Is this for ‘rail’? Thousands of Irish Rail customers to pay out over systems glitch

7 Jun 2013

Irish Rail customers will have to stump up after a glitch in the railway company’s systems meant over 9,000 payment cards were not charged from Iarnród Éireann ticket vending machines in recent weeks.

“Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail advises customers that in recent weeks, purchases made by certain payment cards at Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) in Iarnród Éireann stations have not been charged against customers’ accounts,” the company said today.

“This fault has now been rectified and the company has outlined for customers how it will now charge customers for tickets purchased.”

The rail company explaind that during an upgrade to the TVMs by a contractor a fault developd that saw tickets issued and payments authorised for certain payment cards.

However, the payment was not subsequently deducted from the customer’s card accounts.

“This affected certain payment cards but primarily affected AIB Maestro Debit cards.

“Over 9,000 individual cards were not charged as a result,” Irish Rail stated on its website.

The non-payment period occurred between 28 March and 31 May.

The transport organisation said that the payments will be processed in a number of steps involving a mass withdrawal on cards where one purchase was made during the period on Monday.

Transactions between 24 and 31 May and cards with less than €50 in transactions will also be processed on Monday.

Cards involving ticket purchases in amounts of over €50 will be debited on a phased basis in line with one week intervals between the earliest charge.

Irish Rail said it apologised for any inconvenience the fault will cause customers.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com