Irish Rail approaches the last stop?

[plant43]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

RUI is a passenger organization; parcel/freight isn't really a focus.

Fastrack was different in that you didn't need to be a business to use it. I know a few people that found it a cost effective and fast way to transport goods, very few of them would have been business customers and all of them would have been passengers too.

While it might not seem like a passenger issue, it does reduce the level of sevice that is offered to the general public, both passengers and non-passengers.

[dowlingm]

Why won‘t passengers use ticket machines?

[Thomas Ralph]

Decent point, although our train ticketing system is orders of magnitude simpler than the Great British one (ever tried the National Routeing Guide?). To take a bad example, if you're getting a return train ticket from central London to Gatwick Airport, there are literally dozens of options, with fares differing depending on the time of day for both your outbound and return journeys, whether you're returning same day or not, and whether your ticket is valid on one, two, or all three train operating companies that run on that line. And that's before looking at standard vs. first class or railcards.

[crc]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

To take a bad example, if you're getting a return train ticket from central London to Gatwick Airport, there are literally dozens of options

As it happens I travelled from Victoria to Gatwick twice in the last two weeks (though in neither case from Gatwick).
The first time, I though the a single ticket would cost me £8.90, but it ended up costing me £10.90 when I got to the TVM (more than I expected, but not enough to make me join the queue to speak to a human).
The second time, a few days before, I went online (www.nationalrail.co.uk) to check the price and found I could get the ticket for £3, but I couldn't actually buy the ticket on that website. I was told to use the website of a train operating company (but the company operating the route - Southern - wasn't listed). I tried a 3rd party ticket seller first, but their fees amounted to £3.50, more than the cost of the ticket! Then I tried a random other train operator to see if it would work. I used Grand Central (who operate nowhere near either Victoria or Gatwick) and got the ticket for £3 with no extra fees.
That kind of situation is utterly baffling to the casual user (i.e. me) and I'm sure discourages people from travelling.

[Mark Gleeson]

Thankfully we are not in that mess

Its either

saver day return
day return
5 day return
monthly return

One of the few good things about Irish Rail is there are only a small number of ticket types and the conditions are fairly simple. The price they charge is a different issue.

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by crc

As it happens I travelled from Victoria to Gatwick twice in the last two weeks (though in neither case from Gatwick).
The first time, I though the a single ticket would cost me £8.90, but it ended up costing me £10.90 when I got to the TVM (more than I expected, but not enough to make me join the queue to speak to a human).

For standard anytime single tickets, £8.90 is from London to Gatwick route FCC Only. £10.90 is from London to Gatwick route Southern Only.

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Thankfully we are not in that mess

Its either

saver day return
day return
5 day return
monthly return

student return, but not with any old student card
adult single that costs almost as much as a return
faircard return
weekender return, if you're lucky enough to still have a weekender card
kid+family outing

Not always as easy

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Thankfully we are not in that mess

Its either

saver day return
day return
5 day return
monthly return

One of the few good things about Irish Rail is there are only a small number of ticket types and the conditions are fairly simple. The price they charge is a different issue.

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

student return, but not with any old student card
adult single that costs almost as much as a return
faircard return
weekender return, if you're lucky enough to still have a weekender card
kid+family outing

Not always as easy

Also contract single.

[ccos]

Returns are discounted tickets, the single fare is the correct one

most countrys don't discount much on return tickets, sometimes on day returns, weekend returns are rare. mostly I buy singles theres more chance of me losing the return ticket then saving any money with it.

This group is for rail users, were fastrack customers not rail users?