Planning a trip to Dublin

Chris217 · 1 Jan 2020

Hi everyone.
Hoping to plan a couple of days trip to Dublin soon.
I hope to do a 3 day midweek visit if all goes well.

Just need advice on train day ranger/rover ticket types if there are any available.
I would like to sample some IE stock,The Dublin Dart system and the Dublin Trams.
Any all rail and tram tickets that offer unlimited travel would be great.
Anyone with any advice will be most appreciative.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks in advance.

RailUK Forums

mikeg · 1 Jan 2020

A leap card, with its daily cap, would be your friend and if going by plane a visitor leap card may be ideal.

For exploring the railways outside of the Dublin area there's also the trekker ticket but believe this is a rail only product. You may be better with a leap card and day returns/low fares (advances). Note that split ticketing is banned in Ireland.

CaptainHaddock · 1 Jan 2020

How do you ban split ticketing?

mikeg · 1 Jan 2020

By putting it in the conditions of carriage. See s11 of the IRCoC.

11. Re-booking at intermediate stations
11.1 Except where specially authorised, passengers are not permitted to re-book at
an intermediate station for the purpose of continuing their journey by the
same train. Two or more tickets covering different portions of one journey are
not available unless the fares paid for such tickets are equivalent in amount to
the price of a single journey ticket between the same points. Any passenger
using two or more tickets covering different portions of one journey will be
liable to pay the full ordinary single fare for the journey made and he or she
may be liable to prosecution.

CaptainHaddock · 1 Jan 2020

mikeg said:
By putting it in the conditions of carriage. See s11 of the IRCoC.

I don't wish to derail the OP's thread but that's ridiculous. Supposing I wish to travel from A to C but wish to break my journey at B to meet up with a friend for an hour. My friend then cancels so I decide to travel from A to C with an A to B ticket and a B to C ticket. Would I really be turfed off the train at B and forced to wait for the the next one?

Fawkes Cat · 1 Jan 2020

CaptainHaddock said:
I don't wish to derail the OP's thread but that's ridiculous. Supposing I wish to travel from A to C but wish to break my journey at B to meet up with a friend for an hour. My friend then cancels so I decide to travel from A to C with an A to B ticket and a B to C ticket. Would I really be turfed off the train at B and forced to wait for the the next one?

Without having (a) a copy of the IRCoC to hand or (b) any knowledge of what IE staff actually do, I imagine that they would sell an excess to make up the difference between the split ticket price and the full fare. And as you weren’t looking to avoid the full fare, you would no doubt have taken the reasonable step of seeking out someone to pay, and the railway would reasonably assume good faith on your part and not prosecute.

mmh · 1 Jan 2020

CaptainHaddock said:
I don't wish to derail the OP's thread but that's ridiculous. Supposing I wish to travel from A to C but wish to break my journey at B to meet up with a friend for an hour. My friend then cancels so I decide to travel from A to C with an A to B ticket and a B to C ticket. Would I really be turfed off the train at B and forced to wait for the the next one?

There's no need to use multiple tickets for this, break of journey is allowed by default in Ireland.

Chris217 · 1 Jan 2020

Thanks for your replies.
So I take it there are no day rangers for
1. Dublin Dart
2.Dublin Luas trams or
3 IE railways?

Or any Dublin area bus,tram and Dart day tickets?

Chris217 · 1 Jan 2020

Just found this for Dublin Dart

https://www.irishrail.ie/rail-fares...rt-and-short-hop-zone#dayweeklymonthlytickets

alastair · 1 Jan 2020

Chris217 said:
Thanks for your replies.
So I take it there are no day rangers for
1. Dublin Dart
2.Dublin Luas trams or
3 IE railways?

Or any Dublin area bus,tram and Dart day tickets?

There certainly are, this is what you need https://about.leapcard.ie/leap-visitor-card

The Leap Visitor Card is the most convenient public transport card available for tourists and visitors to Dublin. Get unlimited travel over your selected time period on Airlink, Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland routes in Dublin, Luas, DART and Commuter Rail. You can even travel to and from the Airport at the start and end of your trip without any additional charge. Leap Visitor is not valid on the Hop on/Hop off tour or other special tour services.

Depending on how long you plan on staying, you can choose from a number of options and find one that best suits your visit.

1 day (24 hours) – €10.00
3 days (72 hours) – €19.50
7 days (168 hours) – €40.00

It's valid on virtually every bus,train tram ect in the Dublin area. If you're flying in, they sell them at the airport.

Flying Snail · 1 Jan 2020

Chris217 said:
Thanks for your replies.
So I take it there are no day rangers for
1. Dublin Dart
2.Dublin Luas trams or
3 IE railways?

