Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Bikes on Irish rail

Options
  • 02-06-2018 10:54am
    #1
    pillphil
    Registered Users Posts: 779 ✭✭✭


    Have IE changed how you reserve bicycle places on trains? I can't figure it out


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Jemm
    Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Jemm


    You can book online on their website but my experience to date has been that:
    -if you don't get on at the first station on the route there will be suitcases and/or bikes already on the rack (resulting in standing with your bike by the door)
    -on some routes they seem to be giving priority to pre-booked bikes (i.e. an Irish Rail person on the platform monitoring and checking on bikes)
    -on the Cork line, there is a separate carriage for bikes (and oversized luggage)
    -if you're polite to the Irish Rail staff, they are generally helpful but on most routes there's only space for 2 bikes officially (you can usually fit three if the other people are sound) and they have a cupboard that will usually fit a bike also.


  • Options
    #3
    pillphil
    Registered Users Posts: 779 ✭✭✭pillphil


    Thanks for that, I still can't see how to reserve a bicycle place though.
    Previously there were seats specifically associated with the bike rack (I think, I've only booked it once before) now there's no such association that I can see. You can't book a rack place that I can see.
    After you select a seat, it asks if you want to add a bike, but it seems to always give you this option.
    This is on the Dublin to sligo route


  • Options
    #4
    velo.2010
    Registered Users Posts: 3,010 ✭✭✭velo.2010


    Jemm wrote: »
    -if you're polite to the Irish Rail staff, they are generally helpful but on most routes there's only space for 2 bikes officially (you can usually fit three if the other people are sound) and they have a cupboard that will usually fit a bike also.

    I'd be wary of those cupboards. I pre-booked once and found the two spaces occupied. Spoke to the guard who showed me the 'cupboard'. Road bike didn't fit. He then tried to 'manoeuvre' the bike to fit the space but it wasn't working. I had to tell him, as politely as I could, that a €€€€ bike wasn't going in there.

    In the end, I rested the bike against the other two bikes with no bother to their owners. It was just a slight worry with people getting on and off the train and hoping they didn't knock it over as they brushed past.

    Sometimes you may be lucky and get two of those 3 carraige trains stitched together providing an extra two spaces.


Advertisement