Cork/Galway to Dublin train for 9.99E

September1

This ticket ploy is called hidden city ticketing and works like that. Typical online advance purchase fare on irishrail.ie from Galway or Cork to Dublin costs 19.99E however tickets between Galway and Cork cost only 9.99E and some require changing train in Dublin - where journey ends. Just be careful as not all Galway <-> Cork connections go through Dublin Heuston.

calnand

You'll have a problem with the barriers at hueston, but it doesn't make sense that Cork -Dublin is twice the price of Cork - Dublin

Zynks

Nice one!

AS1890

I booked Cork to Galway yesterday for the Galway Races. Going on 31st of July and coming back the 3rd of August.

€57.94 for 3 Adults return. That's only €19.98 PP. Great Value. The journey is 4hours 20mins but it beats driving.

Quackster

If you're traveling out of Heuston to Cork or Galway and plan on using this trick, you can simply buy the cheapest child single ticket from a vending machine to Park West for €1.20 and that will get you through the barriers.

Coming the other way is where it gets tricky though. If you're traveling Heuston-Cork-Heuston or Heuston-Galway-Heuston, you could buy a child open return to Sallins & Naas for €8 and that will get you through the barriers at Heuston on to the train that day and through the barriers off the train and out of Heuston any number of times within the next month.

I can't see how to manage doing Cork-Heuston-Cork or Galway-Heuston-Galway though.

I should point out at this stage though that this is strictly against the Irish Rail conditions of carriage and if you do this, you do this entirely at your own risk!!

moodrater

Surely you can just ask an attendant to let you thrpugh on the cork/hueston direction you're not a prisoner of irish rail there are a million and one reasons you might have to terminate your journey early.

schemingbohemia

I didn't think Boards promoted theft?

Muahahaha

Is it theft though? From what I can see the trick is you buy a ticket from Cork to Galway that transits via Dublin. You're then getting off in Dublin and when you need to get beyond the ticket barriers to get back to Cork from Dublin you just buy a cheap single to do so. It seems to me you've still paid for your train travel, all you've done is take advantage of an anomoly in the ticketing system to get yourself there cheaper.

I must say its a bit bizarre that Cork to Galway via Hueston is cheaper than Cork to just Hueston, Irish Rail shouldnt be too surprised if people take advantage of that, albeit while still holding a ticket for the trains they're travelling on.

Quackster

Muahahaha wrote: »

Is it theft though? From what I can see the trick is you buy a ticket from Cork to Galway that transits via Dublin. You're then getting off in Dublin and when you need to get beyond the ticket barriers to get back to Cork from Dublin you just buy a cheap single to do so. It seems to me you've still paid for your train travel, all you've done is take advantage of an anomoly in the ticketing system to get yourself there cheaper.

I must say its a bit bizarre that Cork to Galway via Hueston is cheaper than Cork to just Hueston, Irish Rail shouldnt be too surprised if people take advantage of that, albeit while still holding a ticket for the trains they're travelling on.

Irish Rail do classify it as fare evasion and if you're caught, they will not hesitate slapping a €100 fine on you. Plus the cost of the ticket you should have bought.

It's not uncommon for them to run promotional fares between two stations where they want to encourage travel between those two stations which results in tickets to intermediate stations between the two costing more.

That's why part of their ticket T&Cs are that if you buy a ticket from A to B, you must travel the complete journey from A to B. There are some exceptions to this rule but they don't apply in the case of web bookings.

paconnors

You're forgetting one thing say Galway - Dublin train comes in on platform 1, Dublin - Cork goes out on Platform 5, you still have to exit the turnstiles on platform 1 to get to platform 5 so hypothetically you could take a wrong turn and head for the exits...

utyh2ikcq9z76b

Not against terms

8. Break of journey
8.1 Except as may be specified in the publications and notices of and applicable
to Iarnród Éireann, the holder of an single ticket may break his or her journey
at intermediate stations on any route for which the ticket is valid within the
period of validity of the ticket.

Quackster

paconnors wrote: »

You're forgetting one thing say Galway - Dublin train comes in on platform 1, Dublin - Cork goes out on Platform 5, you still have to exit the turnstiles on platform 1 to get to platform 5 so hypothetically you could take a wrong turn and head for the exits...

You don't have to exit the barriers to get from platform 1 to platform 5 but you probably would to get from platforms 1-5 to platforms 6-8 and vice versa. So yes, you may well be able to come up with a genuine excuse for exciting the barriers. Indeed, the ticket may well even be configured to allow you exit and re-enter at Heuston.

But as I already said, anyone trying this does so at their own risk!

Quackster

Elisa Odd Farmhouse wrote: »

Not against terms

Yep, that's true for tickets bought at a ticket office or vending machine that are valid for the entire day but doesn't apply to tickets bought online that are tied to a specific service.

And even where that applies, if you do break your journey and don't reboard the same day to complete the journey the ticket is valid for, you're still technically breaking the T&Cs if by
doing so you've avoided paying the full fare for the journey you've actually completed.

But of course, failure to reboard to complete your journey is completely unenforceable!

rob316

schemingbohemia wrote: »

I didn't think Boards promoted theft?

Theft? You must live like a Monk :rolleyes:

J_E

Quackster wrote: »

You don't have to exit the barriers to get from platform 1 to platform 5 but you probably would to get from platforms 1-5 to platforms 6-8 and vice versa. So yes, you may well be able to come up with a genuine excuse for exciting the barriers. Indeed, the ticket may well even be configured to allow you exit and re-enter at Heuston.

But as I already said, anyone trying this does so at their own risk!

Not for Heuston - there is a side path that you can go to beside platform 5 that leads to the others - you can switch between all the platforms regardless of which ticket barrier you enter through. I think people are making too big of a deal of this, I've always been under the impression that when you buy a ticket between two places you are perfectly entitled to end the journey at any stop between the two places.

schemingbohemia wrote: »

I didn't think Boards promoted theft?

Rail fares are extortionate between some locations... I wouldn't call availing of a promotional offer theft.