NTA Publishes 2024 Fares Plan Changes

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386214#Comment_123386214

That's a discounted promotional fare.

The Adult off-peak promotion day return (currently EUR 11.45) (Single off-peak is EUR 10.45) is only valid after 09:30 Monday-Friday and all day at weekends.

The normal adult fares between Laytown and Connolly are:

Single EUR 10.85, Day return EUR 16.90 and open return EUR 18.50.

After these changes, the fares will have no time restrictions and will be

LEAP Fares

Adult Single EUR 6 (two singles will be EUR 12)

Zone 3 Day ticket including unlimited city bus, LUAS and train in Zone 1 - EUR 14

Cash Fares - Adult Single EUR 7.80; Day Return EUR 14

So it's cheaper for commuters and single journey travellers off-peak, and anyone continuing to pay cash - plus there is the new day ticket including multi-modal travel in zone 1. That day ticket in due course will also cover Bus Éireann services in zones 1-3.

There are going to be winners and losers across these changes as they attempt to simplify the fares charged.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386133#Comment_123386133

Absolutely agree - the BÉ routes will have to remain pick up only in the city bus area outbound and set down only inbound.

The passengers using them from outer locations are paying a premium still (they will charge the Xpresso fare of EUR 2.40) and don't have other alternatives. Extending their use would just cause serious capacity problems at peak times.

The cheaper fares from Ashbourne/Ratoath for example will mean more people likely using the bus from those areas which will mean that retaining their express nature in the inner areas will be all the more important.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386045#Comment_123386045

Actually back in the day through the 1970s to 1990s there was one trip on Saturday mornings on Dublin Bus route 84 to/from Dublin that operated through to Newtownmountkennedy too!

Taisteal Éireann

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386133#Comment_123386133

Good point with regards to outer commuters, although personally, with it's 20 minutes frequency along with the 140/F1, I think it would be fine. The 65 suffers that faith though for people trying to get to Blessington (and a 120 minute frequency). I know there once was a 'minimum fare' on that route for people using the bus for short trips in Dublin, but that was done away with years ago. Anytime I've taken it, people are already alighting at Rathmines. I suppose it's the argument about where the city bus limit should be as I mentioned in a previous post (think here Blessington vs Ashbourne).

I'm not very familiar with the ticket machines, but could one of the city ticket machines not work on that route now considering there will be only two fares? Probably can't be transferred easily enough though…

Taisteal Éireann

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386288#Comment_123386288

I had no idea, very cool! While it's great that BusConnects is standardising the numbers and route variations, etc., all these little quirks are interesting to find, even though 99% of the travelling public wouldn't care!

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386351#Comment_123386351

Off peak it shouldn't be an issue during peak times it very well could be an issue. Perhaps a way of mitigating it would be for the normal 103 to pick up and drop off passengers like any normal but then have an Xpresso route at peak times to only do drop off and pick up inside the Dublin area. Coming to think about it the 103 could probably benefit from a few more pick up points in Dublin city centre. Right now it only picks up at Beresford Place and not again until Broadstone.

As for the 65 well that will be gone under Bus Connects and replaced by the hourly Tallaght to Blessington only L44 and the peak only M-F P43 and P44 to the cc. Which is a big downgrade for Ballymore Eustace which currently gets 4 buses a day M-F and more on weekends and is down to one bus a day under BC in either direction. Either more L44 departures will have to be extended to serve Ballymore Eustace or the Local Link 885 will need a boost.

I wouldn't be surprised either if the 132 starts picking up and dropping off passengers in Blessington bound for Dublin once the 65 gets scrapped. But it's all a matter for the NTA.

On ticket machines. Yes they could just put Dublin city programmed ticket machines into VWDs not sure if their even wired for a right hand validator so the easiest thing might be to just transfer buses from DB or GAI over to BE for the 103 and send the VWDs somewhere else in the country if it ever became a Dublin city service.

Mind you if the 103 was to ever become a Dublin City service the NTA would likely re tender it away from BE to DB, GAI or a potential new operator. I can't see DB and BE competing for an NTA tender.

