Bus Eireann Faster Leap transacations

bk

Announced on the Bus Eireann Twitter:

We are delighted to announce that we have released a new software upgrade to our ticketing machines which will reduce bus loading times and speed up Leap Card transactions for our customers. Let us know what you think.

https://twitter.com/Buseireann/status/1203978247542919171

Leap transactions IME have always been ridiculously slow on BE Cork city services. As in getting a leap ticket via the driver on BE buses took twice as long as via the driver on Dublin Bus! Which is pretty unbelievable as it isn't actually fast on DB either. But in Cork it seems to take twice as long to read and then the driver has to press 3 or so buttons, compared to just one in Dublin!

Which makes no sense at all, when you consider the range of tickets in Dublin is far more complicated and worse of all Cork city basically has a flat fare!!!

Hopefully this will at least bring it up to the same speed as Dublin.

But then Cork should really also get the right hand validators like Dublin and it should work as a flat fare for all tickets. I don't know why they make it so complicated and half arsed down there.

BTW Sorry to those living in Limerick/Galway/Waterford/etc. I only mention Cork and Dublin as I'm familiar with both of those. I assume you all have similar issues.

Polar101

The main issue I've had with Leap cards on BE is that I once bought a 24-hour Dublin area zone ticket. Now the card reader will always say "Product expired, try purse", which seems to confuse the drivers. I just want to buy a single ticket - but it usually takes a few tries before we get that far. Not too sure if software is what needs upgrading, could very well be.

Would be quite happy if there was a way to "delete" the old ticket from the card.

bk

Polar101 wrote: »

The main issue I've had with Leap cards on BE is that I once bought a 24-hour Dublin area zone ticket. Now the card reader will always say "Product expired, try purse", which seems to confuse the drivers. I just want to buy a single ticket - but it usually takes a few tries before we get that far. Not too sure if software is what needs upgrading, could very well be.

Would be quite happy if there was a way to "delete" the old ticket from the card.

Yes, I think that maybe an issue with my card too. I once both a 24hour ticket for Cork and even though that passed over a year ago, it seems to still cause issues!

Joker2019

I think the NTA missed a few opportunities with the tendered Waterford routes they could have trialed a new ticketing system with new ticket machines on a smaller scale than in Dublin or Cork which included a right hand validator and en exact fare only policy as in Dublin. They could have also trialed something different on the tendered GAI commuter services with regards ticketing.

Victor

Joker2019 wrote: »

I think the NTA missed a few opportunities with the tendered Waterford routes they could have trialed a new ticketing system with new ticket machines on a smaller scale than in Dublin or Cork which included a right hand validator and en exact fare only policy as in Dublin. They could have also trialed something different on the tendered GAI commuter services with regards ticketing.

With contracted services, note that the ticket machines are supplied by the NTA, not the operators.

AlekSmart

Victor wrote: »

With contracted services, note that the ticket machines are supplied by the NTA, not the operators.

Interestingly,the current NTA thinking appears to be moving away from "Machines" of any sort,and instead focusing on Oucome Based Solutions,with ticketing been seen as a stand alone Service.

https://www.intelligenttransport.com/transport-articles/93067/how-ireland-can-move-ahead-of-the-curve-in-public-transport/

We’re looking for long-term partner that can deliver best-of-breed services in different areas. It’s not a case of us wanting to buy a system and put it into place; we’re more interested in making sure we can have access to the best services and make the customer experience the best it can be.

Achieving that could mean, for example, that we don’t even own the ticketing system – it could be ticketing-as-a-service. The equipment refresh cycle is getting shorter and shorter. The traditional method of buying something that is valid for 10 or 15 years is not the way of the world anymore.

I suppose another view could be taken of that thinking as being yet more hi-functioning techhy stuff,whilst at the same time,the basics of the current system remain somewhat neglected ?

Mrs OBumble

bk wrote: »

BTW Sorry to those living in Limerick/Galway/Waterford/etc. I only mention Cork and Dublin as I'm familiar with both of those. I assume you all have similar issues.

Yup, we do.

I think that the upgrade has made things a bit faster (maybe 30%), but not as much as is needed.

SeeMoreBut

I thought going back a long time the BE card readers were set up for annual/monthly/already purchased tickets and not to take cash off the card. So driver would have to change the machine to switch to cash off card and you had to say it to the driver before sticking the card down then purse error wouldn't appear

That was a few years ago as I moved to train