Matthews Bus fare increases from next week

gipi

In case you haven't seen it on their website....

http://matthews.ie/en/service-announcements/115-revised-fare-structure-effective-from-january-3-2012

Don't be caught out when you buy your 10 journey ticket next week!

LH2011

its increases in cost everywhere........:eek:

tenchi-fan

Pretty disappointing increases! Bus Eireann seems to be cheaper (although the service is not nearly as good), and at times the train can be cheaper.

Lord TSC

Still a decent deal considering they pick up right outside my house :P

southlouth type

How come its as expensive to travel from Drogheda to Dublin as it is from Dundalk to Dublin ? Dosent seem to add up considering the millage differential ?

radiofreak

and at times the train can be cheaper.[/QUOTE]

Certainly not to Dundalk.
A single fare from Connolly to Dundalk costs over €20.

Dunny

southlouth type wrote: »

How come its as expensive to travel from Drogheda to Dublin as it is from Dundalk to Dublin ? Dosent seem to add up considering the millage differential ?

Do you ever stop whinging about Dundalk? FFS like

indiewindy

radiofreak wrote: »

and at times the train can be cheaper.

A single fare from Connolly to Dundalk costs over €20.[/QUOTE]

yeah, Irish rail fares are a total mess,
you can get a day offpeak return to Dublin from €12 while a one way is a lot more and if you come back the next day it is €29.40:eek:
a 20% increase is massive for matthews, although they provide an excellent service

gipi

Bus Eireann and Irish Rail fares are likely to go up soon too - I know that Dublin Bus fares are increasing.

The 10 journey tickets have gone up by 50% since May 2008 (from 40 euro to 60 euro).

MugMugs

Dunny! wrote: »

southlouth type wrote: »

How come its as expensive to travel from Drogheda to Dublin as it is from Dundalk to Dublin ? Dosent seem to add up considering the millage differential ?

Do you ever stop whinging about Dundalk? FFS like

Heh... I don't believe it was an attack on The Dalk more on the pricing inconsistency.

Dunny

Absolutley. But any post is against the town ffs.

All Dundalks fault!

Email or ring and ask Matthews Coaches.

southlouth type

Dunny! wrote: »

Absolutley. But any post is against the town ffs.

All Dundalks fault!

Email or ring and ask Matthews Coaches.

Very valid question and its one i have asked drivers on the bus before but never got a reasonable answer . If you dont like the question dont bother responding pal , if you actually read this part of the post " Dosent seem to add up considering the millage differential ? " you might have responded instead of jumping to your defense of " the town " Bus eireann and trains are more expensive to Dundalk than they are to Drogheda , you getting the point now ?

Dunny

And if you read my post you would notice "email or ring Matthews"

Not in defence of "the town" but anytime you are on it's Dundalk all the time, give it a rest like..

Rant away tho.

gipi

I think the pricing structure of the 10 journey tickets (which are the same from Bettystown to Dublin too) is to keep things as simple as possible for everyone.

The annual tickets are priced differently for the different destinations, I think?

Do Matthews offer an annual ticket?

Wonder how much that'd cost (an annual ticket for the Dundalk-Drogheda-Dublin route).

Equium

southlouth type wrote: »

How come its as expensive to travel from Drogheda to Dublin as it is from Dundalk to Dublin ? Dosent seem to add up considering the millage differential ?

For simplicity. If a bus is running from Dublin to Dundalk through Drogheda, it would be more complicated to ask people where they were going and thus ask for a different fare. There's also another possibility: Matthew's could start to preferentially allocate places to Dundalk-bound customers on the mixed services, as they would be paying more.

Anyway, I don't think an increase of €2 per day for a weekly ticket is excessive, when you consider the quality of service that they provide.

MugMugs

500 quid a year increase. Makes sense for me to keep motoring down tbh.

southlouth type

Equium wrote: »

For simplicity. If a bus is running from Dublin to Dundalk through Drogheda, it would be more complicated to ask people where they were going and thus ask for a different fare. There's also another possibility: Matthew's could start to preferentially allocate places to Dundalk-bound customers on the mixed services, as they would be paying more.

Anyway, I don't think an increase of €2 per day for a weekly ticket is excessive, when you consider the quality of service that they provide.

They already put on Dublin to Dundalk express service dont they ? There is a large difference in travelling from bettystown to dub as opposed to dundalk to dub but its the same price . Very weird if you ask me .

