Ticket sales under review as fans left high and dry

TRAIN ticket sales for special events are being reviewed after hundreds of hurling fans were left disappointed at Kent Station in Cork yesterday morning.

At least 1,000 people joined the queue from 5am to claim the 2,000 tickets for two regular services and three special trains to Dublin for Cork’s All-Ireland semi-final clash with Wexford on Sunday.

But within two hours, there were enough people in line to take up all the tickets, which were sold on a four-per-person basis.

Despite Irish Rail telling those who arrived after this point they were unlikely to get tickets, hundreds more people began arriving and some began skipping the queue.

Gardaí were at the station to keep an eye on the situation but a spokesperson said there was no trouble, just a lot of disappointed fans.

The ticket counters opened at 9am and all five Sunday morning services were sold out within 70 minutes.

Irish Rail’s business development manager in Cork, Andrew Roche said the company was unhappy to have to turn away so many people.

“We walked the queue from 7am to tell those arriving there was little chance of them securing tickets. If everybody who showed up got tickets, we could have sold three times as many as were available,” he said.

Mr Roche said the company will probably reduce the ticket allocation for such occasions to two per person in future and may consider more strict stewarding of queues to avoid a repeat of yesterday morning’s situation.

Irish Rail is expected to have a limited online booking system in place by next summer which could help avoid similar frustration in future.

There was chaos on a train returning from Dublin to Wexford a month ago when Irish Rail sold too many tickets for services carrying hurling fans home after the Leinster final at Croke Park. The overcrowded carriages were vandalised and passengers complained of fighting, smoking and other misbehaviour during the journey.

Mr Roche said the advance ticket sales scheme has worked well in the past but anything that could improve things would be considered.

Passengers on all rail services from Cork and Kerry on Friday and Saturday will also have to book tickets in advance because of huge crowds travelling to the Dublin Horse Show and the Robbie Williams concert.