Free travel card - Belfast Entreprise

Foweva Awone

Does the free travel card cover journeys to and from Northern Ireland? I've been told it'll cover me to travel up to Belfast, but may not cover the return journey?

L1011

This implies it works both ways - http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Appendix-2---Free-Travel-on-cross-border-journeys.aspx

If >66 you can get internal NI travel FOC via obtaining a Senior Smartpass also.

Hilly Bill

You FT will get you there and back. Just fill the cross border form before getting your ticket.

goingnowhere

From anywhere in the Republic to anywhere in NI, but ONLY on a point to point ticket.

You cannot travel locally, journey has to be a cross border trip

Dublin - Belfast is fine
Dublin - Derry is fine
Larne - Lisburn is not

BeardySi

You can also get a travel pass for NI which will cover you for busses and trains up here.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/free-and-concessionary-bus-and-rail-travel

danm14

You can also use it on the bus between Central Station (stop is on your left when leaving the station) and City Hall as this is free to all train passengers. You'll need to show your ticket, not the free travel pass.

This is also the case in Newry and Derry.

Corca Baiscinn

BeardySi wrote: »

You can also get a travel pass for NI which will cover you for busses and trains up here.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/free-and-concessionary-bus-and-rail-travel

But that link says you have to show you are a resident of NI to qualify for the Smart Pass, so is there a reciprocal arrangement with the Republic or is it only point to ponit and Central Station to City Hall as other posters have said?

L1011

Corca Baiscinn wrote: »

But that link says you have to show you are a resident of NI to qualify for the Smart Pass, so is there a reciprocal arrangement with the Republic or is it only point to ponit and Central Station to City Hall as other posters have said?

You can get the SmartPass but need to apply via the DSP down here.

We have a reciprocal arrangementwith them.

http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Appendix-3---All-Ireland-Free-Travel.aspx

Corca Baiscinn

L1011 wrote: »

You can get the SmartPass but need to apply via the DSP down here.

We have a reciprocal arrangementwith them.

http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Appendix-3---All-Ireland-Free-Travel.aspx

Thanks! Good to know for when the time comes!

Foweva Awone

Thanks all, filled in the cross border form and got a monthly return ticket, so all sorted!

XPS_Zero

As usual with this, and not surprising given how complex it is in places, there is a lot of confusion with the advice.


People are correct with the point to point think (however you can break journeys on NIR just like IE they don't care, so if you get a Dublin-Derry ticket you can break your journey in Lisburn etc if you want, as long as your inside the period validity of your ticket and they usually give you an open return covering about a month)


The NI SmartPass for travel WITHIN the north is only available to seniors NOT those on disability allowance, not sure what their reasons for this is but that is the rules. If you need to bus it around Belfast go to the visitor centre and buy the DAYLINK card which is just £3 and gives you unlimited travel for the day on all busses.


If you wanna book a seat with the pass on the Enterprise you can go and pick the "seat reservation only" button on the website there is a small charge for reserving the seat.





The reason you have to get a Senior SmartPass to go within NI instead of them taking our FT pass is that the all Ireland Free Travel Scheme was created by Seamus Brennan in 2007, back then the smart cards we use now were in the early conceptual stages, and instead these disastrous fraud friendly cardboard things with color stripes on them were in place, the NI people were way ahead of us with smart card tech, and they just didn't trust our pass system since it was scam central, and they refused to allow it within their jurisdiction, so we had to adopt theirs.

Foweva Awone

Yes should have mentioned I'm on Disability, so not eligible for the SmartPass. Thanks for clarifying!

XPS_Zero

Foweva Awone wrote: »

Yes should have mentioned I'm on Disability, so not eligible for the SmartPass. Thanks for clarifying!

So was I. You can get around it by just using the break a journey thing and traveling around between the two points on your ticket, as far as rail goes, you can get a ticket from anywhere on the island of ireland to anywhere else (though it's best to get the ticket from Connoly as they are used to NI tickets and know all the station codes for Larne, Bangor, Belfast, Derry , Portrush etc off by heart whereas the others will have a migraine trying to find them)


But the bus you're out of luck, but it's not really a problem as I said as their smart card options are so cheap even someone on disability could easily afford it. They also have other options on the DAYLINK multiday options if you were there longer, all very reasonably priced.


Just keep in mind you need to fill out the blue and white form that's at the customer service desk BEFORE going to ask for your ticket (otherwise you'll hold up the que of other people while you write it out) and remember to put your travel card number down on that sheet NOT the pps number.

Vic_08

XPS_Zero wrote: »

So was I. You can get around it by just using the break a journey thing and traveling around between the two points on your ticket, as far as rail goes,

So you advocating fare evasion then, charming.

Just to be clear a return ticket entitles you to ONE outward and ONE return journey, not to travel around between the points as much as you like.

Not that I'm surprised, easily 90% of the fare evasion I dealt with was Free Travel based. Either people with passes belonging to someone else or people trying to bring non-entitled people along on spouse tickets or using passes where they were not valid.

XPS_Zero

Vic_08 wrote: »

So you advocating fare evasion then, charming.

Just to be clear a return ticket entitles you to ONE outward and ONE return journey, not to travel around between the points as much as you like.

Not that I'm surprised, easily 90% of the fare evasion I dealt with was Free Travel based. Either people with passes belonging to someone else or people trying to bring non-entitled people along on spouse tickets or using passes where they were not valid.

You are an idiot. Don't go on a rant about something if you don't have your basic facts right.


I was saying (obviously) that if you are going to say Bangor you can get off in Belfast Central, grab some stuff, and return to the station connecting to a train in Bangor. On your way back you could stop off in Belfast Central again (you'll have to ANYWAY to get an Enterprise) or even get off in Lisburn or Newry then rejoin the line later.

You are allowed to break journeys on both IE and Translink it's clearly stated within their bye laws. You are not allowed do it on the DART but you are allowed do it on the intercity lines. I confirmed this with a Translink guy in Lisburn in person one day. I've been checked at least 40-50 times over the last two years by inspectors, conductors, staff at the barriers, doing this and not one has said a word. One time a guy asked me if I was going to Bangor or back to Dublin but he meant what patform am I sending you to.

I did not suggest you can turn an open return into a de-facto montly ticket and bounce around everywhere you like in either direct ion, and only someone who didn't actually read what I said would conclude that. In any case many of the ticket checks have a date stamp on them for your upward/downward journeys so this would not be possible even if you wanted to try it.

In addition, fare evasion is not possible with a free travel card as there is no fare to evade. You are entitled to get any cross border ticket and once your ticket is in hand you are under the same bye laws as other passengers in terms of ticket validity, including being allowed to break your journey.

You're an idiot.

devnull

Resorting to personal abuse and name calling is not allowed and neither is encouraging fare evasion. Anyone who does so will be sanctioned.

Moderator.