We are looking into traveling by train between key cities in Ireland rather than driving. Then we will take local transportation or hire a car to see the local sights. Has anyone done this? Would you recommend this approach?

This should work pretty well if you are concentrating on cities rather than getting out into the countryside. I just got back from Ireland, and while we did not take any train journeys, my relatives ride them all the time and consider them extremely convenient for inter-city travel. I took several train trips on a previous journey as well, and was pretty happy with it. I think there may be an issue with a bridge out on the line from Dublin to Belfast too, as my cousin had mentioned something about it.

A great deal depends on where you want to go. See http://www.irishrail.ie/home/ to check if there are services that meet your needs. Most services originate in Dublin.

You might supplement rail with bus. See http://www.buseireann.ie/

Thanks for the information
Spearfish

I'll add to Padraig's comments. Because Dublin is the hub for the train system, getting from point A to point B might require a circuitous route with a connection in Dublin. The bus may go more directly--and therefore faster--between those same points.

Ireland is pure hub and spoke system with really one hub: Dublin. If you want to go from X to Y and the two cities are not on the same line, you can't connect without going near Dublin first. There's a slight exception in the south because Limerick actually has a mini-hub. A map is here:

http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/your_jo...ercity_map.asp

Bad idea. I tried this on the basis that trains in europe are frequent, fast and efficient.

Not so in Ireland. Often slow and takes a roundabout route from here to there. Once I checked the schedules I tried to hire a car - but it was too late - all the automatics were gone. And since I haven;t driven stick in years I didn;t want to do it in a strange car in a strange country on the wrong side of the road.

Definitely rent a car unless no one has a license.

The map BigRuss linked gives you a good picture of whay yoru plan isn't totally doable. For long distance, inter-city trips the trains are fine. But to tour around from scenic town/area -- not so hot.

On many routes, buses would be better than trains - but in general a car would make life easier.

sheesh, sorry about the typos . . .

and to clarify - I meant for long distance, inter-city trips <u>radiating from Dublin</u>, trains are fine

Study that map and note how difficult it would be to get from say Galway to Ennis by train. That would be an easy drive.

I can't comment on IrishRail because I have not used it. My principal mode of Transport on my 10-or-so Ireland trips has been BusEireann; although I must confess I used CityLink to go from Dublin Airport to Galway. http://www.citylink.ie
A quick & comfortable way to get to near where I was going the morning I arrived in Ireland.
Availability of BusEireann MotorCoach routes from Galway and to-and-from smaller towns depends on the season. You can buy a full BusEireann schedule book at Dublin's BusArás http://www.BusEireann.ie

Trains may be OK for travel between major Cities (Dublin to Limerick or Cork City) and they will certainly be faster; but Buses go more places and run more frequently.

Ireland's "key cities" don't really work the way you seem to think.

Getting a train from Dublin to Limerick or Galway, then hiring a car to drive to Ennis or the Cliffs of Moher is doable: but with the faff of hiring a car in the city centre, then driving out to the sight, even now the train/car hire combination is almost as time-consuming and stressful as driving there from Dublin in the first place.

But Ireland's motorway network is expanding extraordinarily quickly, and much of the advice given on this site is still coming from foreigners who can't get it into their heads that Ireland's moved on from the nation their ancestors left a century ago.

With motorways planned to be open by next year from Dublin to Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast, the argument for train-based (or bus-based) tourism in a country where almost all the nice sights are in the countryside will be practically non-existent.

Padraig might have inside information that some motorway openings are running late or the poster might be planning a trip earlier that I think. The train will remain the best way for Corconians to pop up to Dublin for the day, and there are a few holiday plans (like a week in Dublin followed by a week in the Republic's NorthWest) where getting a train or bus out from Dublin will make best sense. Trains aren't going to get obsolete next week.

But general recommendations about the "best way" to get round Ireland without knowing where you want to go and when are simply worthless hot air. The best way to tour West Cork and the Burren next autumn is likely to be very different from the best way to tour Derry right now.

I'd strongly suggest you post itinerary ideas and timings to get really helpful advice.

I don't think most of the recommendations for train travel were based on the quality of the road network, but rather the difficulties of a foreign vistor driving in an unfamiliar area, in many cases on the other side of the road. My relatives have a car, and did drive us to Cork as we wished to visit some places in the countryside (notably Mitchelstown and Graiguenamanagh), but normally make that journey by train, for cost and convenience, and praised the train service generally.

Renting a car wasn't an option for us, as I do not drive, and my father is 81 and drives only very locally in daylight, but my father felt that if he was driving he would be okay only on the very narrow roads that he remembered, as the exits and interchanges on the motorways would be impossible to figure out directionally. Comfort levels about switching sides vary a LOT, and Americans don't live a short ferry ride away from a large continent where they drive the other way. Add in much smaller cars than we're used to, the scarcity of automatics, and petrol costs that I figured were about two and a half times what they are in the US, and you can see why some Americans and/or Canadians might be a little reluctant to jump onto even excellent roads.

flanneruk wrote: "Padraig might have inside information that some motorway openings are running late..."

I don't. Just about every major project recently has been on time.

"... note how difficult it would be to get from say Galway to Ennis by train. That would be an easy drive."

As it happens, the railway from Galway to Ennis is being reopened and trains should soon be running again soon from Galway to Limerick via Ennis. Currently, there are buses at least every hour from Galway to Ennis.