304 Limerick - Extremely slow boarding of bus

bluefivetwo23

Does anyone know why the Limerick city bus services don’t have the same Leap card readers as Dublin?

In Limerick you have to scan your leap card with the driver and the driver presses buttons. In Dublin I can just tap it to my right when I get on almost instantly.

Does anyone know why Limerick doesn’t have this? The 304 in particular takes SO long to board passengers because of this, it’s so inefficient.

legend99

Actually in Dublin, it you use that machine to your right, it will charge full fare I think. Hence you often have to present the card to the driver in Dublin as well.

The loading times for buses in Cork are brutal as well. Leapcards have actually seemed to make the process slower which is ridiculous.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058319985/304-limerick-extremely-slow-boarding-of-bus

It's in the new busconnects plan I think.

No reason why the readers could not be on all city buses. It's bullsht that we can't do simple €5 train journeys to Ennis and Sixmilebridge on the leap too. The big stops at Sarsfield and Henry St. need proper shelters that force queues too.

I also find it mad how many people in Limerick still don't use Leap cards.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121293927#Comment_121293927

Actually in Dublin, it you use that machine to your right, it will charge full fare I think. Hence you often have to present the card to the driver in Dublin as well.

In Dublin, I’d say easily 95%+ of people now use the right hand validators. It isn’t unusual to see no passengers boarding at a stop interacting with the driver these days.

There are only two fares in Dublin now, the “short fare” and the 90 minute fare. The latter allows you to use as many busses, Luas and Darts for 90 minutes for just €2, a fantastic value for money. Using the right hand validator gets you this 90 minute fare.

Yes, if you want the “short fare” you need to interact with the driver, however the short fare only covers a relatively short distance, so very few people use it. Also the right hand validators are also used by everyone else, folks with free travel passes, tax saver tickets, kids, etc.

While the boarding time in Dublin is still still slow compared to mainland Europe or the Luas, it is so much faster than Cork/Limerick, it is hair pulling out slow in Cork. And it is made worse by the fact that even when you need to interact with the driver, it is much slower in Cork/Limerick than it is with the driver in Dublin. The ticket machine on BE busses seem to be programmed differently and require multiple button presses by the driver that isn’t necessary in Dublin!

It is painfully slow in Cork/Limerick by comparison.

it is a ridiculous situation, right hand validators should have been rolled out on BE buses when Leap card was introduced on them. No excuses.

I’ll assume they will finally get it when new ticket machines are rolled out as part of the next gen ticket project, but that is still at least three years away, madness!

rpirl

Cork process is very quick if you have a yearly / monthly pass, you get the green light straight away and move on, but if you are using credit it takes a bit longer as driver has to press a button to bring up the "purse", and then press another one to take the fare

legend99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121297500#Comment_121297500

100% agree. The load times in Cork are absolutely head in hands. Bizarrely, cash fares used be faster. That's some bad reflection on the Leapcard situation in Cork....

Red Silurian

Any time I put my card on the reader it beeps 3 times and says "use not allowed, try purse" which adds to the time significantly

I was out and about today without my leap card and see there is now a single red zone ticket can be bought through the TFIgo app and just displayed to the driver on activation for €1.35. Same price as leap but much faster

Vic_08

Driver can select "purse" before leap card is placed, this makes it quicker to issue but it requires the driver to know that the person wants purse fare rather than ticket validation.

This, along with a number of other deficiencies, was pointed out to all concerned when these awful, outdated ticket machines were being tested but nothing was done or able to be done.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121299587#Comment_121299587

Same in Galway: cash is noticeably faster still.

Polar101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121299652#Comment_121299652

It's because you've had a ticket like a 24 hour ticket loaded on the card at some point - then you get the "try purse" thing on Bus Eireann. It's easier to use one card for "purse" and another to load tickets on, just to avoid that.

Polar101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121297500#Comment_121297500

95%+ isn't really my experience - maybe during the morning/evening commute, but any other time there are loads of people paying cash or getting short fares. Of course it depends on the route and location (for example, on the 39a in D15 there are loads of people going to the Blanch Shopping Centre, which would be a short fare).

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121313605#Comment_121313605

If the solution to the poor ticketing system is that the travelling public needs to carry 2 seperate Leap cards, then you know it's an absolute shambles.

The load times are ridiculous with everyone having to interact with the driver. We also have the stage fares on Cork City buses with two different base bus fares. We really are determined to make ticketing and transport as needlessly complex as possible in this country.