Just bought a leap card

price690

Completely idiotic question but can anyone help me with how the thing actually works.

Paid €5 for it and there was an activation charge of €5 on top of that.

My daily commute is Greystones to Tara, how much do I need to top up by in order to get in and out for 5 days?

Also, is it possible to top up in the ticket machines at the stations similar to the oyster card in London? or must this be done in advance of going to the station

cheers in advance

the groutch

€4.50 per journey, so €45 per week.
you can top up at the station, or register the card online and set up auto top-ups.

there's good discounts to be gotten too via monthly or annual tickets, especially if your employer takes part in the Taxsaver scheme.


EDIT: there may be a weekly cap of €40 for Leap Cards.

punisher5112

Its all on dublinbus.ie and leap.ie.

Daily cap €6.90 and new travel 90 discount is been applied to all leap cards so if you travel on two buses within 90 min you get a €1.00 discount.

Fare prices are changing next month but you have done the right thing as you will save a lot.

Go online register your card and select auto top up so you never have to worry about running out of credit.

punisher5112

Also leap price is less then €4.50 even on 84x

Just scan leap on validator to your right and all it will take is €2.50 even when higher fare applies ;-)

LXFlyer

I suggest that you take a look here, where some of your questions are answered.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057300937

The OP is using the DART so different capping levels apply as per my link above.

OP you should examine whether monthly/annual passes offer better value, and whether your employer will participate in the Taxsaver scheme - www.taxsaver.ie

price690

is this correct, a €35.50 cap on weekly DART journeys?

or is this information out of date?

the groutch wrote: »

€4.50 per journey, so €45 per week.
you can top up at the station, or register the card online and set up auto top-ups.

there's good discounts to be gotten too via monthly or annual tickets, especially if your employer takes part in the Taxsaver scheme.


EDIT: there may be a weekly cap of €40 for Leap Cards.

Hilly Bill

€10 a day is the daily cap across all operators and €40 a week. Once you reach the cap you still need to tag on and off but wont be charged. You can top up in any station with a ticket machine.
A single journey between Greystones and Tara st with a Leap card by train is €4.50. It will deduct €4.60 when you tag on and give you back 10c when you tag off so a return will cost you €9:00. Any other journey you make on the train, Luas or Bus that day will only cost you €1.
The Normal adult fare for that journey is €5:70 single or €10:50 return.

For the 5 days it will cost you the max €40 with 2 days spare with the leap as opposed to €40.50 7 day rail only ticket.
The leap gives you more flexability where you can travel out on say a train and might decide to get the bus back.

price690

Hilly Bill wrote: »

€10 a day is the daily cap across all operators and €40 a week. Once you reach the cap you still need to tag on and off but wont be charged. You can top up in any station with a ticket machine.
A single journey between Greystones and Tara st with a Leap card by train is €4.50. It will deduct €4.60 when you tag on and give you back 10c when you tag off so a return will cost you €9:00. Any other journey you make on the train, Luas or Bus that day will only cost you €1.
The Normal adult fare for that journey is €5:70 single or €10:50 return.

For the 5 days it will cost you the max €40 with 2 days spare with the leap as opposed to €40.50 7 day rail only ticket.
The leap gives you more flexability where you can travel out on say a train and might decide to get the bus back.

its €40 for all operators yes, but what if I specifically want a weekly ticket for DART, its €35.50 then yes?

its basically a €5 saving from buying the Iarnrod Eireann fare of 40.50 for the 7 day rolling ticket

Hilly Bill

Thats correct but its the weekly cap from tagging off and on rather than a weekly ticket. A few have tried to buy actual tickets with the card without knowing the card is actually their ticket for travel.
Basically if you just use the train then the cap will be €35:50 and it just top it up like phone credit.
Make sure you register the card as it can be replaced and the balance transfered to a new card if you lose it.

Victor

Realistic options are:
* Irish Rail Annual Short Hop Rail - €1,340.00 (€25.75 per week) with Taxsaver €643.20 (€12.36 per week) - best possible value, but not valid on Dublin Bus or Luas
* Irish Rail Monthly Short Hop Rail - €134.00 (€30.92 per week) with Taxsaver €64.32 (€14.84 per week) - very good value
* Irish Rail Annual Short Hop Rail - €1,340.00 cash (€25.75 per week) - good value
* Irish Rail Monthly Short Hop Rail - €134.00 cash (€30.92 per week) - good value
* Leap Adult 7 Day Cap - €35.50 - good value - useful if you use Dublin Bus or Luas more than occasionally
* Irish Rail Weekly Short Hop Rail - €35.80
* Irish Rail 7 day point-to-point ticket (Greystones-Connolly, but if you ever make trips beyond Connolly, buy Kilcoole-Balbriggan for the same price) - €40.50 - worst value (doesn't really suit many people)


Fares are due to change on 1 December 2014.

http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_info/fare_calc_2014.php?station_from=GSTNS&station_to=TARA&stage1=Submit+Query

Welcome to the Rail Users Ireland Fare Calculator!

