contactless on dubln bus

[hi2u_uk]

just a quick thread to say that i'm surprised that dublin bus dont allow the use of contactless bank cards to pay for bus fares. Any idea why and will this change . Very inconvenient for peoplee using foreign currency e.g. £££ as you need to find those funny little euro coins

 

[radamfi]

Post this in the International Transport section and you might get a response.

 

[swt class 450]

Dublin Bus are extremely inconvenient to use. They accept exact fare and in coins only. They won't even accept banknotes.

Their fares also require a lot of coins rather than being simple rounded amounts:

£2.15 - Short Distance Single
£3.00 - Medium Distance Single
£3.30 - Long Distance Single
£3.80 - Express Bus Routes Single
£6.60 - Night Bus Routes Single

Sorry for using the Pound sign but my phone doesn't seem to have a Euro symbol to use.

As far as i am aware they have no plans to accept contactless. They do have a Leap Card system (similar to the Oyster Card system) which gives you cheaper fares.

 

[hi2u_uk]

its just that the city attracts a lot of people from around the world , if there is any city in ireland that needs contactless on buses then you would assume it would be dublin

 

[F Great Eastern]

It's because they're using the Wayfarer TGX150 ticket machines which are woefully outdated and can barely run the current fare system, let alone allow smartcards. When switching from smartcard to cash mode and back again they take a few seconds.

Aircoach, a subsidiary of First, do offer contactless in Ireland though.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Dublin Bus are extremely inconvenient to use. They accept exact fare and in coins only. They won't even accept banknotes.

Their fares also require a lot of coins rather than being simple rounded amounts:

£2.15 - Short Distance Single
£3.00 - Medium Distance Single
£3.30 - Long Distance Single
£3.80 - Express Bus Routes Single
£6.60 - Night Bus Routes Single

Sorry for using the Pound sign but my phone doesn't seem to have a Euro symbol to use.

As far as i am aware they have no plans to accept contactless. They do have a Leap Card system (similar to the Oyster Card system) which gives you cheaper fares.

There used to be far more fare levels in the past but slowly over the past few years they have been reducing them. At one point you had 8-9 different adult fare types and 4 different child fare types. The most recent changes in December saw a flat rate for children to be brought in and the medium distance single went up whilst the long distance single came down.

One of the problems with Dublin fare systems is that all of the state operators (Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Bus Eireann) are dependent on farebox revenue to fund their operation in addition to subsidy and state supplied vehicles so system changes have to be done in a way that will not cause a massive shock to the company finances so the system is being simplified over a few years.

That being said if you use cash on Dublin Bus you are mad, every year the price difference between cash and leap is being increased to disincentive cash in the same way that we've seen in London.

 

[edwin_m]

The 747/757 from the airport accept banknotes, and I'm pretty sure you can use cards at the ticket machines at the airport stops. These sell a 72-hour DoDublin bus pass but annoyingly not any intermodal tickets. In some ways things have gone backwards since you could buy a good value day bus and Luas ticket at the airport, though it was quite hard to find (probably intentionally).

 

[F Great Eastern]

The 747/757 from the airport accept banknotes, and I'm pretty sure you can use cards at the ticket machines at the airport stops. These sell a 72-hour DoDublin bus pass but annoyingly not any intermodal tickets. In some ways things have gone backwards since you could buy a good value day bus and Luas ticket at the airport, though it was quite hard to find (probably intentionally).

Unlike London, in Dublin, historically (and generally even now to a lesser degree) each individual part of the transport system was more important than the system as a whole. Each company views their brand and own interests as much more important than integration, they all want their own identity.

There is a Visitor Leap Card that is truly multi-modal but Dublin Bus don't promote it at all at the airport at their sales desk and instead promote their own pass that is only valid on their own services. They were requested to stop doing this and instead promote Visitor Leap, but it hasn't happened, I assume for commercial reasons.

Visitor Leap here: https://about.leapcard.ie/leap-visitor-card

 

[edwin_m]

Unlike London, in Dublin, historically (and generally even now to a lesser degree) each individual part of the transport system was more important than the system as a whole. Each company views their brand and own interests as much more important than integration, they all want their own identity.

There is a Visitor Leap Card that is truly multi-modal but Dublin Bus don't promote it at all at the airport at their sales desk and instead promote their own pass that is only valid on their own services. They were requested to stop doing this and instead promote Visitor Leap, but it hasn't happened, I assume for commercial reasons.

Visitor Leap here: https://about.leapcard.ie/leap-visitor-card

Thanks for that - looks very good value especially as for a day trip it's cheaper than the airport bus on its own!

 

[Busaholic]

That being said if you use cash on Dublin Bus you are mad, every year the price difference between cash and leap is being increased to disincentive cash in the same way that we've seen in London.

I think London win in the disincentivise cash stakes, though, by utterly refusing to take it!

 

[Tetchytyke]

In some ways things have gone backwards since you could buy a good value day bus and Luas ticket at the airport, though it was quite hard to find (probably intentionally).

As FGE says, they still do it. It's very good value. I bought one when I was in Dublin for the day back in November. They sell it from the Dublin Bus desk in arrivals, but not from the machines.

And as the one day ticket is cheaper than an Airlink return ticket, it's no wonder Dublin Bus are coy about it.