Ireland's rail network covers most of the island, and reaches almost all the major cities and towns. The density of railway services is somewhat less than other European countries, due to lower population densities, and a lack of a connection to the greater European network, but most of the island is covered, with the exception of the North-West. Rail services are generally centred on Dublin and Belfast. Although hundreds of miles of rural lines were closed during the twentieth century, recent investment in passenger rail has soared on both sides of the border, and passenger numbers have been rising. Prices and service levels are comparable to other, similar lines around Western Europe, although journey times can be relatively long.

Structure

Rail services in Ireland are provided by Iarnród Éireann in the Republic of Ireland and by NI Railways in Northern Ireland. They share not only a mainline connection (between Belfast and Dublin) but also a 1600mm (5' 3") gauge (the distance between the two rails that form the track) that is rare in the world.

Republic of Ireland

Iarnród Éireann (meaning in English Irish Rail, or more accurately Irish Iron-Road) is the national rail operator of the Republic of Ireland. It is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), a state owned holding company that also controls the public bus system of Dublin and Bus Éireann, the principle long distance coach operator of the Republic of Ireland. However, through ticketing between bus and rail services is generally not available.

Northern Ireland

In a similar manner to Iarnród Éireann in the Republic, NI Railways is the state owned rail operator of Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), and is thus the only remaining state owned train operator in the United Kingdom. Translink also operates all public buses in Northern Ireland.

Planning your trip

Travel information and trip planning can be done online or over the phone directly with the websites of the two train companies. Both link to their sister bus companies.

• irishrail.ie is the website of Iarnród Éireann. Tel. +353 (0)1 7034070
• nirailways.co.uk is the website of NI Railways. Tel. +44 28 9066-6630

Larger stations with ticket offices offer over the counter travel planning information during normal business hours.

Tickets

Ticket types

In both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland regular train fares are available as 'single' (one way) or 'return' (roundtrip). In the Republic, returns can be specified for a same-day return, a return within five days or a return within one month, with a single ticket generally being only slightly cheaper than a return. In Northern Ireland returns are only available for a roundtrip on the same day.

Route or time specific discounts may be available for your journey: contact either Ianród Éireann or NI Railways or visit a staffed railway station for the most up to date advice.

Discounts

Republic of Ireland

• One way web fares [1] are online-only advance purchase tickets. Available to everyone for travel on specified trains, they offer significant discounts on regular fares.
• The Student TravelCard [2] costs €12 per annum and offers discounts of up to 40% on Iarnród Éireann services.
• One Day Family Tickets allow one or two adults and up to four children under 16 years of age to travel together for less than the total cost of individual tickets. Not valid on Fridays or Sundays.
• Free travel on State rail services was available to all tourists to Ireland aged 66 or over during 2010 under a scheme known as Golden Trekker. The scheme has been discontinued.

Northern Ireland

• 1/3 off day returns after 09:30 [3] NI Railways has, for some time, offered a discount of one third of day return tickets purchased after 09:30, although this offer may be withdrawn without notice.
• Summertime only Family Day Ticket Unlimited family travel by bus and rail any day of the week from 1 July - 31 August. Valid for 2 adults and up to 4 children. Minimum 1 adult and 1 child. £17.50.
• The 16-21 Rail Discount Card [4] costs £7 per annum. It offers 20% discount on weekly or monthly tickets between named stations.

Season tickets

Weekly or monthly tickets can be purchased online or at a station for most routes in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Primarily for commuters, these may be of use for longer-term visitors to Ireland who plan to make the same journey every day.

Rail passes

The 'InterRail Global Pass' or 'InterRail One Country Ireland Pass' are both valid on all trains in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. [5]. They also offer a discount of approximately 30% on most ferry routes to the United Kingdom. The BritRail Plus Ireland Pass is also available for North American visitors to Ireland.

Northern Ireland

• Freedom of Northern Ireland This ticket offered unlimited travel on all scheduled rail and bus services in Northern Ireland operated by NI Railways, Metro and Ulsterbus. Choose 1 day, 3 days out of 8 consecutive days and 7 days travel. 1 day tickets are available onboard and at manned stations, all others are available only from main train and bus stations or from the tourist information desk at Belfast International Airport. Fares due to be updated in 2009. The "Freedom of Northern Ireland" ticket has since been withdrawn and replaced by the "iLink" card, which is valid on all Ulsterbus/Goldline, NI Railways and Metro services.

