This article is from page 17 of the 2011-04-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
IRISH Rail is planning a clampdown on passengers who buy discount offpeak tickets to travel from Clare to Dublin and other destinations.
With the train service between Ennis, Sixmilebridge and Limerick becoming an increasingly popular way for people to head for the capital for sporting and music events, or just for a weekend away, passengers are also taking advantage of the off-peak bargains available in rail travel.
But those who try to cheat the system by booking off-peak on-line and then travelling on peak-service trains on those tickets are facing fines of € 100 as well as having to cough up for the ticket they were supposed to buy.
Fares to Dublin are available online at discount rates on the Friday 5.30am, 10am, 11am and 20.55pm services. But with those fares costing either € 10 or € 15, many passengers are trying to pay the minimum while hitching a ride on the busiest trains.
A spokeswoman for Irish Rail said that when a passenger “reserves a ticket on a particular train it’s not transferable to another service. If you want to use that ticket on another train then you are obliged to pay a surcharge of € 20.”
Irish Rail have placed ticket checkers on trains and passengers found trying to use their discount tickets on full-fare routes face having to pay a fine of € 100 as well as the full cost of the ticket they need to travel on that service.
“Revenue protection and fare evasion is something we take very seriously and we have invested a lot in that area to ensure that it is effective,” the spokeswoman said.