[MOH]

Link

RAIL travel in Ireland is the second most expensive in Europe, despite frequent customer complaints that the service is below European standards with too few trains, not enough late night services and a skewed pricing system.

Figures provided by the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable show that Irish rates are the second most expensive behind the UK and alongside Germany, with an average cost of 22 per 100km.

This compares with 17 in Austria, 12 in Belgium, 7 in Poland and 4 in Slovakia.

"The key thing here is that if we were getting a European level of service, then we wouldn't mind paying an expensive fair, " said Mark Gleeson of Rail Users Ireland. "As it is, the service is ridiculously slow, the service frequencies aren't great and the fare system is ridiculously complicated. The whole system needs to be overhauled, yet we are still paying over-inflated prices. It doesn't make any sense."

Research undertaken by Rail Users Ireland has discovered anomalies in the rail system whereby passengers travelling from Dublin to other parts of the country end up paying significantly more than people travelling from the country to the capital city.

"The cheapest return fare from Dublin to Cork is 64.50 but if you're travelling return from Cork to Dublin then you pay 46.50, " Gleeson said. "The whole thing is geared towards travelling to Dublin while passengers in Dublin have to pay more. A lot of people have been complaining about those fares."

According to Rail Users Ireland, train schedules are "still serving a Victorian community", with many last trains leaving as early as 7pm every evening. "You can get trains to Dublin at 5am but not after 7pm at night, when people are still coming out of the office, " said Gleeson. Overcrowded lines such as Maynooth to Dublin (dubbed the 'Calcutta Express' by locals) and Portlaoise to Dublin are also becoming "unbearable", he added. "There are people standing on trains that aren't designed for standing passengers. They're only short of sitting on the roof."

The spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann, Barry Kenny, said that figures the company has show that Ireland is 40% below the European average when it comes to rail fares. "Our single fares are certainly higher, but when return fares are taken into account, this is not the case at all, " he said.