I can't buy a ticket to Edgewordstown at Howth Junction or online

bricks

I need to go from Howth Junction to Edgewordstown, so I look online, It won't let me book the ticket online for reason, no idea why but it tells me which dart I need to get and that I need to change at Connolly. But when I get to Howth Junction there is no-one at the ticket office and the ticket machine doesn't have an option for edgewordstown. So I end up buying a return ticket to Connolly. Then at Connolly I try and change the ticket for a combined one at the station, they can't do that. All they can do is sell me another return ticker from Connolly to Edgewordstown.
So for a day return I end up paying €4.30 + €21.00, online where I couldn't buy a ticket it said it would cost €22.00 total, so I've ended up paying loads extra.
Is there any point in me trying to get Irish Rail to refund the difference?
Its cost me a small fortune to go to Edgewordstown.

goingnowhere

The reason its not sold is because it cheaper to buy two tickets

If you had purchased a through ticket it would have cost almost double

http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_info/fare_calc_2013.php?station_from=HWTHJ&station_to=ETOWN&stage1=Submit+Query

foggy_lad

bricks wrote: »

I need to go from Howth Junction to Edgewordstown, so I look online, It won't let me book the ticket online for reason, no idea why but it tells me which dart I need to get and that I need to change at Connolly. But when I get to Howth Junction there is no-one at the ticket office and the ticket machine doesn't have an option for edgewordstown. So I end up buying a return ticket to Connolly. Then at Connolly I try and change the ticket for a combined one at the station, they can't do that. All they can do is sell me another return ticker from Connolly to Edgewordstown.
So for a day return I end up paying €4.30 + €21.00, online where I couldn't buy a ticket it said it would cost €22.00 total, so I've ended up paying loads extra.
Is there any point in me trying to get Irish Rail to refund the difference?
Its cost me a small fortune to go to Edgewordstown.

Where irish rail can't or fail to sell you a ticket for your journey you are entitled to board the train and buy your tickey on the train or at your destination.

bricks

In any other country it costs less to get a combined day return ticket.
I could have at least used my leapcard had I known in advance that this madness was going to happen.
I've no idea why it doesn't let me book online either.
I think I'll be looking up the bus in future to see if they can do me a better deal.
But from this experience I'll probably find out its even more expensive
I guess with no competition at all for rail services they don't have to change their policies to make sense.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

LXFlyer

bricks wrote: »

In any other country it costs less to get a combined day return ticket.
I could have at least used my leapcard had I known in advance that this madness was going to happen.
I've no idea why it doesn't let me book online either.
I think I'll be looking up the bus in future to see if they can do me a better deal.
But from this experience I'll probably find out its even more expensive
I guess with no competition at all for rail services they don't have to change their policies to make sense.

Online bookings are only allowed for trips involving Intercity trains - they don't allow for DART or Commuter services. The booking system that they have only allows for journeys that have reservable seats - something that DART/Commuter do not have.

The online ticket price from Connolly to Edgeworthstown is discounted over the booking office fare.

Very often across the water journeys such as this, which involve a commuter service and an intercity journey are cheaper with two separate tickets rather than one - it's fairly common to be honest.

markpb

bricks wrote: »

I could have at least used my leapcard had I known in advance that this madness was going to happen.

Maybe you know this already but you can't use your Leap card for journeys to Edgeworthstown - it only extends as far as Balbriggan / Hazelhatch / Maynooth / Greystones.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

n97 mini

Ironically you can buy a ticket from Clapham Junction to Longford, online too.

bricks

I guess I need to think of them as being like Craggy Island Railroad.
I never thought of trying to book online from Connolly to Longford.

Hilly Bill

foggy_lad wrote: »

Where irish rail can't or fail to sell you a ticket for your journey you are entitled to board the train and buy your tickey on the train or at your destination.

Thats not an issue here.

foggy_lad

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Thats not an issue here.

bricks wrote: »

I need to go from Howth Junction to Edgewordstown, so I look online, It won't let me book the ticket online for reason, no idea why but it tells me which dart I need to get and that I need to change at Connolly. But when I get to Howth Junction there is no-one at the ticket office and the ticket machine doesn't have an option for edgewordstown. So I end up buying a return ticket to Connolly. Then at Connolly I try and change the ticket for a combined one at the station, they can't do that. All they can do is sell me another return ticker from Connolly to Edgewordstown.
So for a day return I end up paying €4.30 + €21.00, online where I couldn't buy a ticket it said it would cost €22.00 total, so I've ended up paying loads extra.
Is there any point in me trying to get Irish Rail to refund the difference?
Its cost me a small fortune to go to Edgewordstown.

The op could have got on and travelled to Edgeworthstown and bought their ticket there as detailed in the conditions of carriage. A ticket could not be purchased for their journey at the station they intended travelling from. It is an issue as the OP did not know at the time of travel that it is cheaper to get two tickets for the journey than buying a through ticket.

n97 mini

Why don't IE offer the option to purchase a ticket from any train station to any other train station on their network? The network isn't that big. Is it laziness? Lack of accountability... like who is actually responsible for this failing?

bikeman1

You can buy a ticket from any booking office that is open from any station to any station. However, they will put in the codes and it will give the full fare. As we know it is probably cheaper to buy an advance ticket online for part of a journey, say Dublin - Cork and then buy a single to Fota.

I have got a through ticket from a DART station to Limerick including the luas. I have also purchased a dart ticket from and to a station I wasn't buying it at!

In this case the if the booking office was open at Howth Junction, a through ticket could be bought. If the local office doesn't know the codes or have the latest promotional codes, they can ring up say Connolly or Heuston and find what they are and put them in on the machine.

However the lovely TVMs don't do this, but that is progress.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

n97 mini

bikeman1 wrote: »

You can buy a ticket from any booking office that is open from any station to any station

Vast majority of stations on the network don't have booking offices that are generally open, and this is becoming more common, so it's a bit of a moot point.

L1011

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Pointlessly. People cope absolutely fine abroad with full station lists on much bigger networks. Tweak the selection for the front screen and most won't even use the list. The TVMs in the Southern area of England even take account of event related and tidal traffic for the quicklist, e.g. Falmer is on it on matchdays but not every day