ETHICAL TRAVELLER: CATHERINE MACKon responsible tourism

IT’S BEEN a bit of a week for people being told to “get on yer bike”, and with all the other news going on, the recent changes made by Irish Rail relating to bringing your bike on the train haven’t exactly hit the headlines.

However, thanks to the lobbying of organisations like railusers.ie, all intercity trains nationwide will now have two bike spaces available, with special bicycle racks. It was a murky area in the past where some trains did and some didn’t, depending on the train, time of day and who was on duty. Most importantly, these bike spaces can now be booked online at irishrail.ie. Just look out for the box to tick just below where you book your ticket. The charge is €6 per journey per bike, whereas in the past you were charged on the distance covered. Although, if you do turn up without a reservation, and there is space left for your bike, you will be charged according to the number of kilometres travelled as per their website.

You can also now carry your bikes for free on all commuter trains and Dart services between 10am and 3:30pm, after 7pm Monday to Friday and at weekends (although they will limit this for big events, such as matches and concerts, etc). Hopefully Irish Rail will give plenty of notice on its website, Twitter, etc, for these events.

But what is a commuter train? According to Irish Rail, this is defined as everything that isn’t an intercity train. So check out the journey planner on Irish Rail’s homepage, as it tells you which trains are intercity and then you can decide accordingly. You don’t need a special ticket for commuter and Dart services either; just stand with your bike in the vestibule bit of the train, although if there are a few of you it is best to split up.

Rail Users Ireland says it is “extremely happy to see the rules for bikes on trains brought in line with European norms”. It does point out that there are still a few problems, such as the fact that signage is still poor and it is sometimes hard to spot where the bike carriage is. Another niggle is with rail travel to the North. At the moment, Northern Ireland Railways takes up to four bikes free of charge on its trains, on a first come first served basis, including the Enterprise service between Belfast and Dublin.

However, Irish Rail doesn’t really reciprocate this gesture: at present, you are not able to reserve a bike space on the Enterprise (an intercity) service from Dublin and, if you turn up with your bike at Connolly station, you will be charged according to the distance travelled. Ireland has ironed out trickier cross-border niggles than this in the past, for sure, so let’s hope for clarification on this one in the near future. And beware, bikes will not be carried at times of bus substitution, so do check service updates carefully.

If you don’t want to risk confusion, Bus Éireann or Ulsterbus Goldline services (translink.co.uk/Goldline) will put up to two bikes in the luggage area on a first come first served basis, and if there is room (although they can get bashed a bit, as there are no proper carriers to secure them). This service is free on Goldline, enabling you to take your bike for free all over Northern Ireland, whereas Bus Éireann charges €11.50 for a single journey. Go figure! Or go straight to cycling charity sustrans.org.uk, which is full of good suggestions for wonderful cycling routes up North.

Two bookable bike spaces on trains isn’t ideal for families either, but Irish Rail has a list of bike hire companies near their stations, some of which offer discounts to those arriving by train. So you could book your bikes, and hire the kids’ ones when you arrive. Yet, the default setting for most tourists is still the car, a situation which could be helped if tourism businesses gave out as much information as possible about car-free options. As the cycling campaigners and Irish Rail have opened up railways for all of us, now we just need to make the most of it, get on board, and get this nation cycle-friendly once again.

* Ethicaltraveller.net; twitter.com/catherinemack