Cork welcome for wider rollout of rail e-tickets announcement

A MOVE to introduce e-tickets across Irish Rail’s intercity services has been welcomed by local election candidate in Cork city, Peter Horgan, who said such an initiative should be “rolled out as a priority across all public transport”.

Irish Rail said it has completed the introduction of new phone-based QR code ticketing, which the railway operator said has the potential to eliminate up to four million printed tickets annually for intercity rail journeys.

“Following a pilot on selected ticket types, the technology is available on all online booked intercity journeys (excluding Dublin to Belfast),” a spokesperson for the company said.

“Customers on intercity routes (excluding Dublin to Belfast) will now be able to scan the QR-code ticket from their phone at selected marked ticket gates at stations on the national rail network.” The initiative was welcomed by Labour Party candidate in the city’s South East ward Peter Horgan.

“Finally we are moving rail travel on a level like air travel where you have an e-ticket,” Mr Horgan said.

“We all know or have knowledge of those who misplace tickets and are forced to repurchase tickets at full price.

“It was a strange situation where getting a train to Dublin from Charleville you were issued a QR code but those from Kent had to secure the paper slip.” 

Mr Horgan said he would like to see a wider implementation of e-tickets.

“We now need this rolled out as a priority across all public transport and especially in Cork as a frontloaded effort on BusConnects to encourage usage.

“Digital next gen ticketing is here and it shouldn’t take a year for the fleet to be fitted with the capability that is second nature in most European public transport hubs,” he said.