Bus fares going up from 1 December 2015

Mrs OBumble

Galway city bus fares are going up on 1 December: adults by 10c, kids by 5c.

Except if you use a Leap card - no change to the Leap fares.

Nauseating detail: https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Determination_No_3_2015__Consideration_of_proposal_from_Bus_Eireann_to_change_fares_for_Bus_Eireann_services_in_2016__October_2015.pdf

I'll prepare a more digestible Galway-focussed summary later.

biko

Are bus fares increasing only in Galway or nationwide?

Edit, seems to be nationwide. Here is the thread in Commuting & Transport.

munchkin_utd

biko wrote: »

Are bus fares increasing only in Galway or nationwide?

bus fares arent going up though, cash fares are.

A €2 cash ticket is rising to €2.10
The equivalent €1.60 leap fare remains €1.60

I cant see a problem to be honest. If 90% of people prefer to pay cash (est 80% next year) then more fools them.

LoonyLovegood

Are the weekly or monthly tickets going up? Can't find clear information on it

Delicia

munchkin_utd wrote: »

bus fares arent going up though, cash fares are.

A €2 cash ticket is rising to €2.10
The equivalent €1.60 leap fare remains €1.60

I cant see a problem to be honest. If 90% of people prefer to pay cash (est 80% next year) then more fools them.

So in fairness they're encouraging purchase of a Leap Card, & therefore more use of public transport, by saving 50c per journey. If 90% of customers are paying cash it makes you wonder about the demographic & it would be interesting to see the results of a survey here. For those who don't need to use public transport daily it makes it more difficult to accept & use. €4.20 is still doable to take the car, park it & bring all the shopping home - when & where you like.

Mrs OBumble

LoonyLovegood wrote: »

Are the weekly or monthly tickets going up? Can't find clear information on it

Yes for adults and kids (around 4%), but not for students (slight decreases). The details are buried in a table near the end of the document.

A Galway-specific summary is now available here.

Laviski

Leap card should have a tag on tag off system
takes ages for drivers to charge through the card. then easier to have a daily cap etc.

LoonyLovegood

The leap card is awful in Galway compared to Dublin. In Dublin I have my cap and it's sorted, while in Galway you can't even buy a daysaver on a student one.

Miskin_12

Are they still going to sell the monthly passes or do you have to get a Leap card? When I bought my last student monthly, the cashier mentioned something about having to get a Leap card for December onwards.

Stevolende

Laviski wrote: »

Leap card should have a tag on tag off system
takes ages for drivers to charge through the card. then easier to have a daily cap etc.

Was thinking that when I got one. There isn't really a need to interact with the driver, so would be faster to have a machine that covered that. Would save time with other passengers waiting to pay certainly.
Used to be able to just show the card travel pass without needing to tap into a machine inside the bus driver enclosure.

They were giving the Leapcard away instead of the travel card. Lady said they were normally €5. So looks like they're trying to move people onto them.

It does hopefully solve the problem of needing to get into town in order to buy the bus pass. Problem used to be taht the only 2 places in town to buy the pass were the bus station and the newsagent on Eyre Square. now any payzone outlet should be able to sell a monthly or weekly.

Next stage would be selling a month long card valid from a date in a month to a date in a month instead of by calendar month with them all starting on the 1st and ending on whatever date the end is. People must get paid in such a way that date to date makes more sense surely?

Mrs OBumble

Laviski wrote: »

Leap card should have a tag on tag off system
takes ages for drivers to charge through the card. then easier to have a daily cap etc.

But there's only one route where the distance you are going makes any difference to the fare. Rest are all flat fare.

What would make a difference is having a 2nd scanner like they do in Dublin, which just charged the standard Adult fare.

what_traffic

Hi Mrs OBumble,

in the link:
http://news.galwaytransport.info/2015/10/galway-bus-and-train-fare-increases-december-2015.html

"
Day Passes

• Adult from €4.20 to €4.40, an increase of 4.8%.
  If loaded onto a Leap card (ie purchased from a Payzone shop) then they are valid for 24 hours from the time of purchase.
  Day-passes purchased from the driver are only valid for the calendar day.

"
My experience is that a "day pass "purchased from a bus driver using Leap is valid for 24 hours as well. Or is the ref here to the cash "day pass"?

Thanks
what_traffic

ErnieBert

The Galway Transport Info website is pretty good but there is no acknowledgment given to who operates it. It seems top be unofficial.

Is it your baby MrsOB?

Mrs OBumble

ErnieBert wrote: »

The Galway Transport Info website is pretty good but there is no acknowledgment given to who operates it. It seems top be unofficial.

Is it your baby MrsOB?

100% unofficial.

More info on the About page: http://www.galwaytransport.info/2008/12/about-galwaytransport.html

It's a child of the recession: there were no jobs to be had, so I had a lot of free time, and at that point there was no NTA, no JourneyPlanner - and no signs they were coming either.

MataofK

2.10€ one way .. So Galway more expensive than any city in he world (London and Paris as example) . I find that funny for the poor service !!

biko

Is it? Can you show your calculations?

This is London:

A Zone 1-3 peak single ticket, a fairly common commuting route, is £3.30

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-has-the-most-expensive-public-transport-in-the-world-10475558.html

MataofK

Buses

Pay as you go for £1.50 with a contactless payment or Oyster card on all London buses that display the sign above.

Touch your contactless payment or Oyster card on the yellow card reader when you board the bus. Don't touch out when you get off.

MataofK

in Paris same price as metro ..1.80€ and available 1h or 1h30 i think

biko

Yes, you're right. I found tube info, not bus.

Small note, 1.50 GBP is actually slightly more than 2.10 Euro.
So it makes Ireland/Galway on par with London for bus price but not more expensive as you said before. Still kinda crazy.

blackbird 49

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Yes for adults and kids (around 4%), but not for students (slight decreases). The details are buried in a table near the end of the document.

A Galway-specific summary is now available here.

Is it a slight decrease for students in Galway only, my son take the bus from drogheda to dundalk college he purchases a 10 journey ticket which cost him E42 this has now risen to E44

Mrs OBumble

blackbird 49 wrote: »

Is it a slight decrease for students in Galway only, my son take the bus from drogheda to dundalk college he purchases a 10 journey ticket which cost him E42 this has now risen to E44

Possibly.

I didn't examine the rules for places other than Galway, but they're all buried in the appendix of this: https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Determination_No_3_2015__Consideration_of_proposal_from_Bus_Eireann_to_change_fares_for_Bus_Eireann_services_in_2016__October_2015.pdf

They're slowing adjusting fares each year, so that similar policies apply across the whole country.