Public transport costs

I’ve been out of the country for a little bit so feel a little out of the loop with everything, but my morning commute to work (which to be fair, is two buses) is costing me €45 a week which I just feel is a bit ****ing mad.

Anyone else taking public transport to work, what do you average out paying weekly?

Sweet.Science

People who get the LUAS have it handy as they dont have to pay

tupenny

€34.75 per week with irish rail.
**** service it is too

PlaneSpeeking

Just over 4 grand a year for rail and LUAS/bus.

Service is ****e agreed.

Thephantomsmask

Have you asked your employer is they offer tax saver tickets? Failing that are there any monthly or annual tickets available? €180 a month is a lot.

SEPT 23 1989

Deleted User wrote: »

I’ve been out of the country for a little bit so feel a little out of the loop with everything, but my morning commute to work (which to be fair, is two buses) is costing me €45 a week which I just feel is a bit ****ing mad.

Anyone else taking public transport to work, what do you average out paying weekly?

€45 wouldnt half fill the tank in the Jag

count yourself lucky

uch

Where are you traveling to/from?? We can't mock you properly until we know !!

mickuhaha

62.50 PW Irish rail tax saver. Cramped carriages, not enough seats and no late service for if you want to stay in town after work.

murpho999

Transport is way more expensive abroad.

Get a Taxsaver ticket from your work and it will drop the cost considerably.

Ticket is deducted from your pay but you do not pay any tax on that amount. so it will save you either 20 or 40% plus PRSI/USC.

Allinall

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I’ve been out of the country for a little bit so feel a little out of the loop with everything, but my morning commute to work (which to be fair, is two buses) is costing me €45 a week which I just feel is a bit ****ing mad.

Anyone else taking public transport to work, what do you average out paying weekly?

How do you get home OP?

DublinCJM

I pay roughly 19 quid a week for unlimited Dublin Bus/Dart with an annual taxsaver ticket.

Tax relief is at the higher rate though, so not sure what it would work out at on the lower rate, but you still wouldn't be paying €45 a week.

And an Annual Dublin Bus only is a good bit cheaper than the €1,800 a year for Bus / Dart.

Allinall

Allinall wrote: »

How do you get home OP?

Oh sorry, it’s two buses in the evening too!

mickuhaha

mickuhaha wrote: »

62.50 PW Irish rail tax saver. Cramped carriages, not enough seats and no late service for if you want to stay in town after work.

That is very poor value especially with a tax saver where are you commuting from

DublinCJM

DublinCJM wrote: »

I pay roughly 19 quid a week for unlimited Dublin Bus/Dart with an annual taxsaver ticket.

Tax relief is at the higher rate though, so not sure what it would work out at on the lower rate, but you still wouldn't be paying €45 a week.

And an Annual Dublin Bus only is a good bit cheaper than the €1,800 a year for Bus / Dart.

That is excellent value, so commuting by public transport is a bit of a lottery cost wise can be great value or a rip off depending.

DublinCJM

DublinCJM wrote: »

I pay roughly 19 quid a week for unlimited Dublin Bus/Dart with an annual taxsaver ticket.

Tax relief is at the higher rate though, so not sure what it would work out at on the lower rate, but you still wouldn't be paying €45 a week.

And an Annual Dublin Bus only is a good bit cheaper than the €1,800 a year for Bus / Dart.

How does one go about getting a taxsaver ticket?

dxhound2005

Public transport is subsidised out of general taxation. People who never use the service are paying part of the cost of every ticket. Some of them have no public transport available where they are living.

Wheety

OP is it Dublin Bus you use?

Tax saver is 1300 for the year. Not sure the cut off date. Ours was today

That 1300 is taken from gross salary so no tax etc on it.

Can use it on DB airport bus and nightlink

punisher5112

[Deleted User] wrote: »

How does one go about getting a taxsaver ticket?

Through your job so you need to enquire do they offer this.

kneemos

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Public transport is subsidised out of general taxation. People who never use the service are paying part of the cost of every ticket. Some of them have no public transport available where they are living.

People who never get sick are paying for Hospitals.

jiltloop

Are you within cycling distance? Commuting by bike is great if you're within the distance.

