Irish Rail expects sell-out of Croker service

Anton McNulty

IRISH Rail have advised Mayo supporters intending to travel to Croke Park by train to book as early as possible as they expect their Sunday services to sell out.
The All-Ireland semi-final between Mayo and Dublin this Sunday is already a sell-out and Irish Rail expect their services to and from Dublin Heuston to sell out before the end of the week.
Irish Rail added six additional services for Mayo supporters going to Croke Park with two leaving Westport at 8.25am and 8.45am and a special train leaves Ballina at 9.05am. The special return trains leave Dublin at 6.20pm and 7.20pm while the train for Ballina leaves at 7.10pm.
The special trains will only be servicing the Mayo stations and will be going direct to Heuston after leaving Ballyhaunis and are scheduled to take three hours and ten minutes from Westport. The special train from Ballina will only stop at Foxford before travelling onto Dublin.
Already the 7.20pm service from Dublin to Westport has been sold out while the regular  7.50am service from Westport to Dublin Heuston has also been sold out.

Exceptional demand
A spokesperson for Irish Rail told The Mayo News that demand for tickets has been exceptional and despite adding extra capacity to the trains, they expect all the tickets to be sold out.
“We put on three extra services going up from Mayo and another three going down and even with the extra capacity we expect the services will be sold out. We would advise people thinking of taking the train to book early and book on-line because people who have bought tickets online will be given priority,” he said.
The spokesperson added that they will not be putting on extra capacity if the train sells out and urged people not to be disappointed. He said that Mayo supporters are good for taking the train to big matches in Croke Park and promised extra trains will be available if Mayo beat Dublin and book their place in the final against Kerry.
The special services to Dublin are currently priced at €19.99 one-way and are available for purchase on irishrail.ie.