Irish Rail closes anomaly which gave wily passengers cheaper fares on Cork and Galway routes

Kent Station in Cork. Irish Rail had been offering promotional fares to encourage more passengers on its routes between Cork and Galway along the Western Rail Corridor.

Irish Rail have shut down a ruse whereby wily passengers travelling on Cork and Galway routes could take advantage of an anomaly in ticket prices to get cheaper fares.

The rail operator had been offering promotional fares to encourage more passengers on its routes between Cork and Galway along the Western Rail Corridor.

However, eagle-eyed commuters spotted that these fares could be booked for Cork-Galway services which connected through Dublin instead of Limerick.

Passengers would then get off at their intended destination at Heuston Station instead of going on to Cork or Galway and in the process save themselves a pretty penny.

Instead of paying average fares of between €43 and €66 return, they were able to take advantage of rates of between €31 and €35 return instead.

After the hack began to circulate on social media in early August, Irish Rail’s corporate communications manager wrote an email to colleagues.

“It does seem to be the case low to flex for Cork to Galway (via Heuston) ranges from €15.59 to €17.59, whereas for Cork to Heuston it’s €21.49 to €32.99.” 

Fare 'buckets'

In internal discussions, Irish Rail’s tech team said they needed to look at changing fare ‘buckets’ to ensure passengers couldn’t take advantage.

An email said: “I don’t think there’s anything we can do with the buckets … let me think about it.” 

Over the following week, Irish Rail IT staff grappled with how to close off the hack, with one fix failing to resolve the problem.

An email said: “It didn’t work, so don’t expect this to work either — however, I plan to offer the cheap fare only when the Western Rail Corridor is used.” 

A colleague responded: “I’ve made changes in red, otherwise all good fingers crossed!” 

Loophole closed

By August 19, the cheap tickets were no more, according to records released under FOI, with 26 new fare tariffs required to close the loophole.

“The issue with the Cork to Galway pricing online has now been resolved,” said an email. “If you choose a Cork to Galway [journey] online — it will cost a higher price … for most of the journeys except the four journeys that go via the Western Rail Corridor.” 

A spokesman for Irish Rail said: “Distance-wise, by rail, the journey from Cork to Galway is shortest via the Limerick to Galway line. This is a route to which we would apply a range of promotional fares to encourage passenger growth.

“Our online booking system in the first instance automatically applies the same fare options to any journey from Cork to Galway.

“Over time, as timetables change, this may result in journey options being created via Heuston, which is what happened here. Following this anomaly coming to light, we have now resolved it so the promotional fare is available via the Limerick to Galway line only.”