WRC - Finally Online

[berneyarms]

I see that at long last tickets on the WRC route between Limerick and Galway can be purchased online.

It's been a long time coming!

[Mark Gleeson]

Went live Monday, still some issues

Note this is ticket only, no reservation

It has been possible to book WRC tickets before but not directly through the journey planner

[comcor]

Excellent

And there seems to be an attempt at demand based pricing with tickets on sale for €5.99

That creates its own anomaly, with €22 being charged for the trip between Limerick Junction and Limerick if you want it as a through ticket.

Any chance of cheap fares being rolled out on Cork-Tralee or Limerick Junction-Waterford?

[Mark Gleeson]

This is purely to keep politicians happy. Full any to any booking requires a new IT system which is being planned currently

WRC covers only 2% of its costs

[berneyarms]

Mark, frankly the absence of a reservation on this line is hardly the issue. The inability to book online has been, and rightly so.

Being able to book it online is a positive development and might just entice more people to use it.

We've seen several positive moves this week on the website, yet all I see from RUI is negativity. For sure it doesn't resolve all of the issues, but a few positive words wouldn't go astray.

[Jamie2k9]

The inability to book online has been, and rightly so.

Come off it, booking online is only useful if its cheaper to do and by a good amount, once the booking fee's are added on the savings are next to nothing. It will do nothing to improve numbers but as already said TD's will be happy.

[berneyarms]

It was one part of the problem, and an utterly ridiculous one at that.

No it's not going to turn the line into a success story at all, but people might be more tempted to try it.

Online fares are significantly cheaper - €5.99 Adult single and €9 return for students.

[Inniskeen]

This is purely to keep politicians happy. Full any to any booking requires a new IT system which is being planned currently

WRC covers only 2% of its costs

Would you care to share the % by which other routes/services cover their costs ?

How about Dunboyne/M3, Greystones/Rosslare, KRP stations Parkwest to Adamstown ?

[Mark Gleeson]

Network average is over 50%

It has been possible to book to/from WRC stations for ages, this is just for the regional Galway - Limerick section.

Irish Rail has expended a very significant amount of time and resources in hacking its system to allow for the WRC in this way. We are very much of the opinion that time could have been spent elsewhere where it could have generated a far greater benefit to passengers and the bottom line.

That opinion is supported by the lack of complaints or feedback we have received

The bulk of our discussions in recent months with Irish Rail have hit the response we are tied up with the WRC, that change will have to wait...

We are still waiting for Pearse, Dun Laoghaire, Adamstown, Parkwest, Clondalkin to be added plus fixes for a number of fare inconsistencies. Irish Rail fully agrees with our view that our suggestions are, a) sensible, b) easy to implement, c) will increase revenue, but a higher power said WRC must come first. We did get Sallins working though

[joey]

Very good...
Any danger the €2 booking fee could be scrapped or even reduced at best? Didn't the EU force Ryanair into doing something similar whereas here we have a state body extorting extra money from consumers.

[Mark Gleeson]

Not illegal under EU and what is sold is different to what is sold at the booking office.

[Thomas Ralph]

For Ryanair it was the UK Office of Fair Trading that told them all unavoidable fees have to be rolled up into the headline price. No such rule in Ireland and IÉ does not sell tickets originating from the UK.

[joey]

I was sure London Kings Cross was on the journey planner option...:D