Interrail passes in Northern Ireland.

[D6130]

I am currently travelling around Ireland - on FIP passes - with a friend from France who is using a five day digital Ireland Interrail pass. On arrival at Belfast Grand Central this morning - en route to Derry/Londonderry - he was unable to find any NIR station in the Rail Planner app. We went to the Customer Support desk and the person on duty informed him that Interrail is not valid in Northern Ireland and that he would have to purchase a single to Derry for £15....plus the currency conversion fee for his French credit card.

En route to Derry I had a long conversation with with the very friendly and helpful conductor. He advised me that they have been told by their managers and supervisors that Interrail is not valid on NIR and that their scanners do not accept it. However, he agreed with me that it was a crazy situation and that he personally would have allowed my friend to travel. He advised him to contact NIR Customer Services and enquire about a possible refund.

There seems to be some sort of major problem with the interface between InterRail and NIR. NIR stations on the line to/from Dublin are included on the Rail Planner app....but seemingly no others. Does anyone have any similar experiences or suggestions?

 

[Tetchytyke]

I think you will have to complain to both Interrail and Translink to secure a refund, as the Interrail website is very clear that Translink services are included.

Company	Included train types	Discounted Ferries or buses	Excluded trains
Irish Rail (Republic of Ireland)	DART (SUB)	Irish Ferries
Regional (RE)	Stena Line
InterCity (IC)
Enterprise Express (IC)
Translink (Northern Ireland)	Regional (RE)

Railway Companies

Check out the participating train, ferry and public transport companies in the 30 countries where the Interrail Passes are valid.

www.interrail.com

ETA: The Interrail website guide to Ireland includes Belfast to Derry/Londonderry as a suggested journey:

Trains in Ireland

Find out about travelling around Ireland by train, including different train types, reservation information & international connections.

www.interrail.com

If Translink/NIR have decided that they no longer accept Interrail, someone ought to tell Interrail themselves.

It may be that the staff are thinking either of Britrail or the Great Britain one country Interrail pass- neither of those are valid in Ireland. But there's nothing to say that the Ireland one country pass or the global pass wouldn't be valid.

 

[Segedunum]

My experience of this in 2024 was that InterRail was begrudgingly accepted but not without some long conversations and showing the InterRail website to staff. On-board staff were ultimately reasonable and pleasant about it but indeed their scanners do not accept the passes.

I complained to Translink at the time who emailed me the following:

I have brought your comments to the attention of NIR Central Sales management and have risen a suggestion to our marketing department to send a circular to all staff to remind that such tickets require visual inspection as opposed to scanning.

Additionally, yes, I had to manually add in every single journey.

 

[Flying Snail]

It has long been an issue that NIR timetables are not included in the database Interrail uses so their services do not appear and require manual entry to the pass.

I do not believe for one second that NIR has suddenly withdrawn from Interrail, this is a classic example of an ignorant person or persons with too much authority and too little ability being incorrect and disseminating bad information. Most likely a "it doesn't scan therefore it must be invalid" inference that happens all to frequently now as more and more people become entirely subservient to technology with little understanding of it's limitations and problems.

Funny thing with NIR, I have found the guards to be uniformly professional and friendly but the station staff are a mixed bunch at the best of times, I have encountered some spectacularly rude ones.

 

[signed]

It has long been an issue that NIR timetables are not included in the database Interrail uses so their services do not appear and require manual entry to the pass.

Interestingly last year they were on the timetable everything.

But they showed out of pass network on a One Country Ireland pass, had to manually add the trip as Irish stations as opposed to UK stations.

No issues using it on either Enterprise or NIR, I think I got checked once on NIR but they just looked at it asking where I was going


Now the stations bar Belfast show as non-existent in the station list on the app.

 

[rvdborgt]

Please report this to Interrail here:

https://eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/requests/new

Include as many details as possible, such as date, time, place etc. of what happened. Also include what the conductor told you.
Interrail take such complaints seriously, refund any tickets you were forced to buy and will take this up with the operator.

