Pricing on Irish Rail off peak.

Onthe3rdDay

I like the train! That’s why I have taken it for the last 20 years or so since I left school and went to college. The routes I take are usually Dublin to Cork or occasionally the Dublin to Tralee train.

Now I’m one of those individuals that doesn’t like crowds so I tend to travel off-peak a lot of the time. This has meant whole carriages to myself every so often. (that would be the Dublin-Tralee Train) which makes Irish Rail’s pricing policy even more bizarre.

I also work for myself and times are tight, the 19.99 fare was right on the edge of been justified, traveling from Cork to Dublin. I could book it 3 days in advance and I was happy. However, now I have to book 7 days in advance for the same fare, or pay 32.99 instead.

That’s my breaking point, instead of paying 44 euro for a return on the train it’s now 70 euro for the same trip (I’ve included the bank charges) The gobe bus is only 22 euro and I can book that on the day.

The question here is, have Irish Rail been able to replace me? Are people hanging out the doors of the train during off peak hours? There were times when I appeared to be the only person that had actually bought a ticket. (everyone else had a pass of some sort) Has this changed?

They have lost my 44 euro for the foreseeable future for no gain. One or two people I know that make the same trip have also changed to buses, does anyone actually listen? rant over!

Hilly Bill

They wont hear you on boards.ie. Ring them, e-mail them, write to them, post on their facebook and twitter pages.

bk

Hilly Bill wrote: »

They wont hear you on boards.ie. Ring them, e-mail them, write to them, post on their facebook and twitter pages.

Wont matter, they won't hear you there either.

They will however see the overall drop in numbers and might respond to that. I agree that increasing the booking window to 7 days is too much and a mistake.

BTW I'd be very surprised if some IR senior staff don't normally read boards.ie

BBTW Onthe3rdDay Aircoach to Cork is €18 if booked one day in advance and I'm not sure if it is a mistake, but currently GoBE tickets are €18 online.

Like you Onthe3rdDay, I used the train to Cork regularly for 10 years. I have now switched to the bus and I'm very happy with the service offered. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by it when you start using it.

Hilly Bill

bk wrote: »

Wont matter, they won't hear you there either.

They will however see the overall drop in numbers and might respond to that. I agree that increasing the booking window to 7 days is too much and a mistake.

BTW I'd be very surprised if some IR senior staff don't normally read boards.ie

BBTW Onthe3rdDay Aircoach to Cork is €18 if booked one day in advance and I'm not sure if it is a mistake, but currently GoBE tickets are €18 online.

Like you Onthe3rdDay, I used the train to Cork regularly for 10 years. I have now switched to the bus and I'm very happy with the service offered. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by it when you start using it.

You will get heard and answered quicker than posting your complaint on here.
Have you read their pages?

bk

Hilly Bill wrote: »

You will get heard and answered quicker than posting your complaint on here.
Have you read their pages?

Yes, a low level customer service person will just say one of the following:

"we will look into that"
"I'll pass your feedback along to management/relative team"

Working for a multinational myself I know it is all bs. If a massive issue arises, it might get past along, but most complaints only end up going to /dev/null

The only thing management look at are stats, daily/weekly/monthly/yearly passenger numbers for instance and likely respond to that.

While you won't get a response from IR here on boards, I do know they regularly read the C&T forum and they are far more likely to see your feedback here then some IR CS twit on twitter/facebook who is earning minimum wage and couldn't care less.

corktina

it seems only perfect sense to offer much cheaper tickets on trains that are quiet.

Hilly Bill

Bk, do you know first hand that senior managment read this forum or is it just an assumption?. Ive read their facebook and twitter pages and seen proper answers given. Whats your hatred of irish rail based on?

bk

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Bk, do you know first hand that senior managment read this forum or is it just an assumption?. Ive read their facebook and twitter pages and seen proper answers given. Whats your hatred of irish rail based on?

Yes I've been told by a reliable source that some do.

I don't hate IR, not at all. I think they are massively inefficient and not consumer focused, but hate is far too strong a word.

Hilly Bill

reading the forum as a normal board user is one thing but you wont get an official answer from them on here.

bk

Hilly Bill wrote: »

reading the forum as a normal board user is one thing but you wont get an official answer from them on here.

Yes you are correct.

But the official answer you get for this type of query is pointless anyway, just we will consider it / pass it on to management, with little chance that it will actually be passed along.

A post here will at least be read by a few people in management and they may take in onboard, even if they don't respond.

Of course if you have a specific query, like why was a particular train late or want a refund, etc. then obviously the official channels are better. But for a query like this, I honestly believe boards is the best place for it.

And this isn't just in the area of transport, I know that management from the likes of Eircom, UPC, o2, Vodafone, RTE, etc. all read boards. Hell in the past I've had my posts copied word for word into newspaper articles !!

boards has a significant presence in Irish society today, don't underestimate it.

devnull

There's also the fact that posts seen here will be seen by a wider audience which means others will get to know about it if they are having the same experiences and they can also discuss why it may be happening and seeking others views rather than thinking they are the only one.

Generally some companies don't want you to post on public forums for that very reason so it's no surprise to see CIE staff on this forum requesting posts not be made on here. If a complaint is made by email nobody else sees it therefore it's easy to ignore but if it's made on here then others can see it and that is more likely to effect opinions on such company.

Of course the way to address this is to handle complaints better and be more open of them. But just take a look at the likes of Irish Rail, Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus Facebook where they have disabled the possibility to post on there, as it seems they are more interested in protecting their own image than anything else.

If they were seen to be generally interacting with customers on Social Media in an open and constructive fashion like many other companies do through official channels, then I think you'd see people posting more there and less here, but as they don't people are always going to complain elsewhere.

I agree that there are some topics which are sensitive that they cannot discuss by social media for example, but many can be and to hide them simply seems a way to make sure people don't see that side of things.