Using the train

Few railway stations in Ireland are particularly big, with most outside the capitals having just two platforms, so locating and boarding train is usually easy and stress free. Larger stations will have electronic departure screens listing trains in order of departure, their platform, any delay, and calling points. Platforms may not be announced until ten minutes before the train is due to depart from a terminus and can subsequently change if the train is delayed. Listen out for audio announcements. Platform staff can also advise where to stand if you are travelling with a bicycle.

At smaller stations without electronic displays, signs will indicate which platform to wait on for your destination station. Most trains have modern push-button doors that close automatically before departure. However a number of older trains with passenger-operated slam doors still run on some routes. If you are the last person to board or alight through a manually operated door (which can be opened by pushing down on the handle on the outside of the train), don't forget to close it behind you.

Seat reservations are marked either with paper tags on the headrest or an electronic display above the window.

Keep your ticket and any pass with you when you move about the train as you may be asked to show it. Station stops are normally announced over the public address system or on scrolling electronic displays in the carriage.

Major Stations

Both Belfast and Dublin have several railway stations. Smaller intermediate stations in these cities are not listed.

Belfast Central (all trains) Belfast Great Victoria Street (most trains except Enterprise) Cork Kent Dublin Connelly (to north, northwest and south-east of Dublin) Dublin Heuston (to south, southwest and west of Dublin)

Dublin Pearse Dublin Tara Street Galway Ceannt Limerick Colbert Tralee Casement

Lines & Routes

With only a few regional exceptions, railway lines in Ireland radiate from the capital cities of Dublin and Belfast.

Cross-Border

Dublin to Belfast

Serving Dublin Connolly, Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, Portadown and Belfast Central.

Republic of Ireland

Dublin to Cork

Hourly service, serving Dublin Heuston, Kildare, Portarlington, Portlaoise, Ballybrophy, Templemore, Thurles, Limerick Junction, Charleville, Mallow and Cork Kent stations. Most services only serve 3/4 stations.

Dublin to Limerick

Serving Dublin Heuston, Newbridge, Kildare, Monasterevan, Portarlington, Portlaoise, Ballybrophy, Templemore, Thurles, Limerick Junction and Limerick Colbert stations.

Dublin to Galway

Serving Dublin Heuston, Newbridge, Kildare, Monasterevin, Portarlington, Tullamore, Clara, Athlone, Ballinasloe, Woodlawn, Attymon, Athenry and Galway Ceannt stations.

Dublin to Tralee

Serving Dublin Heuston, Portlaoise, Thurles], Limerick Junction, Charleville, Mallow, Banteer, Millstreet, Rathmore, Killarney, Farranfore and Tralee Casement stations.

Dublin to Waterford

Serving Dublin Heuston, Newbridge, Kildare, Athy, Carlow, Muine Bheag (Bagenalstown), Kilkenny, Thomastown, and Waterford Plunkett stations.

Dublin to Wexford/Rosslare Europort

Serving Dublin Connolly, Dublin Pearse, Dún Laoghaire, Bray, Greystones, Wicklow, Rathdrum, Arklow, Gorey, Enniscorthy, Wexford O'Hanrahan, Rosslare Strand and Rosslare Europort stations.

Dublin to Sligo

Serving Dublin Connolly, Maynooth, Kilcock, Enfield, Mullingar, Edgeworthstown, Longford, Dromod, Carrick-on-Shannon, Boyle, Ballymote, Collooney and Sligo McDiarmada stations.

Dublin to Westport/Ballina

Serving Dublin Heuston, Newbridge, Kildare, Tullamore, Clara, Athlone, Roscommon, Castlerea, Ballyhaunis, Claremorris, Manulla Junction, and then Foxford & Ballina or Castlebar & Westport stations.

Limerick to Ballybrophy (via Nenagh) & Ennis

A limited commuter service around Limerick that will one day form part of a larger north-south rail route through the west of Ireland.

Limerick to Waterford/Rosslare

Serving Limerick Colbert, Limerick Junction, Tipperary, Cahir, Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Waterford Plunkett, Campile, Ballycullane, Wellingtonbridge, Bridgetown, Rosslare Strand and Rosslare Europort stations.

Northern Ireland

Belfast to Londonderry/Derry & Portrush

Serving Belfast Great Victoria Street, Belfast Central, Antrim, Ballymena, Cullybackey, Balleymoney, Coleraine, Castlerock, Bellarena and Londonderry/Derry stations, with a shuttle and occasional direct trains splitting at Coleraine for Portrush. As even railway employees will advise you, the Ulsterbus Goldline coach between Belfast and Derry is significantly quicker than the train, although the journey is much more scenic as the railway follows the beautiful Antrim coast from Coleraine along the shore of Lough Foyle into Derry.

Belfast to Larne

Serving the suburban and rural communities north of Belfast to Larne Town and Larne Harbour for ferries to Scotland, although NI Railways, Ulsterbus, National Rail and Citylink currently route passengers between Northern Ireland and Scotland via the Belfast / Stranraer ferry.

Bangor to Belfast to Portadown

The most frequently served route in Northern Ireland, with normally hourly services between Bangor and Portadown, calling at suburban stations along the south shore of Belfast Lough (including Sydenham for Belfast City Airport) and stations south of Belfast including Lisburn and Portadown.

Services

Cross-Border

Enterprise

The Enterprise, along with the Dublin - Cork intercity route, is Ireland's flagship train, having operated on and off since 1947. It provides service approximately once every two hours throughout the day between the two capital cities of Dublin and Belfast, calling en route at Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, and Portadown. Due to a maximum speed of just 90 mph for just some of the route, the journey takes between 1h 55m and 2h 15m depending on the number of intermediate stops, so is not much faster than the equivalent journey by car or coach.

The Enterprise offers "Standard" and "First Plus" seated accommodation, with at seat service in First Plus and a walk up bar counter in standard class. The train is locomotive hauled, with rakes of air conditioned carriages derived from the design of those used by the Eurostar between Great Britain and France and Belgium. The train is jointly owned and operated by IÉ and NIR, who have both expressed their intentions to eventually offer an hourly service between the two cities.

Republic of Ireland

Intercity

Iarnród Éireann's older fleets of locomotive hauled passenger coaches have gradually given way to a newer generation of modern locomotive hauled carriages (Dublin - Cork) and diesel multiple units (all other routes). These trains offer two classes of accommodation with air conditioning, electronic seat reservations and on board catering. They're used on longer distance routes in and out of Dublin. The regional Intercity route between Limerick and Rosslare is normally operated by Commuter railcars.

Commuter

Commuter trains are diesel multiple units used on shorter and busier radial routes around major cities, with small networks growing around Cork and Limerick in addition to the established hub of Dublin.

DART

The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) is the only electric railway in Ireland, with a single north-south line running through Dublin connecting suburban communities along the coast with the city centre.

Northern Ireland

Following a major period of investment, the bulk of NI Railways service is provided by a modern fleet of three carriage diesel railcars. These offer comfortable air conditioned accommodation on most routes, although older trains do still operate on the line to Larne and Portrush. During the rush hour an additional train formed of old British Rail carriages sometimes provides extra capacity.

Apart from the Enterprise, no trains in Northern Ireland offer first class.

International Connections

Seaports

The following seaports offer easy train to ferry connections, with onward rail travel possible from their destinations.

• Dublin for ferries to Holyhead in Wales
• Dun Laoghaire for ferries to Holyhead in Wales
• Larne for ferries to Cairnryan and Troon in Scotland
• Rosslare for ferries to Fishguard in Wales or Roscoff and Cherbourg in France

You can purchase a combined train and ferry ticket for travel from any station in Ireland to any station in the UK. In Ireland contact Iarnród Éireann [6] or tel +353 (0)1 7034070. In the UK contact SailRail [7] or tel. 08450 755755. Additional impartial information is available from Seat61.com [8]

Airports

Only two stations are within walking distance of an airport:

• Farranfore is located about one mile from Kerry Airport (KIR), a small regional airport in the south-west.
• Sydenham is located next to Belfast City Airport (BHD). A free shuttle bus is available between the terminal to the station footbridge.

Stay Safe

Travelling by train in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is remarkably safe as there is little theft on board a train. Security alerts may occasionally delay or cancel a train but these are becoming less and less frequent and there have been no actual attacks of any kind on the railways for many years.

Many lines are quite exposed and tend to cross large flat areas of land with little indication from afar that there is a railway line, therefore people should take care when walking,cycling or driving near railway lines. There are both automatic and unmanned level crossings. Automatic level crossings will have flashing lights and a siren and barriers to prevent cars from trying to drive over the tracks in front of an oncoming train. Take extra care if using unmanned crossings, and open both gates either side first before driving through so that you do not have to stop the car on the tracks to open the next gate; there have been numerous fatalities from people using unmanned crossings to be aware of your surroundings and listen out for trains, but they are usually noisy diesel trains anyway.