Mrs OBumble

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Anyone else taking public transport to work, what do you average out paying weekly?

74 a month for all I can eat on Galway city buses.

It's going up next month ... by 50c a month for me! But by quite a lot more for people who choose to pay with cash and travel more than 7.5km.

OP you need to research TaxSaver and also Leap fare capping which helps if it applies in your area.

Stephen15

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Public transport is subsidised out of general taxation. People who never use the service are paying part of the cost of every ticket. Some of them have no public transport available where they are living.

And if subsidy was higher would mean better service making it more attractive for who don't use it use it more. People living in Dublin have to pay for farm subsidies out their taxes.

namloc1980

mickuhaha wrote: »

62.50 PW Irish rail tax saver. Cramped carriages, not enough seats and no late service for if you want to stay in town after work.

Where are you commuting to/from? €62.50 per week on tax saver is alot. I have a taxsaver ticket in Cork covering all city bus services in the red zone and the Cobh/Midleton Rail line - works out at €28 per week gross. When you factor in the taxsaver element it's about €14 per week. Great value.

dxhound2005

Stephen15 wrote: »

And if subsidy was higher would mean better service making it more attractive for who don't use it use it more. People living in Dublin have to pay for farm subsidies out their taxes.

I agree with the system of Public Service Obligation in transport and other services. It is for the overall good. The big anomaly is still water charges. Just like transport I think end users should pay some part of the cost and have the rest paid from general taxation.

kneemos

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I agree with the system of Public Service Obligation in transport and other services. It is for the overall good. The big anomaly is still water charges. Just like transport I think end users should pay some part of the cost and have the rest paid from general taxation.

You get mile after mile of roads with three houses on them.
Power supply has to be brought to these place at no extra cost.

Mrs OBumble

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Public transport is subsidised out of general taxation. People who never use the service are paying part of the cost of every ticket. Some of them have no public transport available where they are living.

Plenty of services aren't subsidised.

Wheety

Here's the taxsaver website to have a read but it's your employer who you need to go through.

https://www.taxsaver.ie/

If your employer won't do it. You can always just buy an annual ticket anyway. I was wrong about the price earlier. It's actually €1400 for next year. On Dublinbus website it still has the price as €1340, it goes up in December.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/Fares-and-Tickets/Adult/Monthly-Tickets/

The other option, as mentioned above, is to use a Leap Card. The weekly cap for Dublin Bus is €27.50. The cap is not changing next year so there's not a big difference between the annual and just using the weekly cap, unless you can avail of the taxsaver ticket.

jester77

I pay around €60 a month for unlimited travel. Covers u-bahn, S-Bahn, Bus and public ferries. Just around the corner from my house, runs every 4 minutes in the mornings and evenings and brings me direct to my office. Super service.

nice_guy80

Tax payers in the countryside are basically subsidising the cost of public transport for urban areas

Wheety

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Tax payers in the countryside are basically subsidising the cost of public transport for urban areas

Do highly populated urban areas not pay tax?

n!ghtmancometh

1400 a year for Dublin Bus travelwide leap through the tax saver scheme. Works on nitelink and airline too. Gone up 60 euro since last year.

Stephen15

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Tax payers in the countryside are basically subsidising the cost of public transport for urban areas

And people in urban areas subsidise fixing your pot holes and farms too. Dublin gets the least benefit of tax proportionately.

mickuhaha

namloc1980 wrote: »

Where are you commuting to/from? €62.50 per week on tax saver is alot. I have a taxsaver ticket in Cork covering all city bus services in the red zone and the Cobh/Midleton Rail line - works out at €28 per week gross. When you factor in the taxsaver element it's about €14 per week. Great value.

I am on the Waterford/Limerick line after Kildare your outside the rail commuter belt and the subsidies disappear along with the service. And now we have the Xmas shoppers making it worse.

imme

Is that city buses OP, would a Leap Card be any good.

As a general rule public transport should be cheaper than it is imo.

alchemist33

Sweet.Science wrote: »

People who get the LUAS have it handy as they dont have to pay

Fall off it while surfing, and they'll pay you!

Elemonator

murpho999 wrote: »

Transport is way more expensive abroad.

Get a Taxsaver ticket from your work and it will drop the cost considerably.