Maybe in the future with more tendering it might make more sense for DB and BE to just merge together into one operator and they'd have a better chance against privates to win PSO tenders and potentially sell off the commercial side of things namely Expressway and DoDublin. But that's a decision for the CIE group as a whole and really a debate for a different day.

TranslatorPS

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386351#Comment_123386351

Re: ticket machines, disregarding the fact that the TGX150 is outdated tech – there are basically two types of TGX150s floating around Ireland, the Dublin City one used by DB and Ballymount GAI, and the regional one used by BÉ and Naas GAI. They come with somewhat different software – the DB one focuses on trip and fare data loading based on the crew duty, while the BÉ one does so through vehicle diagrams. This also affects how they feed the two different AVL systems, as it is through the TGX login that the AVL systems associate the bus with the appropriate trip. On that front alone I don't suspect that they'd be as easily compatible as one might think, despite being essentially the same piece of equipment otherwise.

thomasj

Its going to be interesting to see how this works out next week.

For example , if I hit the zone 1 weekly cap by Thursday what will happen when I try to tag on at a train station on Friday ?

Will I need to have 1 euro credit and will it charge me the maximum charge just in case I wonder into zone 2/3/4 territory ?

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123389201#Comment_123389201

presumably there's nothing to stop you tagging on in zone 1 with €1 on your card and travelling to zone 4 but if you get inspected once you're out of zone 1 (unlikely TBH) you won't have a valid ticket. I'd guess you won't be able to tag off at the far end either but that probably won't stop you leaving the station.

thomasj

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123389263#Comment_123389263

Lol but this is in the Irish rail FAQs

Higher Maximum Leap Epurse maximum fare

Because the Dublin Commuter Zone is now far larger, the maximum ePurse fare at tag-on will be higher for all ePurse users, including Adults, Students and Children.

The maximum tag-on fares will increase as follows:

• Adult ePurse maximum tag-on will increase from €4 to €7.50
• Student / Young Adult maximum tag-on will increase from €2 to €3.75
• Child maximum tag-on will increase from 65c to €3.75

As a result, all LeapCard ePurse customers are reminded to tag-off at the end of your journey to ensure you are charged the correct fare.  Please note this includes both Dublin and Cork LeapCard ePurse customers: while Cork area fares are unchanged, the Leap ePurse touch-on maximum fare will increase, so touching off is important.

Question is will this be taken from my epurse if I have reached the weekly cap on zone 1?

AngryLips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123389284#Comment_123389284

So what happens to taxsaver ticket holders? Will they be charged €7.50 on tag on and then the amount fully refunded if they tag off within the short hop zone?

thomasj

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123389312#Comment_123389312

Im wondering that too . I would like to hope that the ticket would take priority over the balance in this case ?

Also there's the risk that the ticket readers at your destination might be broken , which wouldn't help.

Edit: it does say epurse holders so I would say those with tickets wouldn't be charged in that case fingers crossed.

p_haugh

I've been wondering something similar about the ticketing system. Say I have a monthly/annual ticket for zone 1 and I travel from Dun Laoghaire→Greystones on the DART, I assume I'll only be charged the fare for Bray→Greystones when I tag off? It would be great if they included an interactive fare calculator as part of the announcement!

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123389284#Comment_123389284

I believe €2 is currently taken from your card if you have reached the cap, so presume €5.50 will still be.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123389354#Comment_123389354

There is a fare calculator (and indeed has been for quite some time!) on the Irish Rail website.

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/rail-fares-and-tickets/fares-info/dublin-city-commuter

sligeach

"Adult Leap maximum tag-on will rise from €4 to €7.50."

That's practically a doubling of the maximum tag-on fee.

"As a result, all Leap Card customers are reminded to tag-off at the end of their journey to ensure they are charged the correct price."

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0423/1509135-rail-fares/

I'm sure I'm not the first person to have forgotten to tag-off. You're now potentially looking at €5.50 charge for nothing if that happens.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123391378#Comment_123391378

How else do you suggest that they deal with the expansion of LEAP?

