Leap student card

dixierip

The word was that the student leap card was to be available for the new academic year.

http://www.thejournal.ie/student-travelcards-leap-cards-553474-Aug2012/

http://www.finegael.org/latest-news/2012/student-leap-card-to-be-l/index.xml

Still no word on leap website and academic year commences next week?

LXFlyer

Per the Dublin Bus twitter account:

The new Student TravelCard for '12/13 will be on sale in the Colleges from September-this years card will have a Leap chip too!

markpb

The Student Travel Card website shows a Leap card so I guess it's been launched without any fanfare, they just replaced the old ID Card and combined it with a fare care.

foggy_lad

markpb wrote: »

The Student Travel Card website shows a Leap card so I guess it's been launched without any fanfare, they just replaced the old ID Card and combined it with a fare care.

So the student travelcard is now a leap card or provides the same functionality as a leap card in that it can be used for cheaper student cheap fares but still can't be used to hold weekly or monthly student tickets?

If it actually is capable of offering adult leap card fares why not advertise this? It is more likely it is not capable yet and the chip is in place to cater for the future developments "coming soon"!

Dravokivich

Foggy: http://www.studenttravelcard.ie/studentroom/newsdetails/12-08-28/Using_your_Travelcard.aspx?id=4e5dc00a-3fd2-4246-9d95-bb4e85a9e660

A quick glance on their site and it shows the fares. Doesn't seem to be any student rate, just normal adult rates.

Mr Simpson

So essentially what it is is a normal leap card, which is accepted as ID to buy student price tickets. But you can't put the ticket on the card. Absolute madness how long this is taking to fully roll out.

LXFlyer

The ability to load period passes will come next year apparently.

Focus at the moment is on the rollout of auto top up.

markpb

mmcn90 wrote: »

So essentially what it is is a normal leap card, which is accepted as ID to buy student price tickets.

It also offers students a cheaper cash-equivalent fare on DB/Dart/Luas, something which students couldn't get before.

Mr Simpson

lxflyer wrote: »

The ability to load period passes will come next year apparently.

Focus at the moment is on the rollout of auto top up.

I'll believe it when I see it.

foggy_lad

lxflyer wrote: »

The ability to load period passes will come next year apparently.

Focus at the moment is on the rollout of auto top up.

So "coming not so soon"!

It really is laughable that such a system which has taken so long to develop and cost so much is not capable of holding the most basic of daily/weekly/monthly/yearly commuter tickets regardless of the whole daily/weekly/monthly capping.

Mr Simpson

markpb wrote: »

It also offers students a cheaper cash-equivalent fare on DB/Dart/Luas, something which students couldn't get before.

I could get it just fine with my normal leap card, its the same fare.

Dravokivich

mmcn90 wrote: »

I could get it just fine with my normal leap card, its the same fare.

Yeah, well, there's a little bit more, if you need an officially endorsed student id for train/bus tickets or what ever other service are avail, it has to be this one.

Students are going to get it regardless, just might end up not using the ePurse feature, while there's rambler tickets they can get.

foggy_lad

markpb wrote: »

It also offers students a cheaper cash-equivalent fare on DB/Dart/Luas, something which students couldn't get before.

Anyone with a Leap card can get those same fares, It is not a student Leap card more like a Leap card which can also be used as the travelcard so students will still need to buy their seasonal tickets seperately.

etchyed

Dravokivich wrote: »

Yeah, well, there's a little bit more, if you need an officially endorsed student id for train/bus tickets or what ever other service are avail, it has to be this one.

Students are going to get it regardless, just might end up not using the ePurse feature, while there's rambler tickets they can get.

You're missing the point entirely. mmcn90's point was that the functionality for cheaper fares already exists on normal Leap cards and student ID exists in the form of a Student Travelcard. Yeah, fair enough, this combines them on one card, but the fact is that to use those Rambler tickets to which you refer, a student will still have to go through the process of transcribing their Student Travelcard number onto a physically separate Rambler ticket, despite the fact that the Student Travelcard from which they're copying the number has an RFID chip, which should be capable of holding an electronic version.

It's now been 8 months since the launch of Leap, when we were told that the ability to hold period passes was "coming soon". lxflyer tells us "the focus" is on something else at the moment. I don't see why any one aspect of this project should require focus for so long. Is it that complex an IT project? I thought it had been decided to go for a more off-the-shelf solution after years of ITS floundering and going nowhere. The length of time and presumable complexity involved in introducing basic features is quite worrying.

