Rail booking facilities coming on-line

Iarnród Éireann’s explanation for why tickets cannot be booked online between Ennis and Galway has been described as “an insult to the people of County Clare” by one Mid-West MEP.
However, Iarnród Éireann subsequently confirmed to The Clare Champion that it will be possible to buy tickets online for the service later this year.
Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins, MEP for Clare and Ireland’s member of the European Parliament Transport Committee, branded the attitude of Iarnród Éireann to the Western Rail Corridor (WRC) as “pitiful”.
“It’s as if Iarnród Éireann are doing everything they can to make it difficult for people to use the reopened Ennis-Gort-Galway line.
“I cannot understand how it is you can book every intercity bus service in the country online but you cannot book a train service because it starts in Ennis,” he stated.
However, following on from the MEP’s correspondence with Iarnród Éireann, a spokesperson for the company stated, “Our current online booking system is fully integrated with the seat reservation system on trains. As many of the services on the Limerick to Galway route use trains that do not support a seat reservation system on board, this has meant that we have not been in a position to offer online booking.  This route would not be alone in this, Waterford to Limerick Junction would also be similarly restricted.”
“We are, however, in the process of improving our online booking system to ensure all routes, regardless of fleet used, can support online bookings. 
“We will make this change in tandem with a number of other improvements to ensure we deliver this in a cost-effective way, which is imperative given the difficult financial situation we face and the reductions in exchequer funding for public transport necessitated by the economic crisis. 
“However, we do intend completing this work as early as possible this year.”