Train Fare Fine

dublad23

Today I was coming home from work on the train.

I got the train from Connolly so I obviously had purchased a ticket to get past the barriers.

When I got off at my stop there was a group of 6 men at the exit to the the station.

4 were dressed in some sort of security uniform and another two in suits. A little ridiculous I thought having the security men - They looked like they had on bullet proof vests and were equipped with walkie talkies etc !!!!

Anyway I was asked for my ticket, I didn't have it.

I know, in a way, this is my fault.

However for the past 7 years there has never been anyone there checking tickets as there is no ticket booth to bypass.

You basically walk out through a gate.

Normally when boarding the train I would just leave my ticket on the table or wherever or on my exit put the ticket in the bin on the train.

I was issued with a €50 fine.

Have I any chance of getting this cancelled?

Did anyone else see these guys around...There was some at Connolly too!

Run_to_da_hills

You must carry your ticket at all times for inspection and have it ready at the end of your journey for collection. I don't think you have a case unless you can prove it on camera that you bought it. You will have to approach CIE for the footage.

fh041205

From Iarnrod Eireann's conditions of carriage.

12.1 Tickets remain the property of Iarnród Éireann and must be presented at any
time during the journey or if required delivered up when demanded by an
authorised employee of Iarnród Éireann or person on whose undertaking the
tickets are valid. Passengers failing to produce their tickets will be liable to
pay the full ordinary single fare for the journey made and he or she may be

liable to prosecution.

dublad23

Meh :-(

I just never expected The A Team to be at my station!

I guess I can ask them for the footage..I just never bother with keeping it as I felt when I got off the train I wouldn't need it as their is no need to present your ticket.

Run_to_da_hills

dublad23 wrote: »

Meh :-(

I just never expected The A Team to be at my station!

I guess I can ask them for the footage..I just never bother with keeping it as I felt when I got off the train I wouldn't need it as their is no need to present your ticket.

CIE probably know the station well and that people would regularly chance their arm that there was no collection point here, then they would set a trap. They use to do the same in Sydney Parade in the pre dart days when I would be going to school.

fh041205

There would undoutably be hotspots for this kind of thing and they would therefore visit these places more regularly, probably at different times of the day. You were just unlucky that they chose that station and at that time.

Run_to_da_hills

We are now living on the brink of a big brother society, ie CIE have already cctv cameras covering every dart station, every ticket machine and dart and can watch offenders bunking trains from an office. It dose not take much for them to send out a possee of inspectors.

jaffa20

it's ridiculous. They have those security doors all over the place and they are so annoying. I have to spend 2.60 a day just to get to work and it's only one stop away!!! The thirty day ticket works out more expensive so there is no point in paying that. I buy a ticket every day and have never been asked for it. It is the same on the luas: 4.60 a day and i am never asked for it at peak periods. I sympathise with you as you paid the fare as you do so every day ( i hope) and you were very unlucky that it was when security decided to do their job for a change.

Victor

jaffa20 wrote: »

I have to spend 2.60 a day just to get to work and it's only one stop away!!!

Walk? Bike?

FX Meister

Carry your ticket, how hard is that? You said you had bought your ticket so why didn't you give the inspectors a wrong name and address.

KC61

IÉ do carry out spot checks by the Revenue Protection Unit, as does Dublin Bus. They have always done this, but sometimes they focus on particular locations, paying occasional visits to other areas/

Unfortunately, as has been mentioned, under the terms of carriage you're obliged to hold onto your ticket until you leave the destination station, so I think that you've got to chalk it down as a lesson learnt.

Incidentally, the "annoying security doors" as referred to above, i.e. the exit validation turnstiles, have proved a major success in stamping out fare evasion and is slowly being extended across the DART/Suburban network.

Fares in Dublin are still very low, and I don't think that EUR 2.60 for a return journey is unreasonable, when you compare with similar transit systems. Bear in mind that the state subsidy is much lower than most continental European countries.

MOH

The standard of service is lower than most similar transit systems.

mikemac

jaffa20 wrote: »

it's ridiculous. They have those security doors all over the place and they are so annoying. I have to spend 2.60 a day just to get to work and it's only one stop away!!! The thirty day ticket works out more expensive so there is no point in paying that. I buy a ticket every day and have never been asked for it. It is the same on the luas: 4.60 a day and i am never asked for it at peak periods.

If it's only one stop then it's probably walkable. Probably not a massive time difference.

The Luas isn't checked at peak times as it isn't realy possible. The inspectors would not be able to walk around

godtabh

dublad23 wrote: »

I just never bother with keeping it as I felt when I got off the train I wouldn't need it as their is no need to present your ticket.

Do you do the same thing going in the opposite direction?

godtabh

Victor wrote: »

Walk? Bike?

Doesn't that involve exercise?

L1011

micmclo wrote: »

The Luas isn't checked at peak times as it isn't realy possible. The inspectors would not be able to walk around

Red line is frequently checked from Red Cow outwards and Tallaght to the Red Cow inbound during peak times. But yes, they wouldn't be able to get on further in!

fh041205

MOH wrote: »

The standard of service is lower than most similar transit systems.

Such as.............

dublad23

kearnsr wrote: »

Do you do the same thing going in the opposite direction?

Well No.

You need a ticket to get through the gates.

There is none of that in the said station.

You get off the train and go through a normal gate.

godtabh

dublad23 wrote: »

Well No.

You need a ticket to get through the gates.

There is none of that in the said station.

