best way to travel from carlow to galway

vale95

hello, i'll be starting uni this September in galway, I live in Carlow and i'll be coming home every weekend or twice a month.
what's the best way to travel, train or bus? I was looking at train fares and it's so expensive and I cant afford that will bus be better? and will I have to be changing a lot?

saltyjack silverblade

vale95 wrote: »

hello, i'll be starting uni this September in galway, I live in Carlow and i'll be coming home every weekend or twice a month.
what's the best way to travel, train or bus? I was looking at train fares and it's so expensive and I cant afford that will bus be better? and will I have to be changing a lot?

Is that including the student fare? I can see return fare for 22euro on the train.

pourquoi

To be honest, there's no easy way from Carlow to Galway.

Time-wise, car is the fastest (2.5-3 hours). The fastest route is Carlow Town-->Portlaoise-->Tullamore-->Athlone-->M6-->Galway

Buses are hideously long (4-6 hours, sometimes including stopovers, depending on which company).

The train, on balance, is probably the best option. Haven't taken it in a while, but it was €20 return I think with a valid student ID. You have to change in either Kildare or Portarlington. The annoying thing is that there's really only one option to make it home for the weekend: the 6.30 train from Galway. It takes about 3.5 hours to get to Carlow Station. Slightly shorter if you're collected by parents at Kildare/Portarlington.

I'm from Carlow and rarely get home, perhaps twice a semester. My parents drove up to see me instead, or collected me and brought me home.

Not the most upbeat of posts, I know, but I just thought you should know the reality. :P

Having said that, Galway is great craic! You'll not want to go home!