CMpunked

I've always wondered about Matthews pricing, was the question never raised before as to why commuters from both towns pay the same?
I have a friend from Dublin who regularly stays in Drogheda and he told me once how he bought a return ticket, came up to Drogheda on a Sunday, stayed a night and tried to use the same ticket for college to dundalk.
He was told that using the ticket again that morning would void the return to Dublin for him that evening.

His reasoning was that surely, if the ticket prices are the same for the full journey as opposed to half of it, you should be able to get on and off if needed.
Similar to Dublin bus/rail.

amacachi

CMpunked wrote: »

I've always wondered about Matthews pricing, was the question never raised before as to why commuters from both towns pay the same?
I have a friend from Dublin who regularly stays in Drogheda and he told me once how he bought a return ticket, came up to Drogheda on a Sunday, stayed a night and tried to use the same ticket for college to dundalk.
He was told that using the ticket again that morning would void the return to Dublin for him that evening.

His reasoning was that surely, if the ticket prices are the same for the full journey as opposed to half of it, you should be able to get on and off if needed.
Similar to Dublin bus/rail.

They charge per journey, simple as. They're obviously happy enough with the profit and number of customers in Drogheda and Bettystown and the like so they'll keep charging it. If it would increase profit they'd charge everyone 100 a week.

20 Times 20 Times

Just to let people know they now offer the student ticket which is €55 for the ten trip ! I think that is still good value.

**Timbuk2**

It's still good value, excellent service.

For the Student 10-trip return, just a normal student card (UCD) will suffice? It doesn't need to be a student travelcard, does it?

€2 increase isn't bad at all.

I thought, during the budget, we were told that all public transport fares were going to increase? Did that not happen (yet)?

I'm sure Matthews €2 will seem reasonable when other services go up (presuming they haven't already).

Still, although I admit I don't travel to Dublin/Dundalk that often, I'd never travel with anyone but Matthews nowadays. There's a lot to be said for a bit of comfort, in my opinion. Free Wifi doesn't hurt them either.

southlouth type

amacachi wrote: »

They charge per journey, simple as. They're obviously happy enough with the profit and number of customers in Drogheda and Bettystown and the like so they'll keep charging it. If it would increase profit they'd charge everyone 100 a week.

But its not simple as though ? It dosent make sense , the people in Drogheda and Bettystown are paying the same price as Dundalk to travel a lot less of a journey ! How does that make sense , it seems to me that these people are subsidising the journey for everyone .

amacachi

Deleted User wrote: »

€2 increase isn't bad at all.

I thought, during the budget, we were told that all public transport fares were going to increase? Did that not happen (yet)?

I'm sure Matthews €2 will seem reasonable when other services go up (presuming they haven't already).

Still, although I admit I don't travel to Dublin/Dundalk that often, I'd never travel with anyone but Matthews nowadays. There's a lot to be said for a bit of comfort, in my opinion. Free Wifi doesn't hurt them either.

southlouth type wrote: »

But its not simple as though ? It dosent make sense , the people in Drogheda and Bettystown are paying the same price as Dundalk to travel a lot less of a journey ! How does that make sense , it seems to me that these people are subsidising the journey for everyone .

They should go with another service provider if they're worried. Matthews are going to charge whatever price will give them the greatest profit.
If I Were commuting from Drogheda to Dublin I might be annoyed about paying the same as those from Dundalk to Dublin, the 10 hours a week less I had to spend on the bus would be a bigger influence on my overall mood though. :pac:

I wonder what the story will be with the Leap cards WRT discounts.

MugMugs

southlouth type wrote: »

But its not simple as though ? It dosent make sense , the people in Drogheda and Bettystown are paying the same price as Dundalk to travel a lot less of a journey ! How does that make sense , it seems to me that these people are subsidising the journey for everyone .

I was with you up until here. Once again you're playing the Drogheda hard done by Dundalk. I actually didn't think it possible for you to turn this in this direction! But you managed!

CMpunked

MugMugs wrote: »

I was with you up until here. Once again you're playing the Drogheda hard done by Dundalk. I actually didn't think it possible for you to turn this in this direction! But you managed!

Dear God. This is not anything about Dundalk, if it was Navan, monaghan, timbuktu it would be the same reasoning.
I use matthews to go to dundalk more times than i do to dublin in the last year. My friend also uses it from dublin to do the same. But he isnt going around saying its dundalks fault for the price, no one is.

