[article] Rail Users in Ireland paying more for a weaker service

[Mark Gleeson]

Sunday Tribune today bottom page 9

Text shortly, tribune website currently available

[MOH]

Link

RAIL travel in Ireland is the second most expensive in Europe, despite frequent customer complaints that the service is below European standards with too few trains, not enough late night services and a skewed pricing system.

Figures provided by the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable show that Irish rates are the second most expensive behind the UK and alongside Germany, with an average cost of 22 per 100km.

This compares with 17 in Austria, 12 in Belgium, 7 in Poland and 4 in Slovakia.

"The key thing here is that if we were getting a European level of service, then we wouldn't mind paying an expensive fair, " said Mark Gleeson of Rail Users Ireland. "As it is, the service is ridiculously slow, the service frequencies aren't great and the fare system is ridiculously complicated. The whole system needs to be overhauled, yet we are still paying over-inflated prices. It doesn't make any sense."

Research undertaken by Rail Users Ireland has discovered anomalies in the rail system whereby passengers travelling from Dublin to other parts of the country end up paying significantly more than people travelling from the country to the capital city.

"The cheapest return fare from Dublin to Cork is 64.50 but if you're travelling return from Cork to Dublin then you pay 46.50, " Gleeson said. "The whole thing is geared towards travelling to Dublin while passengers in Dublin have to pay more. A lot of people have been complaining about those fares."

According to Rail Users Ireland, train schedules are "still serving a Victorian community", with many last trains leaving as early as 7pm every evening. "You can get trains to Dublin at 5am but not after 7pm at night, when people are still coming out of the office, " said Gleeson. Overcrowded lines such as Maynooth to Dublin (dubbed the 'Calcutta Express' by locals) and Portlaoise to Dublin are also becoming "unbearable", he added. "There are people standing on trains that aren't designed for standing passengers. They're only short of sitting on the roof."

The spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann, Barry Kenny, said that figures the company has show that Ireland is 40% below the European average when it comes to rail fares. "Our single fares are certainly higher, but when return fares are taken into account, this is not the case at all, " he said.

[Garrett]

said Mark Gleeson of Rail Users Ireland. "... and the fare system is ridiculously complicated"

Great to hear you say it out loud Mark. This is my one (and only?) area of "expertise" when it comes to public transport.

Barry Kenny ... "Our single fares are certainly higher, but when return fares are taken into account, this is not the case at all... "

This one particularly pisses me off. Whereas the European trend is to move towards one-way ticket systems, IE thinks that they know best. I hate paying more simply because I may decide to get a train on the inward journey and then a Bus Eireann coach on the return trip.

[Mark Gleeson]

I have spent several hours over the last two weeks trying to develop a fares calculator for our website, we have a draft system for part of the network complete. It was painfully complicated to write as Irish Rail use a totally logical structure and then bolt on an obscene number of variants. We have people checking fares all over the place so we can validate our system

In fact we have discovered Irish Rail can't even calculate the fares themselves in some cases

End of the day no one has a problem paying a euro standard fare for a euro standard service. This certainly ain't Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland etc

An efficient, reliable, clean, punctual service running at times to meet public expectation is what we want, efficient, reliable, clean, punctual are not terms anyone will associate with IE

Dublin Sligo return is the same as a single, there are heaps of discounts from Munster to Dublin but none from Dublin to Munster, no one can explain that

[dermo88]

Thats easily explained Mark

Dubliners generally have higher levels of disposable income than those in the regions. Therefore those going from the regions to the capital get the discounts. Those going from Dublin to the regions don't, and they are likely to be less price sensitive.

I could be wrong, but thats how I interpret it.

[Mark Gleeson]

I don't buy that

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by dermo88

Dubliners generally have higher levels of disposable income than those in the regions. Therefore those going from the regions to the capital get the discounts. Those going from Dublin to the regions don't, and they are likely to be less price sensitive.

I could be wrong, but thats how I interpret it.

I hope what you mean is that this is how you interpret IE's behaviour on the matter. If IE, or anybody else, actually believes that such behaviour would be acceptable then they require some serious headbanging against a wall. That's just my humble opinion.

I just hope there's a more "logical" explanation, say for example that it's easier to get people living in Dublin onto trains than the rest of the population, so IE can keep return trips which start in Dublin priced artificially high and get away with it.