This version is the November 1st/December 1st 2013 fare revision

Station From: Greystones
Station To: Tara Street

The journey distance is: 26.65km, fare zone E

Ticket Adult Child Schoolchild Scholar
Cash Single €5.70 €2.35 €1.15
Leap Single €4.50 €1.80 €0.70 €2.42
Day Return €10.50 €4.40 €1.85
3 Day €23.70
7 Day €40.50

Note these fares are based on the 2014 Irish Rail fare determination. Rail Users Ireland is aware that due to errors made by the National Transport Authority in that determination, it is likely fares will be revised again once the National Transport Authority makes available the corrected determination, this should reduce some fares. These errors were initially discovered by Rail Users Ireland.


Dublin Area Leap Tickets

Ticket Rail Rail + Bus Rail + Luas Luas Luas + Bus
Adult 1 Day Cap €9.20 €10.00 €10.00 €6.40 €10.00
Child 1 Day Cap €3.10 €3.50 €3.50 €2.50 €3.50
Student 1 Day Cap €6.90 €7.50 €7.50 €5.00 €7.50
Adult 7 Day Cap €35.50 €40.00 €40.00 €23.50 €40.00
Child 7 Day Cap €12.00 €14.00 €14.00 €8.20 €14.00
Student 7 Day Cap €27.00 €30.00 €30.00 €18.00 €30.00


Monthly and Weekly Fares

Ticket Type Inner Short Hop Rail Short Hop Rail Short Hop Rail + Bus Short Hop Rail + Luas Luas Luas + Bus
Adult 7 Day €35.80 €40.50 €46.50 €46.50 €23.50 €36.00
Adult Monthly - €134.00 €156.00 €177.00 €91.00 €145.00
Student 7 Day €25.90* €27.50* - €39.00 €18.00 €30.00
Student Monthly - €93.50* €119.00 €137.00 €66.00 €108.00

Inner Short Hop: Rush & Lusk, Maynooth, Hazelhatch & Celbridge, Bray

Short Hop: Balbriggan, M3 Parkway, Maynooth, Hazelhatch & Celbridge and Kilcoole

Family 1 Day Ticket €18.90

Rail + Luas + Bus Adult Monthly €212

* Also valid on 90/145 Bus to/from Heuston/City Centre

7 day tickets valid Sunday to Saturday, except for Luas, and Luas+Bus, valid 7 days from issue/first use

Note Rail + Luas tickets do exist but they are only available from Iarnród Éireann booking offices.

price690

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Thats correct but its the weekly cap from tagging off and on rather than a weekly ticket. A few have tried to buy actual tickets with the card without knowing the card is actually their ticket for travel.
Basically if you just use the train then the cap will be €35:50 and it just top it up like phone credit.
Make sure you register the card as it can be replaced and the balance transfered to a new card if you lose it.

thanks a million for the replies

the groutch

it might be also worth checking out the 84x bus.
not sure of the exact travel time vs dart, but you could buy a 30 day rambler (for use on any 30 non-consecutive days) and travel for under a fiver a day.

Strongbow10

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Thats correct but its the weekly cap from tagging off and on rather than a weekly ticket. A few have tried to buy actual tickets with the card without knowing the card is actually their ticket for travel.
Basically if you just use the train then the cap will be €35:50 and it just top it up like phone credit.
Make sure you register the card as it can be replaced and the balance transfered to a new card if you lose it.

i'm curious about this myself, when you say tag on and off does this mean you can have unlimited dart travel for €35.50 per month or is it just a case that the max charged in 5 days for 10 journeys will be €35.50?

Say I went dublin to bray twice in one day (monday to friday), is it still 35.50?

Captain Chaos

You have a daily cap of €9.20, after that you are traveling free for the day. You could make 10 return trips a day for €9.20 if you wanted. You can make as many DART trips in one week as you like and won't be charged any more than €35.50. That's counted as Monday to Sunday. You can't be charged any more than €9.20 in a single day no matter what you do basically and no more than €35.50 in a week. You still need to tag on and off as if your ticket is checked on board and you are not tagged on you will be fined even if you already have free travel applied.

Hilly Bill

Strongbow10 wrote: »

i'm curious about this myself, when you say tag on and off does this mean you can have unlimited dart travel for €35.50 per month or is it just a case that the max charged in 5 days for 10 journeys will be €35.50?

Say I went dublin to bray twice in one day (monday to friday), is it still 35.50?

You pay per journey but the max would be €35:50 (train only) that you will be charged in a week. You pay per single journey , if you reach the cap before the week is out then everything after that is free.
.
If you do a return to bray from Connolly 5 times a week its €28 with the leap card. If you do that journey more than once a day then the max will be €35:50.
Its €2.80 to Bray one way so it will take €4:60 when you tag on and when you tag off it will add €1:80 back onto your card.