I was initially supportive of the decision to launch with PAYG functionality only. These things are often best phased in gradually to ensure they work properly. But I think I've changed my mind at this stage. This prolonged period of the Leap card being essentially useless to regular commuters is damaging its brand. What was supposed to be a temporary period of PAYG and period tickets existing on physically separate cards, and the information about them being scattered across the internet on separate operators' websites, is turning into what seems more and more like a permanent situation.

This website completely fails to inform anyone of the many, many ticketing options available to them. Probably because it's so bloody complicated they don't even know themselves.

foggy_lad

etchyed wrote: »

It's now been 8 months since the launch of Leap, when we were told that the ability to hold period passes was "coming soon". lxflyer tells us "the focus" is on something else at the moment. I don't see why any one aspect of this project should require focus for so long. Is it that complex an IT project? I thought it had been decided to go for a more off-the-shelf solution after years of ITS floundering and going nowhere. The length of time and presumable complexity involved in introducing basic features is quite worrying.

It should probably be asked now if there are any serious issues relating to putting daily/weekly/monthly tickets on the Leap card? is there some kind of compatibility issues that can't be overcome?

Dravokivich

etchyed wrote: »

You're missing the point entirely.

I'm not. Not at all. All I said was they'll still need it regardless so it's nonsense saying it's no different to the normal Leap Card, because it isn't just a Leap Card.

foggy_lad

Dravokivich wrote: »

I'm not. Not at all. All I said was they'll still need it regardless so it's nonsense saying it's no different to the normal Leap Card, because it isn't just a Leap Card.

True! It is still a student travelcard but also has the leap card integrated which provides no student fares or student ticketing options at all!

bk

According to Mark Gleeson of rail users Ireland:

Student travelcards issued for the 2012-2013 year have a leap RFID chip and can be used for epurse travel.

Loading of weekly/monthly tickets will available in 2013

So looks like loading tickets onto leap won't happen till 2013 now!! Seems like leap is way behind schedule. I would really expect this relatively simple functionality by now.

BTW when it does come, I hope they enable the ability to buy these tickets on the leap website, so that you can order and pay for a ticket on the leap website and then have it automatically added to your leap card the next time you validate your ticket.

foggy_lad

How long will people have to wait for daily/weekly/monthly capping or will that ever be possible? It is beginning to look very like the proposed functionality is not compatible at all as if it was possible it should have been done by now!

bk

foggy_lad wrote: »

How long will people have to wait for daily/weekly/monthly capping or will that ever be possible? It is beginning to look very like the proposed functionality is not compatible at all as if it was possible it should have been done by now!

Oh technically it is very easily done. I'd imagine the issue is getting agreements from all the various companies.

Personally I'd like to see them drop the whole capping idea and instead go for a more radical revamp of the whole ticketing system to a Amsterdam style tag-on/tag-off per km fare system.

Mr Simpson

Personally I'm still hoping for DB flat fare and capping. Seems like the easiest solution to me. No need to upgrade hardware. Now if only the NTA would agree.

Victor

foggy_lad wrote: »

It is beginning to look very like the proposed functionality is not compatible at all as if it was possible it should have been done by now!

No, the roll-out is conservative - something that Ulster Bank learned to their expense over the summer.

bk

Victor wrote: »

No, the roll-out is conservative - something that Ulster Bank learned to their expense over the summer.

Yes, it has taken 12 years now, very conservative!!!

AlekSmart

bk wrote: »

Oh technically it is very easily done. I'd imagine the issue is getting agreements from all the various companies.

The technical issues are so minimal and either have been or are in the process of being solved worldwide by the day.

The issue which bk sees as securing agreement from the various companies,only arises because back in 1999,when the Integrated Ticketing Implementation Group was being set-up,none of those responsible had enough foresight to grasp the opportunity offered by the technology.

12 years ago,a very simple set of Ministerial Orders could,at-a-stroke,have directed the CIE Companies to fully integrate their relevant fare structures and revenue systems to allow for FULL Leapcard functionality (Nationwide if required).

This process,back in the 20th Century,would have ensured that the hard-work was done n dusted by the time Leapcard arrived on the Platform.

EVERYTHING about Leapcards functionality should have been primarily driven by a simple common fare structure across ALL modes and operators.

Had this been Point 1 of the ITIG's remit then we would be FAR further along the road than where we now sit becalmed.

Instead we saw the ITIG allow ALL operators to carry on as they were,with a suitably vague committment to integrate whatever need to be integrated "at a future date".

THAT decision was LUNACY,and we are now seeing just how short-sighted and crazy it really was.