Leap Card -v- Student tickets

UCDVet

Everyone seems to be saying the Leap Cards are the way to go, because they are cheaper. Can someone explain this to me?

If I'm a student going to UCD - a short trip from Stillorgan -
http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Fare-Calculator/Fare-Calculator-Results/?routeNumber=46a&direction=O&board=31&alight=38

The fare calculator says €1.95.
To get back home - it's another €1.95

One day of class ends up costing me €3.90
One week of classes costs me €19.50

Both of these amounts are less than the daily and weekly limits. So that's what I end up paying.

A student 30 Day Rambler pass is currently €100. That's €3.33 per day / €16.65.
€3.33 is less than €3.90 *AND* I don't have to talk to the bus driver or worry about him putting the fair in incorrectly. I also don't have to pay any deposit.

Can someone explain why so many people are saying the Leap Card is cheaper? What am I missing....by my count the Leap Card is 17% more expensive!

P.S. I just got off the 46A after the bus driver pulled over and STOPPED THE BUS while he called out to the 'last customer to use a leap card'. After about five minutes of awkward silence some poor girl stepped up. The bus driver demanded to know how come the price came up at 1.90 when there was no adult fee that should be 1.90 (his words, not mine). Eventually, she went back to her seat and he continued driving - but it really makes me doubt their ability to process them correctly.

ibarelycare

The rambler tickets now go ON the leap card.

Before that, it was often cheaper to buy the rambler depending on your usage of the bus.

LXFlyer

LEAP pay-as-you-go is designed for occasional users.

For anyone travelling every day then they ought to be using one of the prepaid travel passes, such as the rambler tickets.

It all depends upon what the individual travel patterns are - different tickets suit different people.

No one has said that LEAP pay-as-you-go is always the cheapest option - what is being said is that it is undoubtedly cheaper than paying cash.

UCDVet

lxflyer wrote: »

LEAP pay-as-you-go is designed for occasional users.

For anyone travelling every day then they ought to be using one of the prepaid travel passes, such as the rambler tickets.

It all depends upon what the individual travel patterns are - different tickets suit different people.

No one has said that LEAP pay-as-you-go is always the cheapest option - what is being said is that it is undoubtedly cheaper than paying cash.

Okay - I just spent 45 minutes trying to understand this. It's a shame they have to make it so complicated. I think I'd need some calculus to really get this all straight....



A 30-Day Adult Rambler pass is MORE expensive than the Adult Leap card on the bus if you use the bus for one (round) trip, more than (an average of) six times per week. But less than six days of bus use per week, if your in the 4th tier stage, then the Rambler pass is cheaper until your usage drops below 26 trips per year, at which point the LEAP card is cheaper.

Unless you are a student.

If you are a student then the 30-day student rambler pass is cheaper....but only if your trips are in the 2nd stage (1.95) or further. If you've got a 1st stage fare (1.45) then you want the Leap card. Unless of course you average less than 26 round trips per year; then reven if you are in the 2nd stage or further, the cheaper options

But all of that goes out the window if you make more than one trip per day, which heavily favours the Rambler pass. But even then, you need to calculate exactly how many times to determine which pass is the most cost effective.

Dravokivich

UCDVet wrote: »

Can someone explain why so many people are saying the Leap Card is cheaper? What am I missing....by my count the Leap Card is 17% more expensive!

.

Your comparison is off. You are arguing about an adult fare on leap against an adult fare without leap. There are no fares for 3rd level students only period tickets and it's always been that way. They never advertised it'll be any different for you with leap.

Dravokivich

Also, that issue with the incorrect fare is a problem on the bus. Ticket machines/validators set the fare. His must be out of date for some reason. Its not unheard of.

UCDVet

Dravokivich wrote: »

Your comparison is off. You are arguing about an adult fare on leap against an adult fare without leap. There are no fares for 3rd level students only period tickets and it's always been that way. They never advertised it'll be any different for you with leap.

I fail to understand how the comparison is off....

What I pay with a rambler card Vs. what I pay for the exact same service using a LEAP card.

Stevek101

Leap Card + Loaded Rambler = Best Value, easy really. You seem to have a fairly decent grasp of maths so it'd be handy to figure on the day if you should use your rambler or epurse.

Dravokivich

UCDVet wrote: »

I fail to understand how the comparison is off....

What I pay with a rambler card Vs. what I pay for the exact same service using a LEAP card.

The idea about cheaper fares on leap, is in comparison to fares without leap. That has been the direction most of their advertising has been aimed at.

The issue you have, is that there are no 3rd level student fares.

And even then, up until it was possible to get a rambler onto the leap card, it was never advertised to those who did use ramblers.

LXFlyer

OK, I will try to be clearer.

LEAP pay-as-you-go is designed primarily for people who either:

1) Make only occasional journeys; or
2) Regularly make shorter journeys; or
3) Make irregular multi-mode journeys (such as bus/rail, rail/LUAS, etc.); or
4) Cannot afford to buy a 30 day-rambler ticket or monthly/annual pass in one go

and who are currently paying with cash.

