Adult 7 Day Rolling Rail

mrcheez

I have a few questions regarding the "Adult 7 Day Rolling Rail" ticket.

- Is the ticket restricted to the station that you buy it at, or can it be used from any station as long as the zone is the same?

e.g. buying the ticket at Drumcondra for Tara (costs €17), could I use the same ticket to go from Connolly to Killester (also costs €17) ?

- Secondly, do you need to scan the ticket before boarding the train, or only required at the exit point?

e.g. say I arrive to the station just as the train is pulling in and don't have time to get to the ticket scanner before I board

foggy_lad

If you buy a 7 day ticket between two stations you may only use that ticket to travel to stations between the two end stations. for most people the weekly short hop ticket works out the same price as the point to point ticket and this allows unlimited travel within the short hop area for the week.

Afaik you must scan your ticket before boarding a train unless directed not to by an authorised person.

Victor

mrcheez wrote: »

I have a few questions regarding the "Adult 7 Day Rolling Rail" ticket.

Note that there are (a) 7-day rolling point-to-point tickets and (b) Short Hop weekly tickets valid Sunday-Sunday.

http://www.irishrail.ie/index.jsp?p=118&n=142#Season%20Tickets

Think of the system as distance bands from your origin, not zones. With point-to-point tickets, you are buying a certain distance from Drumcondra, not from some random station you are starting at - otherwise you could roam around the entire system on a cheap ticket, simply by going in and out of the station.

- Is the ticket restricted to the station that you buy it at, or can it be used from any station as long as the zone is the same?

If you buy Drumcondra-Tara Street, you can only use it for the stops between those points, so Drumcondra-Connolly would be permitted, but Drumcondra-Killester would not. For €17, the ticket you buy would actually be valid as far as Pearse. And if you buy it at Pearse, it may be valid to Broombridge.

e.g. buying the ticket at Drumcondra for Tara (costs €17), could I use the same ticket to go from Connolly to Killester (also costs €17) ?

No, it isn't like you bought a book of 10 tickets (not available with Irish Rail) for travelling a certain distance. If you are visiting Killester often you can get Adult 7 Day Rolling Rail ticket for €23.50 per week for Drumcondra-Killester, which includes the city centre (Connolly, Tara Street, Pearse) or an Inner Short Hop Rail (between Rush & Lusk, Maynooth, Hazelhatch & Celbridge, Bray) ticket for about €32.50 per week.

http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_info/fares_matrix_2013.php

- Secondly, do you need to scan the ticket before boarding the train, or only required at the exit point?

e.g. say I arrive to the station just as the train is pulling in and don't have time to get to the ticket scanner before I board

You always need to validate the ticket. Usually you can't get into the station if you don't.

mrcheez

Yep I got the ticket there yesterday and see that the station name is printed on the ticket, so that would imply it would only work between the two points.

Out of curiosity I went through the open gate (on a Sunday) without validating the ticket and was able to validate the ticket at the exit point, so it seems you only need to validate the ticket at the entrance point if the gate is closed.

Hilly Bill

you use the ticket to open the barrier in both directions if they are not open. It wont open the barriers if they are other than whats on a point to point ticket.