View Full Version : Cheap web fares
Thomas Ralph
23-12-2009, 10:47
There appears to have been a reshuffle on what trains are eligible for the lower fares.
Thomas Ralph
23-12-2009, 11:21
At first glance Dublin-Cork €10 fares are available Mon 1000/1400/2100, Tue-Thur 1000/1100/1400/2100, Fri 1000/2100, Sat 0700/1400/2100, Sun 0825. Cork-Dublin €10 fare Mon/Fri 0505/0930/2030, Tue-Thur 0505/0930/1030/2030, Sat 0505/0630/2030, nothing on Sunday. Looks like a decent effort at redirecting people towards less-busy trains.
Mark Gleeson
18-08-2010, 11:24
There will be a major change in coming days. There should be more trains with cheap seats.
So the advice is book early, the earlier you book the more likely you are to get a bigger discount. Avoid booking the day of travel.
There is fixed 2 euro transaction fee for Laser/Debit and 3 euro for Credit cards. It will become clear in the coming weeks why this is the case and I think some people may be surprised.
A fix is in for visa debit cards, if you have a visa debit card and the system doesn't like it, let us know the bank and the first 6 digits of the card. Permanent TSB cards may not work right now as debit cards but will soon. They still work as visa credit cards though
Is there any possibility that they'll look at the pricing of routes that aren't to or from Dublin?
It always strikes me as absurd that a Cork-Killarney fare can be double a Cork-Dublin one, even though it's less than half the distance and the train is often half-empty.
Mark Gleeson
18-08-2010, 12:32
There are already discounted day return fares on that route
The lowest discounted online fare for an adult is 10 euro (for now anyway)
But day returns aren't great when you want to go for the weekend!
A 10 Euro one-way Cork-Killarney fare would be grand.
And, like I said, with a few exceptions the trains are mostly going round ith unoccupied seats.
Colm Moore
18-08-2010, 18:18
And, like I said, with a few exceptions the trains are mostly going round ith unoccupied seats.Any time I've seen a connection at Mallow, the train can be quite busy, but sure, I imagine things are thinning out at Killarney.
There will be a major change in coming days. There should be more trains with cheap seats.
I see my occasional Friday 7pm Dublin to Cork train has jumped up from €20 to €36 :-(. I hope this will be reducible in future by booking well in advance or I'll book well in advance and fly instead.
What sort of a discount would you get if you book earlier instead of the day of travel?
For instance if booked the Friday 17:00 to Cork tonight and return journey on the 18:30 what discount would I get? I could see any price difference from the €72 which is the full price.
Mark Gleeson
24-08-2010, 21:45
The full new system is working on one route currently. I can certainly confirm that all trains start at 10 euro and as seats are sold the price goes to 15 and so on until it hits the maximum fare as is current.
The fares won't get cheaper as the date of travel looms near, the sooner you book the cheaper the fare will be compared to what you will pay on the day. Booking on the date of travel should be avoided as the 10 euro fare will not be available regardless of seats sold.
I can't state what the lowest fare will be when the system goes fully live but lets face it, its going to be less than current. How low you will just have to wait.
If you are not traveling this weekend, wait till next Monday, something magical might just happen.
The full new system is working on one route currently.
It's the Galway route, as per The Sunday Times yesterday.
Mark Gleeson
30-08-2010, 22:48
Galway went live last Wednesday. There is more fun to come in the next month or so.
haddockman
04-09-2010, 20:55
Are the cheaper fares available for travel from intermediate stations?
Mark Gleeson
04-09-2010, 21:04
Yes
Checked the 19:15 Tralee-Dublin service for today (Friday) on Thursday evening and it was showing at €36 despite the fact that there was virtually nobody booked on it at the time. So it seems that prices are being automatically hiked to the maximum before the actual day of travel??
Whatever the story, bookings on this particular service appear to have been absolutely decimated by this recent 'improvement'.
Fortunately I'm not travelling again until next weekend and now I have been warned! :)
Just checked Saturday's and Monday's 19:15 services now and they too are priced at €36 despite being practically empty. Tuesday's is currently €10.
So that suggests prices are getting hiked 3 days beforehand??
topnotch
17-09-2010, 16:34
There appears to have been a reshuffle on what trains are eligible for the lower fares.
Yea it now appears that there are none.:mad:
Colm Moore
17-09-2010, 21:25
The National Plough Championships is on next week and some colleges are back.