Ticket is deducted from your pay but you do not pay any tax on that amount. so it will save you either 20 or 40% plus PRSI/USC.

Not in my experience. Only in the UK.

Just back from a week long trip to Berlin. I paid €30 for a seven day ticket. Included in this price was the RE train (regional train), tram, S-Bahn (an overground/underground version of the DART), bus and U-Bahn (metro). I'm not joking you when I say the most I ever waited for any of those services for more than three minutes. There was multiple lines that go virtually everywhere and they are building more lines on the U-Bahn line.

I took a day trip out to Potsdam which was a good while outside the city. The RE train was the exception to my three minute wait time which was a 15 minute wait as I just missed one as I entered the station. I had to pay for an extension ticket that could be used on all services, I ended up using an RE train towards Potsdam and an S-Bahn train on the way home. It cost me €1.60 on top of my ticket each way and the journey time was 19 minutes on a double decker train. A very well policed transport system also. If you go to Berlin, you will notice they don't have particularly large traffic problems. I could reach every part of the city.

Here it is criminally expensive. We can't even get a 24 hour bus service out of the city like every other European capital because of the unions. It takes 2 hours for my bus to reach Dublin and it is a distance of thirty kilometres. The train's are becoming more unsafe since there is no dedicated transport police. The wait times are ridiculous. The frequency is ridiculous. We are years talking about a metro and the DART underground. Leap card is the best thing to happen here to Irish transport in a long time. I just don't understand why Irish people accept mediocrity in every vestige of life

end of the road

mickuhaha wrote: »

I am on the Waterford/Limerick line
after Kildare your outside the rail commuter belt and the subsidies disappear along with the service. And now we have the Xmas shoppers making it worse.

waterford to dublin would be an inter city service so you would be paying inter city fares unfortunately.

nice_guy80

Wheety wrote: »

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Tax payers in the countryside are basically subsidising the cost of public transport for urban areas

Do highly populated urban areas not pay tax?

Yes, but they get access to public transport
And cycle lanes
And broadband

end of the road

Elemonator wrote: »

Not in my experience. Only in the UK.

Just back from a week long trip to Berlin. I paid €30 for a seven day ticket. Included in this price was the RE train (regional train), tram, S-Bahn (an overground/underground version of the DART), bus and U-Bahn (metro). I'm not joking you when I say the most I ever waited for any of those services for more than three minutes. There was multiple lines that go virtually everywhere and they are building more lines on the U-Bahn line.

I took a day trip out to Potsdam which was a good while outside the city. The RE train was the exception to my three minute wait time which was a 15 minute wait as I just missed one as I entered the station. I had to pay for an extension ticket that could be used on all services, I ended up using an RE train towards Potsdam and an S-Bahn train on the way home. It cost me €1.60 on top of my ticket each way and the journey time was 19 minutes on a double decker train. A very well policed transport system also. If you go to Berlin, you will notice they don't have particularly large traffic problems. I could reach every part of the city. Here it is criminally expensive.

germany like most european countries heavily subsidize their transport from what i understand. something that should absolutely be the case. in ireland it is expensive depending on which mode you are using and where you are going to and from,, but certainly not criminally expensive. unfortunately we don't have the same willingness to fund public transport as other countries, meaning ultimately the user has to pay the greater share, to an extent that is a greater amount then which is fair to the user in a number of cases, something i fundamentally disagree with.

Elemonator wrote: »

We can't even get a 24 hour bus service out of the city like every other European capital because of the unions.

this is not the case, the unions have absolutely nothing to do with the lack of a 24 hour bus service. a union cannot stop that from happening. the reason there is no 24 hour bus service is due to funding, from what i understand everything else needed to operate it has been in place for a long time.

Elemonator wrote: »

It takes 2 hours for my bus to reach Dublin and it is a distance of thirty kilometres. The train's are becoming more unsafe since there is no dedicated transport police. The wait times are ridiculous. The frequency is ridiculous. We are years talking about a metro and the DART underground. Leap card is the best thing to happen here to Irish transport in a long time. I just don't understand why Irish people accept mediocrity in every vestige of life

this is all down to funding and government unfortunately. DU and the metro should have been built decades ago along with more bus lanes and all the other improvements needed. we had plenty of money at one stage to do it all and we didn't.
you need to lobby your tds and you need to lobby anyone who comes to the door during any election campaign to improve and invest in public transport. don't let them away with it. it's in our hands, if the government think there is little care about the issue they will only do so much.

