[Article] Plane cheaper than train
 

Today's Sunday Times. Marko's quoted near the end.

Mr Kenny stated that Irish Rail do not charge fees for paying by credit card.
This is not correct as they charge a €2 fee if you pay with a credit card.

Problem with train is in ireland is that they are to slow

Inaccuracies on both sides here

As stated Irish Rail now charge for credit cards, though not for laser cards.

Also for pre-booking Ryanair might be cheaper if booked far enough in advance but for next day (or even same day) booking Irish Rail come out better for cost

Cheapest single fare Dublin-Cork return with Ryanair tomorrow is 52 euro.

Cheapest single fare Dublin-Cork return with Irish Rail tomorrow is 10 euro (or 12 euro if booked by CC).

that link is not working for me.

"You are selecting to book a flight for travel today. Only flights due to depart more than 6 hours from the current time are available for booking online. For same day travel you must check-in online and print your boarding pass after booking completion.

Online check-in closes strictly 4 hours prior to scheduled departure."

Also, Irish rail say the platforms close 2 minutes before departure, Ryanair say "You should be at the boarding gate at least 30 minutes prior to scheduled departure. Boarding closes 20 minutes prior to departure." Make that a minimum of 40 minutes if checking in luggage.

Irish Rail deliver you to train stations, Ryanair deliver you to airports. It will depend on your ultimate destination which is better for you.

Other Ryanair fees http://www.ryanair.com/en/questions/table-of-fees

Terms and conditions http://www.ryanair.com/en/terms-and-conditions

Ryanair, 3 flights per day on Saturday-Sunday, 5 flights per day on weekdays.*http://www.bookryanair.com/skysales/FRTimeTable.aspx

Irish Rail, 10-11 trains per day on Sunday, 14 trains per day other days (+1-2 change at Mallow). http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey...timetables.asp

The normal cash fares for most routes are ridiculous particularly when you compare single and returns

Its trivial to find the cheapest flight for a given set of dates, its nigh on impossible to find the cheapest train unless you check each train individually and even then there are fares outside the online system such as the day saver return from Cork which only comes into play if you seek a return journey which is even harder to price online

If you find the cheap seats (which do exist) you get excellent value and under far more reasonable T&C's than the airlines, but as always with Irish Rail its the communication and information that is lacking