This may have affected things http://railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=12759
Mark Gleeson
20-09-2010, 12:41
I can now confirm FREE tickets are now online. Book far enough in advance on Dublin Galway and chances are a zero cost for you.
1234
Now it becomes clear why there is a 2 euro transaction charge, you have to pay something to complete the transaction.
I would have thought that Irish rail need to be careful about imposing compulsory charges like this. Better to have a 2 euro fare and a way of paying without charges like Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Irish Ferries and Stena Line all do.
Someone with enough of a mind to could challenge this easily.
Incidentally, much as I prefer travelling by train, I have just booked a 6 euro (with no transaction fee) Friday evening flight from Dublin to Cork in November which looks like it would have cost 36 by train, plus a transaction fee, if indeed I could book more than 28 days in advance. I hope Dublin to Cork becomes demand based soon. They lost me this time.
I can now confirm FREE tickets are now online. Book far enough in advance on Dublin Galway and chances are a zero cost for you.
1234
Now it becomes clear why there is a 2 euro transaction charge, you have to pay something to complete the transaction.
More that by gouging 2 or 3 euro on every booking they're offsetting (or even covering?) the cost of the (very limited) free tickets.
They could have just charged a cent for the 'free' fares.
Anyone know when the cheaper fares will be available across the board. I'm a weekly user of the Dublin to Sligo route.
Colm Moore
17-10-2010, 20:00
I don't know. The Galway-Dublin route does have a lot of competition on it, hence it was first.
Mark Gleeson
20-10-2010, 13:01
Irish Rail has gone public with the free tickets as of lunchtime today
It is in theory possible for 6 people to travel return Dublin Galway for the grand sum of 2 euro, which can't be beaten. Discount codes are set against the full cost so someone did manage a single for 1.60 earlier this month.
Fares are demand based
1. Avoid Friday and Sunday afternoons
2. Book as far ahead possible
3. Many trains on bank holiday weekend are already heavily booked.
4. Single fares are 0, 10, 15 & 25 euro
The 0 fares exist on a wide range of services on the route
Thomas Ralph
20-10-2010, 15:19
They've published a Facebook thing saying the fares are free, which of course they are not due to the transaction fee. I'm off to the ASAI on that.
They've published a Facebook thing saying the fares are free, which of course they are not due to the transaction fee. I'm off to the ASAI on that.
They are classifying the 2 euro as a "transaction charge" so they're probably covered.
my da was travelling to dublin this weekend, he and my mam have free passes and were getting another ticket for their granddaughter. He tried to book the ticket online for the granddaughter and then reserve 3 seats for them all but the system doesnt allow it, which in my opinion is nuts. He then went to the station and asked the lady at the ticket desk for a single and to reserve 3 seats, she was going to charge him something like €59 euro even though the online fare was the €20 special (which he couldnt do because he couldnt reserve tickets online for thise with the travel pass), but the lady at the ticket counter told him, in fairness to her, to walk around the corner, literally around the corner, to the "travel centre" where they sold him the €20 ticket and reserved his seats. Have you ever heard the likes? you couldnt make it up.
Mark Gleeson
01-02-2011, 09:21
The system does allow it
Select three passengers on the homepage and then complete as normal
Colm Moore
01-02-2011, 09:39
What he needed to do was buy two "reservation only" tickets (each 3 euro) on-line and one webfare.
If either grandparent has a companion pass they could have gone for three "reservation only" tickets. I'm not certain, but I suspect the companion needs to be over a certain age (16?).
Once you have selected the train, you get a screen with:
Select your ticket
Passenger Choose Ticket Type First Name Last Name
Under "Choose Ticket Type", it gives the option for:Adult - 20.00
Child - 10.00
Railcard/Taxsaver Loyalty - 35.50
Student - 32.50
Reserve Seat - 3.00Just select Reserve Seat and fill in the rest of the details.
Of course, if you are at the station already, reservations are often not needed.
i stand corrected, many thanks for that, will pass on the info.........
i see they got an increase in fares today. Losing passengers at a rate of knots so INCREASE the fares. Hilarious. Faster trains Irish Rail! just get faster trains. Oh, and do an actual link up with sports and concert and event bodies, with the integrated ticket that doesnt exist. Sit down with their accountants, work out a deal, everyone happy.
Mark Gleeson
08-02-2011, 10:13
Intercity fares journeys more than 25 euro are excluded from the increase. Online fares are excluded as they are not controlled. So don't expect the base 10 euro fare to change
Irish Rail has chartered numerous trains to the IRFU in recent months and special deals are offered to FAI/GAA clubs for major matches. The risk is borne by the charterer. These are not shown in the online journey planner so go unnoticed.
