Irish Rail Dublin-Cork for €9.99

LeftBlank

http://www.irishrail.ie/999

Iarnród Éireann are delighted to announce the introduction of €9.99 each way fares from Dublin - Cork for a limited time only. These fares are on selected services daily and quotas apply. What are you waiting for, Book Above Now! Full Terms and Conditions apply.

Interesting that they don't compare their fares to the bus fares on the same route.

westmidlands

That is interesting actually because at €9.99 the train sounds like brilliant value, the train is a more comfortable way to travel than the bus. Also it is a little quicker to travel by train, most Dublin-Cork train services take between 2h 35min to 2h 45min, the aircoach bus takes 3 hours.

Jamie2k9

These 9.99 fares don't require advance booking either.

As an IE customer who doesn't use the Cork route so often I feel cheated that Cork passengers can now pay less up to day of travel just because they have to much empty capacity. Its over 50% more expensive to travel to Waterford than Cork tomorrow for me.

devnull

I thought they did since they are quota controlled? There is a good bet that the quota will be sold out before the day of departure, maybe that is not the case now because the offer has only just started.

It's always the same with competition though generally, competition will lower prices and areas where there is not the same level of competition prices will not come down as much or as often, that is generally the way things are.

Just look at the Dublin to Belfast bus market for instance, the moment Aircoach came back into that market Translink and BE lowered their online fares to the same price to match them, and JJ Kavanagh also cut their fares when Dublin Coach entered the market.

The same operators that have reduced fares now on such routes haven't reduced fares on other routes where they are the overwhelming dominant or only operator.

bk

Interesting and welcome move by Irish Rail, but to be honest, is looks more like a marketing ploy then a serious attempt at competition.

For instance looking at Friday the 19th of July, Dublin to Cork there are 15 departures

- Only 3 are €10
- 5 are €20
- 7 are €33 !!

And add €3 is booking fees to all of those.

The €10 fees are all very off peak. On the whole it looks like for most people it is still far more expensive to travel by train today then it was a few months ago when you had the €20 three days in advance tickets for any time.

To me it looks like an attempt to just advertise €10 fares, to draw people in, most of whom just end up paying €33 in the end.

It seems to me that Irish Rail keep chopping and changing their ticket strategy to try and come up with the optimum solution and that is to be welcomed.

But I don't think it will work, in the end I think what will work is.

- €15/€20 single at all times, walk up, no need to book online.
- No booking fees

Richard Logue

I'll be travelling from Cork to Dublin next week on an off peak train, I'll report back on how successful or otherwise the promotion is.

LXFlyer

bk wrote: »

Interesting and welcome move by Irish Rail, but to be honest, is looks more like a marketing ploy then a serious attempt at competition.

For instance looking at Friday the 19th of July, Dublin to Cork there are 15 departures

- Only 3 are €10
- 5 are €20
- 7 are €33 !!

And add €3 is booking fees to all of those.

The €10 fees are all very off peak. On the whole it looks like for most people it is still far more expensive to travel by train today then it was a few months ago when you had the €20 three days in advance tickets for any time.

To me it looks like an attempt to just advertise €10 fares, to draw people in, most of whom just end up paying €33 in the end.

It seems to me that Irish Rail keep chopping and changing their ticket strategy to try and come up with the optimum solution and that is to be welcomed.

But I don't think it will work, in the end I think what will work is.

- €15/€20 single at all times, walk up, no need to book online.
- No booking fees

It's also a way of increasing numbers on off-peak services.

The following day (Saturday), six trains each way are €9.99.

foggy_lad

LeftBlank wrote: »

http://www.irishrail.ie/999



Interesting that they don't compare their fares to the bus fares on the same route.

If they compared these very cheap promotional fares to the bus fares they would have to add the luas/bus add on as well as the €3 online fees leaving the fare at €14.60. They might also have to mention that these services are unlikely to have any of the normal cork routes catering car or buffet car and only have the snack trolly.

Slunk

foggy_lad wrote: »

If they compared these very cheap promotional fares to the bus fares they would have to add the luas/bus add on as well as the €3 online fees leaving the fare at €14.60. They might also have to mention that these services are unlikely to have any of the normal cork routes catering car or buffet car and only have the snack trolly.

I'm not sure which services are discounted but it should only be 800 900 1100 and 1600 from Dublin as snack trolley unless unexpected set changes. It wont bother most people as the trolley has most peoples needs

ProudDUB

bk wrote: »

.

The €10 fees are all very off peak. On the whole it looks like for most people it is still far more expensive to travel by train today then it was a few months ago when you had the €20 three days in advance tickets for any time.

On the date that I looked (Tue July 17) there was a 10am train down that was 9.99. The 6.20pm, 7.20pm and 8.20pm trains back to Dublin were all also 9.99. That would suit tourists pretty well, and some one, who wanted to go down for a day trip to see family or whatever.

The 6.20pm train back would also suit someone who had to go down for work & didn't get off work until 5.30 or 6. They would not have to wait around until 9pm, to get the cheaper off peak train home. Granted, they would have to pay the dearer fare for the earlier morning train, if they wanted to put in a full days work, but I think that its a pretty good deal over all.

Hilly Bill

Its ideal for day trippers and i doubt if there was that many that would travel between Dublin and Cork for a daily commute to work.