As I said above - everyone's individual circumstances will be different - that's why we have the range of prepaid tickets that we do.

Many people may have a single mode (such as Dublin Bus) period pass and use LEAP pay-as-you-go for the odd trip they may take on the train or LUAS.

What LEAP has introduced for the first time is the lower daily or weekly cap for students using pay-as-you-go, which may suit those using the service occasionally and making several trips on a day.

The 30 day rambler tickets are a cheaper option for adults who make irregular multiple journeys or who make irregular full fare (over 13 stages) return journeys.

Regular adult customers can make savings using the Taxsaver scheme with monthly/annual tickets.

Again - it all boils down to what sort of travel patterns you have and the distances you travel.

UCDVet

lxflyer wrote: »

OK, I will try to be clearer.

LEAP pay-as-you-go is designed primarily for people who either:

1) Make only occasional journeys; or
2) Regularly make shorter journeys; or
3) Make irregular multi-mode journeys (such as bus/rail, rail/LUAS, etc.); or
4) Cannot afford to buy a 30 day-rambler ticket or monthly/annual pass in one go

and who are currently paying with cash.

As I said above - everyone's individual circumstances will be different - that's why we have the range of prepaid tickets that we do.

Many people may have a single mode (such as Dublin Bus) period pass and use LEAP pay-as-you-go for the odd trip they may take on the train or LUAS.

What LEAP has introduced for the first time is the lower daily or weekly cap for students using pay-as-you-go, which may suit those using the service occasionally and making several trips on a day.

The 30 day rambler tickets are a cheaper option for adults who make irregular multiple journeys or who make irregular full fare (over 13 stages) return journeys.

Regular adult customers can make savings using the Taxsaver scheme with monthly/annual tickets.

Again - it all boils down to what sort of travel patterns you have and the distances you travel.

The 30 day rambler tickets are a cheaper option for adults who make irregular multiple journeys or who make irregular full fare (over 13 stages) return journeys.

Agreed - Unless they make fewer than ~28 irregular journeys per year (assuming they bought the rambler ticker early enough in the year). Unless it's changed, Rambler tickets expire and the unused trips would be lost. For those people, the Leap card would be cheaper.

And unless they become students

And unless they start riding the bus a lot, then the LEAP card is cheaper, once they get to around 280 trips per year.

It just seems like there is an awful lot of overlap between the types of tickets and cross-overs in which is the cheapest....and I can't see any benefit for it. If I ride the bus from A to B - X times; why can there not be a reasonable fee for it, regardless of how many hours I spent figuring out the optimal ticket type. It seems like a silly way to take advantage of people.

LXFlyer

The 30 day rambler tickets loaded onto LEAP are valid for 2 years from the date of purchase - that allows plenty of time to use them up.

XPS_Zero

Am I the only one who thinks having to pay a middle man to get a discount you ought to be entitled to as a student with a student card alone is outrageous?

I actually can't believe the Travelcard still exists, it's like the TV License, a relic of a bygone time, and the student leap card is even more of a waste. Most of the shops you get discounts for with this when you press them give student discounts by right anyway and inside the GDA there were no student discounts on fares unlike the UK where you pay FAR less as a student on normal commutes. It basically meant this card was a complete waste of money for anything other than intercity fares. The only real reason to have it is the CAP is lower than Adult and they'll now be putting season tickets on it, I still think you should get a blue leap card by virtue of having a student card though, there's no logical reason to have to pay a middle man.

This country seems really terrible at doing everything that the rest of Europe does just fine...public transport...healthcare...education...infrastructure investment...economic policy but the one thing were always good at the one thing you can always count on the Irish state to be able to do: invent new ways to charge you and bill you and in the most regressive and unjust ways possible.

Red Silurian

The main thing about the Ramblers is they are valid on Xpresso and Airlink 747 at no extra charge!

Using Leap card taking the bus from Maynooth to Intel every day is €1.95 each way on the 66 but €3.05 each way on the 66x (despite them taking the same route to Intel but that's a complaint for another day)

A 5 day Adult rambler costs €27.50 or 5.50/day so if I take the 66x both ways I save 60c/day , one way the rambler costs me an extra 50c and only using the 66 the rambler would cost me an extra €1.60/day

Mind you if I was getting the 66x into Dublin and the 747 to the Airport and back every day the rambler would make much more sense

UCDVet wrote: »

P.S. I just got off the 46A after the bus driver pulled over and STOPPED THE BUS while he called out to the 'last customer to use a leap card'. After about five minutes of awkward silence some poor girl stepped up. The bus driver demanded to know how come the price came up at 1.90 when there was no adult fee that should be 1.90 (his words, not mine). Eventually, she went back to her seat and he continued driving - but it really makes me doubt their ability to process them correctly.

She probably reached her daily/weekly/monthly limit when the last 1.90 was taken of her card