Irish Rail Smartcard coming this Autumn

[Colm Moore]

http://www.taxsaver.ie/en/News/Irish-Rail-Smartcard-coming-this-Autumn-/ Irish Rail Smartcard coming this Autumn

The new Irish Rail Smartcard for Monthly and Annual taxsaver
Customers in the Short Hop Zone (Balbriggan, Maynooth, Hazelhatch and Greystones) will be commencing in October/November.

The new “credit card” type card will be available to Rail Only Customers.

[DangerM]

My annual ticket has stopped working in the turnstiles and I mentioned it to the Inspector on the train today to see if he had any replacement forms. He said to hold off as they are all being replaced shortly with smartcards.

He said they were due to be replaced in July but should be any week now, anyone know anything about this?

[Mark Gleeson]

We are in regular contact with the team within Irish Rail who are running the project. A number of RUI members will be in the very first batch of users.

The initial user trial is due shortly, but with the northern line cut at Malahide it means some stations can't be tested. At this stage it will probably be November before annual tickets will be available as smartcards. We await details.

The smartcard does exist, I've held one in my hand, they are grey mainly with a space for a photograph, back is white with the customer services number and details in both Irish and English and the 16 digit card ID

[DangerM]

The inspector had a smartcard, looks a lot more sturdy and hopefully more reliable than the standard ticket. The tickets have suffered a lot by the end of the year!

[Mark Gleeson]

The station staff don't have a smartcard per say, it just opens the gates

Its contactless so it should be very robust

[BrianDeBruce]

Hi,

Will smartcards be available for Point to Point travel anytime soon? Or is it going to be limited to Short Hop tickets etc?

Thanks,
Brian

[Mark Gleeson]

Currently its Dublin Short Hop zone rail only

Most likely long distance point to point will be offered as well we don't know, but those tickets with Bus/Luas add ons can't be smartcards until the fully integrated system is up and running

[markpb]

those tickets with Bus/Luas add ons can't be smartcards until the fully integrated system is up and running

It's worth pointing out that this is not for the want of trying. DB and IR were all set to go on an integrated smartcard but were foribidden by the Dept of Transport because it would "compete" with the RPA's integrated card which is still at least six months away from launch.