The data protection act has put a block on offering any kind of focused offering. Ticketmaster and co know the addresses of every single ticket purchaser but can't tell Irish Rail the numbers in each town/city/county
The new Irish Rail website will show prices up front making it easier to find cheaper fares
Surely the big reason for the drop in passengers is just the increase in unemployment
300,000 extra on the live register.
If 1% of them were commuting by rail, that's 3,000 people who aren't making 500 journeys a year. 1.5 million journeys gone.
While as a regular InterCity user, I'd love to see faster trains, I'd say that you'd have to make them significantly faster to win new users. On the route I use most often (Cork-Dublin), the timing for car and train are roughly similar (2:30-2:45). So, knocking 15 minutes off that isn't going to have a huge impact on customer choice. You need to bring it down to something like 1:45 before it becomes a major selling point.
Mark Gleeson
08-02-2011, 14:06
But the spin hides the following fact
Rail passenger numbers 2010 39.65 million AN INCREASE OF 3%
that's fair enough, there has been links up with the FAI, Munster Rugby etc but the fact is that this could have and should have been done ages ago. I believe entirely that there could be massive efficiencies within Irish rail if it is reformed from the ground up. Everything seems to be reactive rather than proactive. the webfares is something that could have been done ages ago, where is the integrated ticket? How many millions have been spent on that?
i just think Irish rail move and reform slower than one of their own trains. I know it's because we are a small country and dont have the money but 2 and a half hours to get a train to Dublin? 160 odd miles? for gods sake.
Mark Gleeson
09-02-2011, 10:06
Charters have been there for decades, in fact what was probably the very first chartered train anywhere in the world took place in Ireland, guy called Thomas Cook paid for it, wonder what happened to him...
Believe it or not when a proper independent assessment is performed Dublin Belfast rail journey time is exactly on the EU 27 average for comparable city pairs
Irish Rail offer fully integrated ticket options, just ask
Cobh - Larne works
Galway - London works
Any station in the Republic of Ireland to any rail station in Northern Ireland is available at any booking office. It is also possible to go from any station in Ireland to any in the UK. All on a single ticket
tremendous but i just want to get to Dublin quickly and the train is only the same time as a car, which is daft. Perhaps one day Irish rail might publicise these things instead of a Rail Users forum.
Dubliner30
31-03-2011, 10:08
Hey lads,
Trying to book tickets for my Mam. Traveling back from Galway>Dublin on Apr 27.
When I checked the fare its telling me Web Fare is €1 but when i go to the screen to book it
Adult - 25.00
Child - ??
Railcard/Taxsaver Loyalty - ****
Student - ****
Reserve Seat - ????
Am i doing something wrong? Do i have to wait a few days?
Please advise?
Mark Gleeson
31-03-2011, 10:18
Works fine for me on the 05:05 train on April 27th
The 1 euro offer is strictly limited in availability only a few seats on each train are available at that price. If someone booked the last 1 euro seat the fare would go up immediately
It would help if we knew which train it was
Mark Gleeson
18-04-2011, 13:48
Latest iteration went live over the weekend
Yield managed fares should now apply on the Dublin Cork route, so book far enough in advance and you should see 10 euro fares on most trains
Book for today and you should see only 36 euro as discounts are not offered on day of travel beyond the normal web fare
Yield managed fares should now apply on the Dublin Cork route, so book far enough in advance and you should see 10 euro fares on most trains
Great news! Not good news for Bus Eireann or Mr O'Leary's one remaining daily Dublin to Cork shuttle (can you believe he used to have 5 each way only a couple of years ago?), though I suppose some will always prefer the plane.
Mark Gleeson
18-04-2011, 19:03
You can even get 10 euro on the 17:00 Dublin Cork on a Friday if you book ahead
Big advice DO NOT BOOK ON DAY OF TRAVEL you will always pay the full price regardless of seats available
Colm Moore
18-04-2011, 19:27
Great news! Not good news for Bus Eireann or Mr O'Leary's one remaining daily Dublin to Cork shuttle (can you believe he used to have 5 each way only a couple of years ago?), though I suppose some will always prefer the plane.I think Ryanair only had about 3 return Cork-Dublin flights, but before that Aer Arann had 8 return flights with smaller aircraft, which dropped to about 3.
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