Pentatonic Intonation

I wouldn't mind the high cost so much if we could just eliminate the skangers and knackers that make so many Irish public transport journeys 'interesting'.

Until then I'll stick with the car

murpho999

Elemonator wrote: »

Not in my experience. Only in the UK.

Just back from a week long trip to Berlin. I paid €30 for a seven day ticket. Included in this price was the RE train (regional train), tram, S-Bahn (an overground/underground version of the DART), bus and U-Bahn (metro). I'm not joking you when I say the most I ever waited for any of those services for more than three minutes. There was multiple lines that go virtually everywhere and they are building more lines on the U-Bahn line.

I took a day trip out to Potsdam which was a good while outside the city. The RE train was the exception to my three minute wait time which was a 15 minute wait as I just missed one as I entered the station. I had to pay for an extension ticket that could be used on all services, I ended up using an RE train towards Potsdam and an S-Bahn train on the way home. It cost me €1.60 on top of my ticket each way and the journey time was 19 minutes on a double decker train. A very well policed transport system also. If you go to Berlin, you will notice they don't have particularly large traffic problems. I could reach every part of the city.

Here it is criminally expensive. We can't even get a 24 hour bus service out of the city like every other European capital because of the unions. It takes 2 hours for my bus to reach Dublin and it is a distance of thirty kilometres. The train's are becoming more unsafe since there is no dedicated transport police. The wait times are ridiculous. The frequency is ridiculous. We are years talking about a metro and the DART underground. Leap card is the best thing to happen here to Irish transport in a long time. I just don't understand why Irish people accept mediocrity in every vestige of life

I was not talking about efficiency I was talking about price.
We all know transport in other countries is better and more efficient.

I was talking about price and I don’t find public transport that expensive.

As I said I pay around €70 per month for unlimited rail travel in the Dublin Short Hop Zone which is very good value.

Leap card use is capped at €40 per week for multi mode transport.

There is no way that it is “criminally expensive” as you have said.

Was in Holland and Spain recently and the trains were fantastic but there are by no means cheap. A ticket to Utrecht from Schiphol was €17.60 return. Getting other buses and trams for short hops and the price soon racks up.


24 hour bus service is again nothing to do with the price nor the unions.

As for transport police, don’t get the call for this. Only the UK have it as far as I know and people seem to think they will be a magic bullet.
The trains are not that unsafe as you say despite recent incident and media attention.

Wheety

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Yes, but they get access to public transport
And cycle lanes
And broadband

You know tax goes into a big pot and from that all these things are paid for. So it's not like you're paying for these things and not getting to use them. Most of the tax take is from the cities. Cycle lanes would be covered by the county councils and homeowners pay the local property tax which goes to the councils. On average, people in Dublin are paying far more LPT. What's the point of having a cycle lane on a quiet country road?

Where do you think the cost for the NBP is coming from? Not just people 'down the country' are paying for it. That will come out of general taxation too.

Elemonator

end of the road wrote: »

Not in my experience. Only in the UK.

Just back from a week long trip to Berlin. I paid €30 for a seven day ticket. Included in this price was the RE train (regional train), tram, S-Bahn (an overground/underground version of the DART), bus and U-Bahn (metro). I'm not joking you when I say the most I ever waited for any of those services for more than three minutes. There was multiple lines that go virtually everywhere and they are building more lines on the U-Bahn line.