DrivingSouth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123391378#Comment_123391378

I've never rang leap to say I forgot to tag off, but I have rang them to say their tag off machine wasn't working and they were happy to credit me without much delay.

antimatterx

I still don't think the fares are great.

Clongriffin to Connolly (9.7KM) is €2 which is good, however Clongriffin to Malahide (6.4KM) is also €2.

Clongriffin to Gormanstown (37KM) is €3.90, but Clongriffin to Laytown (41KM) is €6.

Arhanedus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123392675#Comment_123392675

It is very silly, but unfortunately that's how the fare system works. If you're in the Dublin city zone, you could go from Bray all the way to Rush and Lusk (nearly 43km!) for just €2, just because both stations are within the city zone. But dare you step out into Greystones or Skerries, suddenly you're in Zone 2 and getting charged way more for the privilege.

Even if you just take the DART from Greystones to Bray - a distance of just 7.7km - you're paying €2.30 because Greystones is in Zone 2. From my understanding, if you took the bus, it would still cost the normal €2, and then you could get on the DART at Bray and go to city centre for just €2 (instead of the €3.90).

It's far from perfect… If this is indeed the case, I can definitely see some people taking the bus one town over just to not have to pay much more. It would considerably lengthen the commute, but I wouldn't be surprised if people take the X1/X2 from Greystones to city centre, or take the L1/L2 to Bray and get on the DART there, just to not have to pay almost double the price in exchange for extra 20 minutes of time.

At the end of the day, this seems like a big win for those in Zones 3 and 4, who are actually getting a considerable fare reduction compared to the existing structure, but at the cost of people at the border with Zone 2 getting an increase.

bk

This has always been the problem with zonal fare systems, it isn't fair on those who live near the border of a zone. Same happens in London etc.

The closest to a fair fare system is probably Amsterdam where you are charged per km travelled. So someone who travels 10km pays more then someone travelling 5km etc.

The issue is that in order for that to walk you would need tag off validators on the buses. You could install them of course, but it would slow down the time it takes to get off a bus, in particular the single door ones.

Unlike us, in Amsterdam all city buses are at least dual door and most are triple door or more, with makes it less trouble. But also they just have far less buses then us, they have lots of metros and tram lines so the majority yfmtravel is done that way and with off vehicle ticketing. They have a relatively small bus fleet compared to us. On the other hand, travelling by bus is the main way to get around here, so that is where most focus open ticketing is. Thus the simplicity of the 90 minute flat fare.

thomasj

It's mad that there's parts of Kildare , Meath and (tiny bit of ) Wicklow in zone 1 , yet there's parts of Dublin in zone 2.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123393773#Comment_123393773

It really isn’t “mad”, as the fare zone boundaries are distance based.

County boundaries are pretty arbritary.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123392675#Comment_123392675

In most cities the fares in and immediately the city will attract a higher subsidy and Dublin is no different.

As you go further out, fares are graduated.

AngryLips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123393858#Comment_123393858

Why can't we re-draw the Dublin border as just a giant circle radiating from O'Connell Street?

p_haugh

Some teething issues with the new leap card validators it seems

https://twitter.com/RailUsersIe/status/1916756826793583089?t=YIPz_rt_inh2URUmiw-zxA&s=19

LXFlyer

Also, the brains trust at the NTA never considered that some people might only travel from one zone to another, such as zone 3 to zone 2, and not going into zone 1 when looking at daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tickets.

A small rethink is needed on that.

They’ve also removed the red, green and blue zone BÉ tickets from sale this morning, despite the new ticket zones not coming into effect on BÉ for another month.

thomasj

Are the monthly not available to buy on the app yet? I thought they'd be available for all zones this morning ?

antimatterx

June I think

reubenreuben

Big difference in cost between drogheda/laytown and gormanston when heading into Dublin. I can see people heading to gormanston to avail of cheaper fares. But it's in the middle of nowhere with bad road.