Price Watch Conor Pope: A Dublin-based reader contacted us to complain about what she describes as a "mean" discount offered by Irish Rail to people with Weekender fare cards on the Dublin to Cork line when compared with the savings which can be made on other lines.
The Weekender card, which costs €7 a year, is a little-advertised but very good discount system available to all train users aged over 26 (an even better system is in place for people under 26).
According to Elizabeth Dyer, a return ticket from Dublin to Galway costs €40, a price which falls to €25.50 if the ticket is bought with a Weekender card. The card allows rail users to travel the first leg of their journey on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and use the return ticket no later than the following Tuesday. The Weekender discount amounts to a saving of nearly 40 per cent on the journey from Dublin to Galway and back.
However, recently she was travelling south and discovered that while a full-price return ticket from Dublin to Cork cost €56, the Weekender fare fell to just €48.50, or a discount of just over 10 per cent.
Irish Rail's spokesman, Barry Kenny, says this is because of the greater popularity of the Dublin-Cork route compared to lines heading west. The fare structure on the Galway-Dublin route is discounted more in order to attract a greater number of passengers. "The Dublin-Cork route is our number one route," he adds.
What's more . . .
WATCH THIS SPACE...A Celbridge reader writes to complain about the cost of getting a link taken off a metal watch strap in the Watch Shop in the Blanchardstown Centre in Dublin. Recently she brought her watch in to have a link removed and was quoted a price of €12. "I thought I had misheard. One link - perhaps the work of two or three minutes - and this was their charge." She says she has had links removed many times over the years "and as often as not there is no charge whatsoever. I wouldn't mind a nominal charge but can see no justification for €12 for this very simple job." PriceWatch contacted the shop and was told the price for removing links was indeed €12, unless the watch had been bought in the shop in which case there was no charge, provided the customer had their guarantee or a receipt.
HEALTHY COMPETITION . . . Anne Cahill from Dublin writes to highlight a substantial difference between health supplements in two shops in her locality. A bottle of 60 500mg Tesco's own brand evening primrose oil capsules sell for €2.69. In Boots, 60 520mg own brand evening primrose oil capsules sell for €7.50. "Can you beat that for a price difference?" she asks.
