Good to see Irish Rail has embraced (not) the Leap card

coylemj

Looked at the IR website just now, there is a prominent box showing a hand holding an IR SMartcard with a banner 'Smartcard, Register, Top up or buy a smartcard'.

If you click the link on Smartcard there is a full explanation of their own card but not a sausage anywhere on their home page about the Leap Card.

As I understand it, the IR Smartcard can only be used within the 'short hop' zone so there is no possible journey where you can use the IR Smartcard but not the Leap card. Clearly IR have their heads in the sand and are trying to pretend the Leap card doesn't exist.

Surely after blowing €55 million, some minister should be knocking heads together?

foggy_lad

coylemj wrote: »

Looked at the IR website just now, there is a prominent box showing a hand holding an IR SMartcard with a banner 'Smartcard, Register, Top up or buy a smartcard'.

If you click the link on Smartcard there is a full explanation of their own card but not a sausage anywhere on their home page about the Leap Card.

As I understand it, the IR Smartcard can only be used within the 'short hop' zone so there is no possible journey where you can use the IR Smartcard but not the Leap card. Clearly IR have their heads in the sand and are trying to pretend the Leap card doesn't exist.

Surely after blowing €55 million, some minister should be knocking heads together?

They are not alone! Dublin Bus insist on you going into their HQ on o'connell street for a refund no matter what the amount, even though they must also pay for your journey there and back with a couple of travel90 tickets!

I had thought that IE were phasing out their own smart card and issuing people with leap cards instead but this looks unlikely if they are still selling it on the front page of their website?

sitstill

Speaking of IR and Leap, does anyone know when we will be able to top-up our Leap cards on the IR ticket machines??!

goingnowhere

Irish Rails smart card is considerably better than Leap in many ways until Leap catches up the Irish Rail smart card will remain

Irish Rail is doing auto renewal of monthly tickets on smart card which is miles ahead of leaps current abilities

sitstill

coylemj wrote: »

Looked at the IR website just now, there is a prominent box showing a hand holding an IR SMartcard with a banner 'Smartcard, Register, Top up or buy a smartcard'.

When you click on the link to buy a smartcard, it refers you to the Leap website.

markpb

goingnowhere wrote: »

Irish Rails smart card is considerably better than Leap in many ways until Leap catches up the Irish Rail smart card will remain

Good to see they wasted lots of money on a card which had a very short lifespan.

AngryLips

goingnowhere wrote: »

Irish Rails smart card is considerably better than Leap in many ways until Leap catches up the Irish Rail smart card will remain

Irish Rail is doing auto renewal of monthly tickets on smart card which is miles ahead of leaps current abilities

But Leap card is considerably better in the sense that you can use it on Luas and Dublin Bus also.

Victor

sitstill wrote: »

Speaking of IR and Leap, does anyone know when we will be able to top-up our Leap cards on the IR ticket machines??!

The current expectation is June 2012.

sitstill

Victor wrote: »

The current expectation is June 2012.

Why does it keep getting pushed back, I thought it was originally going to be Feb?

foggy_lad

sitstill wrote: »

Why does it keep getting pushed back, I thought it was originally going to be Feb?

The Irish Rail machines and software are not compatible with the leap software?

number10a

Not wanting to throw this entirely off topic, but does anyone know when the Leap cards are going to start working outside of Dublin, specifically Cork. The buses here have the tapping points just inside the door already. Ireland is such a small country that we really should just have one transport payment system for the whole place anyway.

Carawaystick

Obviously it is completely impossible for Irish rail to get leap terminals installed in their ticketing offices, it's much handier to direct people out to the rain and top up at the tram station in Connolly....

The nta are like poor high jumpers, setting the bar low and still knocking it down.

Dravokivich

goingnowhere wrote: »

Irish Rails smart card is considerably better than Leap in many ways until Leap catches up the Irish Rail smart card will remain

Irish Rail is doing auto renewal of monthly tickets on smart card which is miles ahead of leaps current abilities

It's not a matter of catching up, its phasing in in stages. Once full functionality is across to the Leap Card the Irish Rail Card is going to be taken out. Same with Luas.

number10a wrote: »

Not wanting to throw this entirely off topic, but does anyone know when the Leap cards are going to start working outside of Dublin, specifically Cork. The buses here have the tapping points just inside the door already. Ireland is such a small country that we really should just have one transport payment system for the whole place anyway.

Matthews did a pilot as far as I recall, but that was generally for commutter towns around Dublin heading into Dublin.

dowlingm

Carawaystick wrote: »

The nta are like poor high jumpers, setting the bar low and still knocking it down.

To be fair, the NTA's consultants told them the event was limbo dancing. Still crap at it though

ppthree

Just seen a Leap card sticker on a ticket machine in Connolly.

Victor

ppthree wrote: »

Just seen a Leap card sticker on a ticket machine in Connolly.

Some functionality is currently being rolled out, but will taken a while for it to reach all stations.

deRanged

Victor wrote: »

Some functionality is currently being rolled out, but will taken a while for it to reach all stations.

would that be all stations in Ireland, do you know?

it'd be handy if the leap card worked on the commuter lines in Cork. My IR smartcard works just fine (in the sense that it gets me to and from Midleton but there's nowhere in the county to read it) but the leap card would be a handy way to buy tickets for additional passengers, or the Cobh line.

foggy_lad

deRanged wrote: »

would that be all stations in Ireland, do you know?

it'd be handy if the leap card worked on the commuter lines in Cork. My IR smartcard works just fine (in the sense that it gets me to and from Midleton but there's nowhere in the county to read it) but the leap card would be a handy way to buy tickets for additional passengers, or the Cobh line.

