Student fare on the train...

JohnCleary

Myself and the GF are going from Galway to Dublin for a night next month (Too lazy to take the car)

We are both student (I'm in an IT, she's in a Uni)

My question is, to avail of student fares, will our college ID's (Both in date) be acceptable? I've heard something before about CIE needing a special student card?

dermot_sheehan

www.studenttravelcard.ie

You need a special id card from this crowd

MarkoP11

You will need to have the offical studenttravel card to get the cheaper fares nothing else will be accepted

If you get one in September it will be valid to December the following year but they won't issue such unless you have a 2006-7 college id

There is a walk in centre in NUIG which issues them on the spot

There will follow the customary rant about the fact why you need to pay, its been argued in public with IE management and the simple reply was the discount is colossal for a small outlay its a fair deal.

The primary reason there is a card is fraud, one card design makes life easier and provides a unique id number (CAO numbers are too long for the ticketing system anyway) also means the card can be confiscated as to take your college id would be deemed theft, they also know your address something the college would never release if you are naughty

You can even book seats online at student fares (This might be unique to IE) but the ticket will only be valid with a matching card and they do check

Budo.Judo.Kev

if u take the bus you can use your college card to get the discount (which isn't much).

Raskolnikov

MarkoP11 wrote:

You can even book seats online at student fares (This might be unique to IE) but the ticket will only be valid with a matching card and they do check

You can if there are no connections. Try booking Cork-Heuston, Connolly-Belfast and the option for using the student card disapears. The strange thing is that if you book the two journeys seperately, you can use the student card just fine, the only problem is it's more expensive. I wrote to IE about this as I'm a student and frequent user of this service.

They never wrote back.

JohnCleary

Jaez for the hassle of it I think I might just pay the full whack. I never use the bus or train, this will be my first (and probably only time) in about 2 years. Why wont the feckers just take a college ID like the rest of the damn country?

MarkoP11

You also learn there is no student discount midweek to Belfast. The online system will only quote from one intercity station in the Republic to another in the Republic (try something crazy like Tralee Sligo or Rosslare Wesport and it works) it won't quote non intercity stations it does sometimes but won't quote the concession fares

From what I understand Translink do not permit students to book seats which might explain what is going on in the background

It is possible to get a Cork Belfast student return if purchased at a booking office, and they are able to issue a reservation as well again at zero cost and you will have the choice or window or aisle and if you play the system you can get a seat facing forward or back, it was an unprecedented move to permit the bookiing of concession fares, it came as a suprise

Dublin Bus, Luas, Irish Rail and Translink have a common student card policy which makes life much simpler the cost north and south is roughly the same. The GAA will accept it as student ID, they don't accept normal ID it appears, there is the 10% HMV discount as well if the regular punter knew exactly what was going on there woudl be uproar

For Galway Dublin return (assuming you stay in Dublin at least one night) you would still save money even if you only used the card once 40.50/43.50 vs 25.50 + 12.00

daymobrew

Raskolnikov wrote:

They never wrote back.

Write to Richard Fearns, CEO, Connolly Station.
He's replied to my letters (well, not him personally but I get good replies).

Chris_533976

Definatly make the effort to get this special card.

One trip from Cork - Dublin and you save the cost of the card.

Bogger77

JohnCleary wrote:

Myself and the GF are going from Galway to Dublin for a night next month (Too lazy to take the car)

We are both student (I'm in an IT, she's in a Uni)

My question is, to avail of student fares, will our college ID's (Both in date) be acceptable? I've heard something before about CIE needing a special student card?

Mid week, can you get the 5 day return? it's nearly as cheap as a day return.