MugMugs

CMpunked wrote: »

MugMugs wrote: »

I was with you up until here. Once again you're playing the Drogheda hard done by Dundalk. I actually didn't think it possible for you to turn this in this direction! But you managed!

Dear God. This is not anything about Dundalk, if it was Navan, monaghan, timbuktu it would be the same reasoning.
I use matthews to go to dundalk more times than i do to dublin in the last year. My friend also uses it from dublin to do the same. But he isnt going around saying its dundalks fault for the price, no one is.

I beg to differ. Combined with SLT's previous posts this is just following on on the same. The reasons for the inconsistency in the fares is explained earlier in this thread.

southlouth type

MugMugs wrote: »

I beg to differ. Combined with SLT's previous posts this is just following on on the same. The reasons for the inconsistency in the fares is explained earlier in this thread.

The reason is NOT explained by anyone on here as none of you actually know the reason . Normally the further you travel the more you pay but this is not the case with this particular journey If you think you know the reason why, please enlighten me , if not then please stop ruining the thread by claiming i am making it into an anti dundalk thread . If it was castleblaney i would be asking the same question .

MugMugs

Equium wrote: »

southlouth type wrote: »

How come its as expensive to travel from Drogheda to Dublin as it is from Dundalk to Dublin ? Dosent seem to add up considering the millage differential ?

For simplicity. If a bus is running from Dublin to Dundalk through Drogheda, it would be more complicated to ask people where they were going and thus ask for a different fare. There's also another possibility: Matthew's could start to preferentially allocate places to Dundalk-bound customers on the mixed services, as they would be paying more.

Anyway, I don't think an increase of €2 per day for a weekly ticket is excessive, when you consider the quality of service that they provide.

There's your answer.

Dunny

southlouth type wrote: »

But its not simple as though ? It dosent make sense , the people in Drogheda and Bettystown are paying the same price as Dundalk to travel a lot less of a journey ! How does that make sense , it seems to me that these people are subsidising the journey for everyone .

Living in Drogheda, I've never once used the whole journey with Matthews (Dundalk-Dublin and vice versa). That said, I do still find their prices reasonable, and I think the idea behind the fare being the same is, as said above, simplicity.

I doubt it saves much time (wouldn't take long for the driver to ask where you're going) but it keeps them away from a complex pricing scheme, which is good.

southlouth type

MugMugs wrote: »

There's your answer.

Nonsense . How come all other bus and train services all over the country can do it then ?

MugMugs

southlouth type wrote: »

MugMugs wrote: »

There's your answer.

Nonsense . How come all other bus and train services all over the country can do it then ?

Fact is, people still use it. If you were a business man and could charge one set fair irrespective of destination to the benefit of your pocket, would you ?

southlouth type

People still use it because there is hardly any other choice . Bus Eireann is not as frequent and trains are a rip off . That dosent make it right though .

MugMugs

..... And such is life. If I felt that strongly about it then I'd mail the company.

kormak

Using Matthews coaches + DART for me to get to work = €74 p/w
Using Car (Diesel+4 tolls) = 70ish

This is why I prefer the motor! public transport sucks balls in this country...
Also, I work with someone who gets a similar private coach all the way from Tyrellspass to the Quays every week... his weekly tickets costs.... €35!!

so how is it Matthews can charge twice that with less distance!!

I like Matthews service, but I think their pricing is not very fair at all...

indiewindy

kormak wrote: »

Using Matthews coaches + DART for me to get to work = €74 p/w
Using Car (Diesel+4 tolls) = 70ish

This is why I prefer the motor! public transport sucks balls in this country...
Also, I work with someone who gets a similar private coach all the way from Tyrellspass to the Quays every week... his weekly tickets costs.... €35!!

so how is it Matthews can charge twice that with less distance!!

I like Matthews service, but I think their pricing is not very fair at all...

Would you not consider buying an annaul ticket or doing the taxsaver option through your employer, you will save a lot of money if you do either

kormak

indiewindy wrote: »

Would you not consider buying an annaul ticket or doing the taxsaver option through your employer, you will save a lot of money if you do either

My employer only offers it on a once off annual payment.
I have indeed used this before for many years on the train and although I can say hands down that this is the best value for money...
I always found it stomach churning handiung over such a huge amount of money for such a criminally poor service.
Also, my jobs is shift based which again is not ideal for using public transport.