Considering not all stations have a ticket office or even a ticket machine it will not be rolled out to all stations, more likely to cover the main stations(Connolly,Heuston, Pearse, Kent) first and then spread to smaller stations in Limerick Galway and Dundalk

robd

ppthree wrote: »

Just seen a Leap card sticker on a ticket machine in Connolly.

Was rolled out to Connolly and Grand Canal Dock last week, based on railusers.ie post. Appears to be soft rollout as nothing is being said about it by RPA.

Is continuing rollout to all ticket (Dart at least) machines. Requires hardware change of reader in each machine so will take weeks to complete. No fixed schedule given.

Has anyone tested it yet?

Dravokivich

deRanged wrote: »

would that be all stations in Ireland, do you know?

it'd be handy if the leap card worked on the commuter lines in Cork. My IR smartcard works just fine (in the sense that it gets me to and from Midleton but there's nowhere in the county to read it) but the leap card would be a handy way to buy tickets for additional passengers, or the Cobh line.

Just to keep yourself aware, currently only Dublin Bus allows the purchasing for additional passegners with Leap Card as they are able to produce receipts for each passenger at the drivers machine.

Irish Rail is touch on/off within Dublin so couldn't really facilitate multiple tickets.

Wouldn't mind know how they'd implement it, if it's going to be expanded outside of Dublin with Irish Rail.

robd

Dravokivich wrote: »

Wouldn't mind know how they'd implement it, if it's going to be expanded outside of Dublin with Irish Rail.

I guess if they really wanted to they could just treat it like a wallet and allow purchase of point to point ticket at the ticket machine.

Personally I think the whole allowing additional passengers is a not that useful a feature. Plus it might unintentionally discourage passengers from obtaining their own leap card. Auto topup is the major missing feature which I believe is now in early testing.

coylemj

Could we temporarily dump jargon like 'functionality' and 'roll out' and could someone tell us the name of any railway station(s) where you can now top up a Leap Card with cash and/or credit card using an Irish Rail ticket machine.

AngryLips

robd wrote: »

Personally I think the whole allowing additional passengers is a not that useful a feature. Plus it might unintentionally discourage passengers from obtaining their own leap card. Auto topup is the major missing feature which I believe is now in early testing.

It might work as a disincentive or it might work as a useful way to convert cash-paying passengers. Either way, I wouldn't call it useless.

Speaking for myself only there has been plenty of times when I've jumped on the bus with a mate instead of some other means of getting around because I happen to have my leap card on me even though my companion doesn't have any spare change for the bus fare. To be honest, I think the advantages it offers when you're traveling with out-of-towners far outweigh whatever disincentive there might be.

markpb

robd wrote: »

Personally I think the whole allowing additional passengers is a not that useful a feature. Plus it might unintentionally discourage passengers from obtaining their own leap card. Auto topup is the major missing feature which I believe is now in early testing.

I think it's a great feature after being initially dubious. I use it all the time when friends and family come to Dublin for a day or two. They'd never buy their own Leap card for such a short period of time but being able to hop on the bus without having cash is very handy.

I think auto-topup will be the killer feature. DB stand to benefit the most from Leap but because of the lack of top-up collection, I think it's limited the appeal so far. Auto-topup should close that gap and make it a lot more attractive.

robd

AngryLips wrote: »

Either way, I wouldn't call it useless.

I never said it was useless. I just don't think it's that useful in the scheme of things. Big difference between useless and not very useful. In the scheme of things being that, auto-topop from the start, would have been a much better feature to put the effort into.

robd

markpb wrote: »

I think it's a great feature after being initially dubious. I use it all the time when friends and family come to Dublin for a day or two. They'd never buy their own Leap card for such a short period of time but being able to hop on the bus without having cash is very handy.

I think auto-topup will be the killer feature. DB stand to benefit the most from Leap but because of the lack of top-up collection, I think it's limited the appeal so far. Auto-topup should close that gap and make it a lot more attractive.

I too have used the feature and was getting lots of use followed by infrequent use (as I changed office locations) out of leap card. Was great till I ran out of credit and haven't been near a Luas ticket machine to top it up, which I'd have to remember to do next time I'm in city centre. Can't do it at local rail station. Have found it hard to track down an advertised Payzone shop that actually does really do leap card topups.

Although there are situations where this companion fare is useful, the main job of the Leap Card should be driving efficiencies, reducing interaction with ticketing staff and reducing dwell times of buses. Fails miserably at that as a feature, particularly for the poor soles in the queue behind you.

robd

coylemj wrote: »

Could we temporarily dump jargon like 'functionality' and 'roll out' and could someone tell us the name of any railway station(s) where you can now top up a Leap Card with cash and/or credit card using an Irish Rail ticket machine.

To date:

Docklands
Connolly Station

AlekSmart

markpb wrote: »

I think it's a great feature after being initially dubious. I use it all the time when friends and family come to Dublin for a day or two. They'd never buy their own Leap card for such a short period of time but being able to hop on the bus without having cash is very handy.

I think auto-topup will be the killer feature. DB stand to benefit the most from Leap but because of the lack of top-up collection, I think it's limited the appeal so far. Auto-topup should close that gap and make it a lot more attractive.

Perhaps...however as far as I am aware,even when ATU is enabled the Leapcard will still have to be updated at the current hardwired locations,as the on-bus hardware will still NOT be capable of topping up ....:(

goingnowhere

Auto top up does work on the bus.....

AlekSmart

goingnowhere wrote: »

Auto top up does work on the bus.....

I stand corrected ...or at least I will when my machine delivers it to my customer...:D

goingnowhere

Driver and customer will not notice if the system decides to trigger an auto top up event.

The fact the auto top up happens is recorded on the TGX150 and is uploaded with the normal leap usage data from the bus each evening and the LEAP back office deals with the direct debit request.