You get off the train and go through a normal gate.

The point is that you know you need a ticket in one direction so why not carry it in another?

how is the ticket checker meant to know that you actually 'bought' a ticket?or at what station said ticket was 'bought'?he doesnt have to prove you bought a tickes. Its up to you to do that and there is a very simple way of doing it!

fh041205

12.3 Passengers must retain their tickets until they have exited the station of their
destination and they must dispose of their tickets in an appropriate manner in

accordance with litter laws.

PRND

fh041205 wrote: »

Such as.............

Cities I've been in with better have been Paris, New York, Frankfurt, Vienna, Barcelona. I'm sure there are more out there.

jaffa20

micmclo wrote: »

If it's only one stop then it's probably walkable. Probably not a massive time difference.

Walkable from Connolly to Clontarf :O it would take 30 minutes or more and i already have to walk from Stephen's green to the dart station.

jaffa20

PRND wrote: »

Cities I've been in with better have been Paris, New York, Frankfurt, Vienna, Barcelona. I'm sure there are more out there.

Exactly and you can get a metro ticket to last you the day all over paris for the price of my one return ticket from Connolly to Clontarf:mad:

PRND

People regularly compare the price of rail transport in Dublin than with other cities based on price. What they don't take into consideration is that in other cities the train lines are linked, the train system covers a wide portion of the city, the tickets can be used on other forms of transport, the trains run from earlier in the morning to later at night, if not 24hrs, the service is more reliable and punctual, there is more efficient ticket validation and the trains are less crowded. I'd say Dubliners would be prepared to pay more for a bit more of the above!

fh041205

jaffa20 wrote: »

Exactly and you can get a metro ticket to last you the day all over paris for the price of my one return ticket from Connolly to Clontarf:mad:

There is an adult day short hop for around 9e. And anyone who compares Dublin to these cities is crazy. While I agree that IR should strive to achieve these standards it is unreasonable to expect this change to happen overnight after years and years of underinvestment in the railway systems. Now that this money is being made available the service is improving but it will take a while.

If you look at population we should be in the same region as Newcastle, New Orleans and Birmingham in terms of transport. I have no doubt that we are.

Run_to_da_hills

CIE is doing a great job and have built up a cheap and reliable transport system through out the city with what limited resources they have been handed with.

I can only blame the government for having such a useless incompatible rapid transit layout which I would consider one of the worst in Europe. If they had put the cash over the last 20 years into an interconnecting metro system instead of wasting it on and motorways we would be better off.

With the price of fuel going up the way it is we may well soon fine these motorways abandoned in the near future.

PRND

fh041205 wrote: »

There is an adult day short hop for around 9e. And anyone who compares Dublin to these cities is crazy. While I agree that IR should strive to achieve these standards it is unreasonable to expect this change to happen overnight after years and years of underinvestment in the railway systems. Now that this money is being made available the service is improving but it will take a while.

If you look at population we should be in the same region as Newcastle, New Orleans and Birmingham in terms of transport. I have no doubt that we are.

I don't think It's crazy to compare Dublin to other European cities. It may be crazy to compare it to New Orleans given the cultural differences between Europe and the US, average age of cities, historical cost of petrol. Years of underinvestment is not the a reason not to compare transport systems. I'm sure every has a reason why its public transport system is not as good as it should be. All people want is an efficient, reliable, far reaching system. Years of underinvestment do not stop the trains running after 11pm on the Northern Line or so sparsely on a Sunday. And as for your €9 hop ticket. At current rates, that's about £6 sterling. Just over the price of a 4 zone London day Travelcard. And compare what you get in Ireland with what you get in London.

fh041205

You can't compare a city of 12 million people with dublin. The rail system in london is fantastic and has been for some time. Its a million miles ahead of dublin in terms of development and investment. Look up how much money has been invested in rail transport in London over the last 50 years and compare it with Dublin. Its no surprise that they are lightyears ahead of us.

Rawr

fh041205 wrote: »

You can't compare a city of 12 million people with dublin.

Population shouldn't really effect the quality of a city's transport network.
I live in Oslo, a city with just 500,000 people, and yet it has a very extensive and integrated transport net, with rail, metro, light rail and busses, all working together quite well.

They even pulled off an interconnector 20 years ago, under the city. Given, the Norweigians had the cash for all of this for some time, but so had we for the best part of a decade.

PRND

fh041205 wrote: »

You can't compare a city of 12 million people with dublin. The rail system in london is fantastic and has been for some time. Its a million miles ahead of dublin in terms of development and investment. Look up how much money has been invested in rail transport in London over the last 50 years and compare it with Dublin. Its no surprise that they are lightyears ahead of us.

One of the differences I can see is that the services in London are run for the good of the people using them. In Ireland it is run for the benefit of the people running them. Why not have late trains? Why not have integrated ticketing? Why not attempt to timetable trains realistically instead of to meet some 95% punctuality marketing nonsense which nobody believes?

I don't see why you think we shouldn't compare systems as the Irish system has been underfunded. When I was in Vienna recently I didn't care how it was funded. Only that the trains were punctual, regular, well connected and good value.

Perhaps you don't use the train services in the Dublin area regularly but let me tell you, they are fairly awful and most regular commuters could probably give at least one workable idea to improve things and there have nothing to do with historic underfunding.

Victor

Walkable from Connolly to Clontarf :O it would take 30 minutes or more and i already have to walk from Stephen's green to the dart station.

Why don't you get the 128 or 20b bus?