Whether timetables are in the Rail Planner app or not does not mean anything for pass validity. The stations to Dublin are included probably because IÉ are including them in their timetables.

 

[D6130]

Thanks everyone. I have passed the relevant information on to my friend.

 

[Mainline421]

On arrival at Belfast Grand Central this morning - en route to Derry/Londonderry - he was unable to find any NIR station in the Rail Planner app. We went to the Customer Support desk and the person on duty informed him that Interrail is not valid in Northern Ireland and that he would have to purchase a single to Derry for £15....plus the currency conversion fee for his French credit card.

A bit late now, but many stations and trains are missing from the Rail Planner app, in future you're supposed to press 'Add it manually' and type the stations, departure times and if applicable train number yourself rather than speaking to staff.* This then generates a clear and convincing looking ticket to show, which would likely avoid most problems.

*The one exception is ZRS in Republika Srpska who for some reason have an official policy that they do not accept digital passes, only Paper ones are valid, but I guess that's slightly better than withdrawing entirely.

 

[D6130]

A bit late now, but many stations and trains are missing from the Rail Planner app, in future you're supposed to press 'Add it manually' and type the stations, departure times and if applicable train number yourself rather than speaking to staff.* This then generates a clear and convincing looking ticket to show, which would likely avoid most problems.

*The one exception is ZRS in Republika Srpska who for some reason have an official policy that they do not accept digital passes, only Paper ones are valid, but I guess that's slightly better than withdrawing entirely.

Thanks. Worth bearing in mind for my friend's next trip to Ireland....if he ever goes again. I think it would be useful if InterRail warn pass-holders of the potential problems on NIR and suggest your solution to them.

 

[rvdborgt]

*The one exception is ZRS in Republika Srpska who for some reason have an official policy that they do not accept digital passes, only Paper ones are valid, but I guess that's slightly better than withdrawing entirely.

The mobile pass is valid for all participating operators. Should the validity be disputed, then please report to customer service.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Jun 2026 ==

Thanks. Worth bearing in mind for my friend's next trip to Ireland....if he ever goes again. I think it would be useful if InterRail warn pass-holders of the potential problems on NIR and suggest your solution to them.

There is a warning if you tap on "About the timetable" on the Rail Planner app's start screen. It's just that Northern Ireland is missing from the list.

 

[Mainline421]

The mobile pass is valid for all participating operators. Should the validity be disputed, then please report to customer service.

Not ZRS according to Interrail (I use paper passes anyway) https://www.interrail.com/en/plan-y...rope/trains-country/trains-bosnia-herzegovina

I think it would be useful if InterRail warn pass-holders of the potential problems on NIR and suggest your solution to them.

That is what they suggest, but they probably should make it much clearer

 

[rvdborgt]

That is what they suggest, but they probably should make it much clearer

There are a number of operators who don't share (part of) their timetables with the rest of the world. NIR is by no means the only one. Some operators are also quite late with updates, which means they don't always make it into the RPA in time. The mobile pass FAQ says what to do if you can't find your train in the planner, but it's not always very clear what to do in the RPA, especially when using the (now default) online planner. In the offline planner, the app will suggest to add a journey manually if it can't find a station. In the online planner, that's not the case: it will just return a list with the best matches.

 

[Mainline421]

In the online planner, that's not the case: it will just return a list with the best matches.

You're supposed to select two random stations and then "Add journey manually" will appear, although I suspect most users won't know this

 

[rvdborgt]

You're supposed to select two random stations and then "Add journey manually" will appear, although I suspect most users won't know this

Exactly. That's not a solution but just a workaround.

 

[AdamWW]

You're supposed to select two random stations and then "Add journey manually" will appear, although I suspect most users won't know this

Yes - that took me some frantic internet searching to discover when I needed it at short notice.