Lobby group says rail commuters ripped off

Iarnród Éireann is ripping off commuters to Dublin with large discrepancies in fares between stations, according to a new commuter lobby group.

The Commuter North Rail Users Group (CNRUG) said that a study of fares on a cost-per-mile basis found that people travelling from outside Irish Rail's Outer Short Hop zone(Greystones-Balbriggan) were paying over double the cost per mile.

The cost of a single ticket from Laytown to the centre of Dublin, is €10.50, while, seven minutes down the line, at Balbriggan the cost is €7 less at €3.50.

The group found that while a Balbriggan ticket entitles commuters to travel all the way to Greystones, a Laytown-Greystones ticket costs €17.50, five times the price of the Balbriggan ticket.

A spokesman for the group described the situation as "an unsustainable rip-off."

"If the cost per mile from Balbriggan was applied to annual tickets from Laytown and Drogheda, commuters would be paying €400-€500 less per annum," a spokesman for the group added.

But a spokesman for Irish Rail Barry Kenny said: "We will be reviewing our ticket and fare pricing structures next year but we do not envisage fares dropping. We believe they are good value for money and compare well to other countries.

"It costs €58 for a weekly ticket from Dundalk to Dublin but a similar 50 mile journey from Bedford to London is €110; our commuter fares are extremely low," he said.