I took a day trip out to Potsdam which was a good while outside the city. The RE train was the exception to my three minute wait time which was a 15 minute wait as I just missed one as I entered the station. I had to pay for an extension ticket that could be used on all services, I ended up using an RE train towards Potsdam and an S-Bahn train on the way home. It cost me €1.60 on top of my ticket each way and the journey time was 19 minutes on a double decker train. A very well policed transport system also. If you go to Berlin, you will notice they don't have particularly large traffic problems. I could reach every part of the city. Here it is criminally expensive.

germany like most european countries heavily subsidize their transport from what i understand. something that should absolutely be the case. in ireland it is expensive depending on which mode you are using and where you are going to and from,, but certainly not criminally expensive. unfortunately we don't have the same willingness to fund public transport as other countries, meaning ultimately the user has to pay the greater share, to an extent that is more then fair in a number of cases, something i fundamentally disagree with.



this is not the case, the unions have absolutely nothing to do with the lack of a 24 hour bus service. a union cannot stop that from happening. the reason there is no 24 hour bus service is due to funding, from what i understand everything else needed to operate it has been in place for a long time.



this is all down to funding and government unfortunately. DU and the metro should have been built decades ago along with more bus lanes and all the other improvements needed. we had plenty of money at one stage to do it all and we didn't.
you need to lobby your tds and you need to lobby anyone who comes to the door during any election campaign to improve and invest in public transport. don't let them away with it. it's in our hands, if the government think there is little care about the issue they will only do so much.[/quote]

I suppose it’s not always criminally expensive, but I think it honestly depends where you go. I was quoted something crazy to Galway with Irish Rail and I could have got a flight to Europe and back with Ryanair for half the price and a bus for a 1/7 of the price.

I seem to remember seeing an article that unions would oppose 24 hour bus services in the capital, possibly in The Irish Times. Could be my speculation so I’ll agree with your point.

Apologies for formatting. On mobile.

spurious

At a minimum OP, make sure you are using a Leap Card, not paying full fare.

Elemonator

murpho999 wrote: »

I was not talking about efficiency I was talking about price.
We all know transport in other countries is better and more efficient.

I was talking about price and I don’t find public transport that expensive.

As I said I pay around €70 per month for unlimited rail travel in the Dublin Short Hop Zone which is very good value.

Leap card use is capped at €40 per week for multi mode transport.

There is no way that it is “criminally expensive” as you have said.

Was in Holland and Spain recently and the trains were fantastic but there are by no means cheap. A ticket to Utrecht from Schiphol was €17.60 return. Getting other buses and trams for short hops and the price soon racks up.


24 hour bus service is again nothing to do with the price nor the unions.

As for transport police, don’t get the call for this. Only the UK have it as far as I know and people seem to think they will be a magic bullet.
The trains are not that unsafe as you say despite recent incident and media attention.

I mentioned price in my post, specifically when i said 30 euro to access all forms of transport in Berlin.

The prices you quote are for the Dublin Short Hop Zone, but there is plenty of transport beyond Dublin that is criminally expensive. The Leap fares are very good as they are cheaper than the paper ticket fare. But once you move outside the Short Hop Zone, the prices fly up. I know it used to be the case (or still is) that once you went beyond Balbriggan towards Drogheda, you're ticket price jumped massively. Towns like Drogheda and Dundalk are still commuter towns and pay a huge amount more for what is only a few minutes on the train to Drogheda but the price differential is due to Balbriggan being in the Short Hop Zone and Drogheda being on the main line. I hear however that the Leap Card has been extended in that direction but I am open to correction. No doubt there are many discrepancies like these that still exist.

I'll never forget being quoted 70 euro for a return to Galway, mental!

danslevent

jester77 wrote: »

I pay around €60 a month for unlimited travel. Covers u-bahn, S-Bahn, Bus and public ferries. Just around the corner from my house, runs every 4 minutes in the mornings and evenings and brings me direct to my office. Super service.

€75 for me and it is the same-never have to get taxis because they supply night buses when the métro ends.

elefant

jester77 wrote: »

I pay around €60 a month for unlimited travel. Covers u-bahn, S-Bahn, Bus and public ferries. Just around the corner from my house, runs every 4 minutes in the mornings and evenings and brings me direct to my office. Super service.

danslevent wrote: »

€75 for me and it is the same-never have to get taxis because they supply night buses when the métro ends.

€90 for me in Amsterdam; unlimited buses, metro, trams etc. Public transport here is fantastic.

danslevent

elefant wrote: »

€90 for me in Amsterdam; unlimited buses, metro, trams etc. Public transport here is fantastic.

Yeah I found that realyl difficult when I was living in Dublin...my last bus was at around 11 so was spending a fortune on taxis...