Or any Dublin area bus,tram and Dart day tickets?

As above I would recommend a Visitor Leap card.

Thee are separate rail, luas and bus tickets but the Leap card and particularly in your case the 3-day (actually 72 hours from first validation) Visitor Leap at €19.50 would be by far the best value and validity.

Before Leap there was a more extensive range but similar to London Travelcards they purposely reduced them and made them more expensive to encourage Leap card use.

As well as Dublin Airport the Visitor Leap card can be bought in the City centre at the Dublin Bus office in O'Connell Street and tourist offices. At Heuston station as well as Busaras, which is the bus station for national and regional routes located a short walk from Connolly station. In both of these it is not from the ticket desks but Easons which is a newsagent chain.

Visitor Leap can also be bought online and posted to you, assuming your trip is far enough away for postal times, they just use regular non-tracked post for this.

https://about.leapcard.ie/leap-visitor-card

Although I would recommend Visitor Leap for your apparent use a regular PAYG leap can also be used, it's daily cap for Dublin bus, tram and train is €10 or €40 for a week. There is also a €5 deposit for the card.

The Rail only cap is €9.50, bus only or tram only is €7.00 so not much to be saved by sticking to one mode for a day, especially as the Rail and Tram networks are quite small.

Similar to Oyster and other such systems there is a max journey time for PAYG on Leap so if you are travelling around without leaving the rail or Luas by tapping out and in for extended periods you may break this and get incomplete journeys. Visitor Leap doesn't have this issue.

For rail use you tap in/out at barriers or validators at stations without barriers, luas the same, tap in/out at validators. It is necessary to do this with regular Leap, Visitor Leap doesn't need to be tapped at all as once the day/72h pass is activated it is valid for the duration but you will need to at barriers.

For bus use there are 2 validators, one on the driver's ticket machine and one on the right opposite the driver's cab. Visitor leap should be validated on the right hand validator. Regular leap will work on both but the right hand validator deducts the full fare for the route while using the driver's validator as well as stating your destination is necessary to get short-distance fares.

paul1609 · 1 Jan 2020

Flying Snail said:
As above I would recommend a Visitor Leap card.

Thee are separate rail, luas and bus tickets but the Leap card and particularly in your case the 3-day (actually 72 hours from first validation) Visitor Leap at €19.50 would be by far the best value and validity.

Before Leap there was a more extensive range but similar to London Travelcards they purposely reduced them and made them more expensive to encourage Leap card use.

As well as Dublin Airport the Visitor Leap card can be bought in the City centre at the Dublin Bus office in O'Connell Street and tourist offices. At Heuston station as well as Busaras, which is the bus station for national and regional routes located a short walk from Connolly station. In both of these it is not from the ticket desks but Easons which is a newsagent chain.

Visitor Leap can also be bought online and posted to you, assuming your trip is far enough away for postal times, they just use regular non-tracked post for this.

https://about.leapcard.ie/leap-visitor-card

Although I would recommend Visitor Leap for your apparent use a regular PAYG leap can also be used, it's daily cap for Dublin bus, tram and train is €10 or €40 for a week. There is also a €5 deposit for the card.

The Rail only cap is €9.50, bus only or tram only is €7.00 so not much to be saved by sticking to one mode for a day, especially as the Rail and Tram networks are quite small.

Similar to Oyster and other such systems there is a max journey time for PAYG on Leap so if you are travelling around without leaving the rail or Luas by tapping out and in for extended periods you may break this and get incomplete journeys. Visitor Leap doesn't have this issue.

For rail use you tap in/out at barriers or validators at stations without barriers, luas the same, tap in/out at validators. It is necessary to do this with regular Leap, Visitor Leap doesn't need to be tapped at all as once the day/72h pass is activated it is valid for the duration but you will need to at barriers.

For bus use there are 2 validators, one on the driver's ticket machine and one on the right opposite the driver's cab. Visitor leap should be validated on the right hand validator. Regular leap will work on both but the right hand validator deducts the full fare for the route while using the driver's validator as well as stating your destination is necessary to get short-distance fares.

Maybe I was just unlucky last March but it took visits to 3 outlets that supposedly sold leap cards to finally get one. The pleasant girl in Easons at Heuston told me they were very often out of stock of both the visitors and standard cards.

Hadders · 1 Jan 2020

paul1609 said:
Maybe I was just unlucky last March but it took visits to 3 outlets that supposedly sold leap cards to finally get one. The pleasant girl in Easons at Heuston told me they were very often out of stock of both the visitors and standard cards.

I couldn't even purchase a Visitor Leap Card at Dublin Airport at 9pm on a Friday evening 3 weeks ago. You're probably best buying in advance and getting it posted to you which their website recommends.

Chris217 · 1 Jan 2020

So i can pay for 72hrs travel and validate
it at any time once I commence use?

For example can I buy it next week for next month then validate it for 72hrs from my first journey?

Thanks for your replies.
Most appreciated.

Flying Snail · 1 Jan 2020

paul1609 said:
Maybe I was just unlucky last March but it took visits to 3 outlets that supposedly sold leap cards to finally get one. The pleasant girl in Easons at Heuston told me they were very often out of stock of both the visitors and standard cards.

Most convenience stores in the city sell the regular cards so possibly you were a bit unlucky, the tiny number of outlets stocking the Visitor cards is a right pain though. The Dublin Bus office should have them in stock at all times (the visitor card is actually issued by Dublin Bus not Leap)

It should just be available as a product that can be loaded on a regular card as well as or instead of the special Visitor cards.

Another thing to watch out for is although the Visitor cards can be loaded with additional 1/3/7 day passes the card itself has a hard expiry date, usually 1 year or less from issue, even if there is an unused pass on it (either the product it was supplied with or an additional one added later) the card will expire and not be able to be validated. It is not printed on the card, the only way to check is to scan it on a rail/luas ticket machine or with a NFC Android phone with the Leap card app installed. If it has been used then it can be chucked, if there is an unused ticket the only way to get it sorted is in the Dublin Bus office who can exchange it for a new visitor card.

Flying Snail · 1 Jan 2020

Chris217 said:
So i can pay for 72hrs travel and validate
it at any time once I commence use?

For example can I buy it next week for next month then validate it for 72hrs from my first journey?

Thanks for your replies.
Most appreciated.

Yes, you buy the visitor card with the ticket you want pre-loaded, the 72 hours only starts when you first validate it on bus, luas or rail. once activated it is valid for unlimited use for the duration.

Chris217 · 1 Jan 2020

Flying Snail said:
Yes, you buy the visitor card with the ticket you want pre-loaded, the 72 hours only starts when you first validate it on bus, luas or rail. once activated it is valid for unlimited use for the duration.

Thanks massive mate.
Will look into it about a month before I go.

Chris217 · 2 Jan 2020

Any good locations or stations to see freight trains?
Watching some videos on youtube suggests some freight start at North Wall.
Isn't that just outside Dublin Connolly?
Which route would those take if they dont pass through Connolly station?

Thanks again for any replies.

edwin_m · 2 Jan 2020

Most of the freight runs between North Wall yard and various locations further west. There is also an engineering base there so I imagine engineering trains from time to time. You can get a distant view of arrivals/departures from Sherriff Street Upper, just east of Docklands station (which only has a handful of trains in peak hours). I'm not aware of any better viewpoint, and the lines diverge here so anywhere further west you won't see all the trains.

Freight to and from the docks proper uses a tramway on Alexandra Road. It's only a handful of trains every day and I don't have any current information on timings. Dublin Bus 747 from the airport normally runs via the Port Tunnel and East Wall Road, crossing the tramway and passing North Wall yard, and you get a brief view from the top deck.

Chris217 · 2 Jan 2020

Wont be going for a few months yet.
I need to get my passport first.
Although I have been to Dublin before,that was via Belfast first and I didnt need a passport then as I went using my Driving Licence.

paul1609 · 2 Jan 2020

Chris217 said:
Wont be going for a few months yet.
I need to get my passport first.
Although I have been to Dublin before,that was via Belfast first and I didnt need a passport then as I went using my Driving Licence.

I used my driving license on the ferry to/ and from Dublin. I think you only need a passport on certain airlines. Had no problems using i license as ID in the hotels in Galway and Dublin.

alastair · 2 Jan 2020

Chris217 said:
Wont be going for a few months yet.
I need to get my passport first.
Although I have been to Dublin before,that was via Belfast first and I didnt need a passport then as I went using my Driving Licence.

As long as you are a British Citizen, you don't, and have never, needed a passport to travel to Ireland,it's part of the Common Travel Area and is exactly the same as going to the Channel Islands, Isle of Man etc. Any form of photo ID, driving licence, bus pass ect will suffice to travel on. Only exception is Ryanair which ONLY accept passport as ID.

Also important to note that it has been confirmed that the above situation will continue whatever happens in the future with Brexit.

mikeg · 2 Jan 2020

Also why not consider sailrail as a means of getting to Ireland?

Chris217 · 2 Jan 2020

Thanks.
I'll check that out about passports.
I have heard similar tbh although certain
airlines want passport ID.

Much appreciated

Planning a trip to Dublin

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