try and find these particular services and book one closest to what time suited me.

Irish Rail should really have an icon that tells you if there are bike slots available on the train rather than having to pick a time, enter you name, and then finding out if the train has a bike slot available.

Also, be aware where the bike rack is in relation to your reserved seat. Last time I was on the train with my bike, I chose the bike slot and my reserved seat came up as A-09. But it turned out that the bike rack was located in carraige F, i.e. at the other end of the train in relation to my seat!
I was slightly bemused by this until I remembered that I am travelling on Irish Rail.... :rolleyes: