Carrick on Shannon and buying train tickets online

[fergalfrog]

Thanks for the replies.

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Its more like 100k for a ticket vending machine, otherwise you need to staff the office 18 hours a day

I may be wrong but I don't believe this is true. I am not looking for a vending machine. Castlerea has no vending machine but when you call there with a print off from the web they hand out out the ticket.

Hence a €50 printer would suffice. Also in Carrick on Shannon there seems to be staff selling tickets whenever I get the train so I don't see how there would be more staff hours required.

I disagree too that there is little to be saved. Myself and two others are flying out from Dublin and need to get the train on Monday next as we don't want to leave a car in Dublin for a couple of weeks. This is going to cost us:

€27.50 x 3 = €82.50

as opposed to €30 if bought online.

Hence for a saving of €52.50 it still works out cheaper to drive to another station the day before to collect the ticket.

It's great that 72.5% of stations offer the online service. The fact that they gave printers to stations that have much less demand for them is simply very bad management.

As I said I may be wrong and I don't have the contacts in irish rail that you seem to have but I still believe a colour printer from Lidl would solve this problem.

[Mark Gleeson]

Legally there is no obligation to offer any discounts at all.

The ticket machine is available 24-7, the office if staffed has limited hours. Assuming cash is found every station gets a ticket machine. A frequent complaint from early morning travelers was showing up to find the station locked up and no way to collect the booked ticket from the ticket machine or office, in many cases people paid for a full priced ticket as a result

The booking office issued ticket don't work the turnstiles either which is also a problem which cannot be resolved so collect from the machine is the only option which works

The ticket machine upgrade solved that and more than doubled the number of stations you could collect from overnight. There will be more stations with collection with time, several more in the next few months

Until reservations are available on the evening departures from Dublin, savings on the Sligo line will be hard to obtain

[fergalfrog]

Thanks again for the reply.

The solutions to this problem are very simple and need little or no extra cash - the desire to address the problem just isn't there.

In theory nothing new is needed. If I book online all that needs to happen is that the station can verify my booking is correct and not a forged print-off. This could be as simple as the station getting a list of booking references and names (if no computer then via phone/fax). Then users simply show up with a reference number and ID and are issued with a standard ticket as regular users are.

Finally in relation to:

you can in fact collect anywhere with a machine regardless of what you specified

...just double checking this is correct. I am going to be in Galway over the weekend and so hoping I can collect my Carrick-on-Shannon ticket there as they have a vending machine.

[Thomas Ralph]

Online-booked tickets are distinct from standard tickets as they are tied to a particular train service, and as such can't be issued out of a staff ticket machine. And you retain problems such as that many rural train stations have just a single staff member who sells tickets until the train arrives and then turns into the dispatcher (guy with green flag).

Yes, Galway has ticket vending machines at which reserved tickets may be collected.

[fergalfrog]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

Online-booked tickets are distinct from standard tickets as they are tied to a particular train service, and as such can't be issued out of a staff ticket machine. And you retain problems such as that many rural train stations have just a single staff member who sells tickets until the train arrives and then turns into the dispatcher (guy with green flag).

Yes, Galway has ticket vending machines at which reserved tickets may be collected.

Ah yes good point - I just want Carrick to be brought up to the standard of other stations (Castlerea has a single staff member who sells tickets until the train arrives and then turns into the dispatcher).

I will have a go at collecting my tickets in Galway.

[Mark Gleeson]

You can collect from any station on the list at the payment details screen. It need not be the same as the one you choose.

The list of stations to be upgraded with ticket machines is based on priority. So for instance we have sought that Cobh gets one asap as its very busy and not staffed most of the time and even when staffed can't cope with the queues on busy summers day, there is also a large scale fare evasion issue

The ticket machine solution ensures you can collect the ticket, any investment in the office equipment is wasted if the office is closed which it is more hours than it is open.

We have discussed this issue with Irish Rail several times and its a simple case of when the money is found each station remaining will get upgraded based on priority. At the outset of the reservation project Rosslare and Sligo where expected not to have intercity trains and therefore didn't need reservation equipment.

[finnyus]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

The list of stations to be upgraded with ticket machines is based on priority. So for instance we have sought that Cobh gets one asap as its very busy and not staffed most of the time and even when staffed can't cope with the queues on busy summers day, there is also a large scale fare evasion issue

Hi Mark,

is that going to be addressed? As it is RIFE down here in Cork, on the East Cork lines.

Finbarr