Irish Rail Scraper - Train Fares & Schedules

How to scrape Irish Rail data

Irish Rail Scraper extracts train schedules, ticket fares, real-time status, and journey details from Irish Rail (Iarnrod Eireann) — Ireland's national railway operator. Irish Rail operates Intercity, DART, Commuter, and Enterprise (cross-border Belfast) services across the island.

This Actor uses a hybrid approach: it first queries the free Irish Rail Realtime API for live schedule data (train numbers, times, delays, status), then falls back to Playwright browser automation for fare extraction from the journey planner. No login or cookies required.

Why use Irish Rail Scraper?

• Schedule monitoring — Track real-time train schedules between any two Irish stations with live delay data.
• Price tracking — Monitor ticket prices across routes and dates to find the cheapest fares.
• Travel planning — Compare journey options, durations, and train types for any Irish route.
• Real-time delays — Get live delay information and train status directly from the signaling system.
• Market intelligence — Collect structured Irish rail data for competitive analysis in travel or transport.
• API access — Get Irish Rail data via Apify API, webhooks, or scheduled runs. Integrate with Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, or your own applications.

What data can you extract from Irish Rail?

Field	Description
trainNumber	Train service code (e.g., A218, E109)
trainType	Service type (Intercity, DART, Commuter, Enterprise)
departureStation	Name of the departure station
arrivalStation	Name of the arrival station
departureTime	Scheduled departure time (HH:mm)
arrivalTime	Scheduled arrival time (HH:mm)
duration	Total travel time (e.g., 2h 35min)
price	Ticket price in EUR (from journey planner)
currency	Currency code (EUR)
travelClass	Seat class (1st, Standard)
changes	Number of transfers (0 = direct)
status	Real-time status (En Route, No Information)
lateMinutes	Minutes of delay (0 = on time)
url	Source URL
scrapedAt	Timestamp of extraction

How to use Irish Rail Scraper

1. Go to the Irish Rail Scraper input page.
2. Enter your origin station (e.g., Dublin Heuston) and destination station (e.g., Cork).
3. Optionally set a departure date in YYYY-MM-DD format. If left empty, defaults to 14 days from today.
4. Set the number of passengers (default: 1).
5. Configure max results to limit the number of results returned.
6. Click Start and wait for the run to complete.
7. Download your data from the Dataset tab in JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML format.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
origin	string	Dublin Heuston	Departure station name
destination	string	Cork	Arrival station name
departureDate	string	14 days from today	Travel date (YYYY-MM-DD)
passengers	integer	1	Number of adult passengers (1-9)
maxResults	integer	50	Maximum results to return
proxyConfiguration	object	IE proxy	Proxy settings for browser

Example input

{
    "origin": "Dublin Heuston",
    "destination": "Galway",
    "departureDate": "2026-07-15",
    "passengers": 2,
    "maxResults": 20
}

Output example

{
    "trainNumber": "A218",
    "trainType": "Intercity",
    "departureStation": "Dublin Heuston",
    "arrivalStation": "Cork",
    "departureTime": "09:00",
    "arrivalTime": "11:35",
    "duration": "2h 35min",
    "price": null,
    "currency": "EUR",
    "travelClass": null,
    "changes": 0,
    "status": "En Route",
    "lateMinutes": 0,
    "url": "https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/train-timetables/live-train-map",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-09T10:30:00.000Z"
}

How much does it cost to scrape Irish Rail?

A typical run costs approximately $0.03-0.10 in Apify platform credits. The Actor first uses the free Irish Rail Realtime API (which requires no browser), making it significantly cheaper than pure Playwright scrapers. The browser only launches as a fallback for fare extraction.

To keep costs down:

• The Realtime API strategy runs first and is very fast.
• Set maxResults to only what you need.
• Schedule runs during off-peak hours for faster page loading.

Supported routes and services

Irish Rail operates services across the entire Irish rail network:

• Intercity — Dublin Heuston-Cork, Dublin Heuston-Galway, Dublin Heuston-Limerick, Dublin Heuston-Waterford, Dublin Heuston-Tralee, Dublin Heuston-Westport/Ballina.
• Enterprise — Dublin Connolly-Belfast Central (cross-border service, joint with Translink).
• DART — Dublin coastal commuter rail (Howth/Malahide to Greystones/Bray).
• Commuter — Dublin suburban services (Maynooth, Dunboyne, Drogheda, Kildare).
• Western Rail Corridor — Galway to Limerick.
• Cork Suburban — Cork to Cobh, Cork to Midleton.

Station names

Use the official Irish Rail station names. Common examples:

Station	Code	Routes
Dublin Heuston	HSTON	Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Tralee
Dublin Connolly	CNLLY	Belfast, Sligo, Rosslare, DART
Cork	CORK	Dublin, Cobh, Midleton, Tralee
Galway	GALWY	Dublin, Limerick
Limerick	LMRCK	Dublin, Galway, Ennis
Belfast Central	BFSTC	Dublin (Enterprise)
Waterford	WFORD	Dublin

Tips for best results

• Use official station names — The Actor matches against Irish Rail's station database. Use "Dublin Heuston" not just "Dublin" (there are multiple Dublin stations).
• Check the route — Dublin Heuston serves western/southern routes (Cork, Galway, Limerick). Dublin Connolly serves northern/eastern routes (Belfast, Sligo, DART).
• Real-time data window — The Realtime API returns trains within a 90-minute window from now. For future dates, the journey planner is used instead.
• Proxy is optional — The Realtime API works without proxies. Proxies are only needed for the journey planner fallback.

Integrations

Connect Irish Rail Scraper to your workflow with:

• Apify API — Call programmatically from any language.
• Webhooks — Get notified when a run completes.
• Scheduled runs — Monitor prices or schedules daily or weekly.
• Zapier / Make — No-code integration with 5000+ apps.
• Google Sheets — Export results directly to a spreadsheet.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape Irish Rail?

This Actor extracts publicly available train schedule and real-time information. The primary data source is the official Irish Rail Realtime API, which is provided as a free public service. No login, authentication, or account is required. Always ensure your use case complies with applicable laws.

Why are prices sometimes null?

The Irish Rail Realtime API provides schedule and status data but not fares. Prices are only available when the Actor successfully extracts them from the journey planner website. If the journey planner is unreachable or the route is not bookable online, prices will be null.

Can I scrape multiple routes in one run?

Currently the Actor searches one route per run. To scrape multiple routes, trigger separate runs with different origin/destination combinations using the Apify API or scheduler.

What is the difference between the Realtime API and the journey planner?

The Realtime API gives live data (current trains, delays, positions) within a 90-minute window. The journey planner shows scheduled services for future dates with fare information. This Actor tries the Realtime API first for speed and reliability, then falls back to the journey planner.

How often is the real-time data updated?

Irish Rail's signaling system updates train positions in near real-time. For the most current delay information, run the Actor during the time window you are interested in.

Support and feedback

If you encounter issues or have feature requests, please open an issue in the Issues tab. For custom scraping solutions, reach out via the Actor's page on the Apify Store.