Launch of Dublin Short Hop Zone Smartcard

[Mark Gleeson]

The long awaited pay as you go rail smartcard went public last night.

You can buy a smartcard from any TVM in the Dublin Short Hop Zone or online at http://www.irishrail.ie/smartcard

The card costs 5 euro. Provided you have at least 1 cent credit the system will allow you to travel, so 4 euro of that 5 is actually usable credit

Fares are charged at half the normal return fare for the journey undertaken

You can top up online and review your history http://www.irishrail.ie/smartcard

Smartcards for children, scholar fares as well as season tickets are coming and these will be personalised with a photo. Fancy features such as fare capping may come in due course, ensuring you get the cheapest fare for the journeys you have undertaken.

Rail Users Ireland was involved in the user testing, so we have a full knowledge of how it all works. We have worked through several problems with Irish Rail so the user experience should be extremely good and the functionality is significantly more advanced than the luas smartcard.

Over coming weeks watch out at city centre stations, can't say more.

[markpb]

You can top up online and review your history http://www.irishrail.ie/smartcard

They've proceeded to launch with the proxy-breaking port I see. That was a smart move.

the functionality is significantly more advanced than the luas smartcard.

Customers won't care about any technical improvements and for most people (tag on, tag off, pay a reduced rate) they're exactly the same. The big difference is that it took Irish Rail five years to catch up with the RPA.

[Mark Gleeson]

The IE card is miles ahead of the Luas, despite the fact both are physically identical.

Passengers will care since the features are all about ease of use.

You can't top up online, you can't review transactions online and you can't do chargebacks on the Luas system, Irish Rail can. You can walk into any station with a ticket vending machine right now and buy a smartcard and choose the credit you want on the card.

Despite using the exact same equipment the RPA never bothered to implement this for Luas, which is worrying if they are the brains behind ITS.

The RPA of course have forced a reduction in functionality as they are making heavy work of the ITS project. We have received the full briefing which is a tad commercially sensitive, but the IE system can do a whole lot more and hopefully we will be seeing some extra features in the months ahead. You should be able to put a monthly ticket onto the card for instance.

Port 8443 is actually a fairly common port to use, its not a permanent issue its being looked into right now. I can view the site through the firewall I'm behind which is strict.

[Mark Gleeson]

For reference if you already have registered for seat booking on IE's site, the same email and password will work the smartcard login page.

[Mark Hennessy]

IT related questions about the smartcard website spun off here:

http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=12322

Please keep this thread for actual smartcard announcements and issues.

[karlr42]

I've got a very weird issue going on-
I bought a card on Monday night from a TVM in Pearse, initial balance €10. I haven't tagged it off or on since(don't need the train until Friday). But when I check the card's history on Irish Rail's site, I am shown that oit was issued a day after I bought it, and on Tuesday it was topped-up twice in the morning in Pearse, travelled to Maynooth, then came back to Pearse in the evening.
Now the card has €44 left on it! I have triple-checked and the number on the card in my wallet matches the one on the site. The only possible thing I could have done was that I put my wallet, containing a DB monthly RFID card and the IR smart card up to a Dublin Bus validator, and got angrily beeped at until I removed the DB card and did it separately.
Any ideas? I think maybe IR's server has an issue, or maybe the card's number was misprinted, because I seem to be shown another person's card!

[Thomas Ralph]

Best suggestion would be to ring up the number on the back of the card 9am-5pm and they'll look into it.

[Thomas Ralph]

Date/Time Location Action
26/04/10 6:21 PM Sandymount 11188 Issue a card at s sales device
26/04/10 6:21 PM Sandymount 11188 Issue a card at s sales device
26/04/10 6:21 PM Sandymount 11188 Issue a card at s sales device
15/12/09 4:10 PM Customer Services Centre 391101 production at encoding machine

:)

[Mark Gleeson]

For reference the codes in location are

First digit is tag on/off device

1 = Ticket vending machine
4 = Std exit gate
5 = Wide exit gate
6 = Night gate post
7 = Top of old turnstile

The 2nd, 3rd & 4th digit are the station id as per the IE ticket system. If its a ticket machine the 2nd is the machine ID number, the 3 following the station code

Last 2 digits are the barrier number

[Colm Moore]

Karl, have you tried registering the card on the website? I suspect its possible someone accidentally registered your card, but that doesn't explain the trip reported. I take it that you didn't do such a trip. It would make sense to phone Irish Rail at 1850 211 777 or use the contact form. http://www.irishrail.ie/contact_us/contact_sc_issues.asp

The only possible thing I could have done was that I put my wallet, containing a DB monthly RFID card and the IR smart card up to a Dublin Bus validator, and got angrily beeped at until I removed the DB card and did it separately.I don't know the exact standards involved, but strictly speaking you can't swipe two of these types of cards at the same time. Sometimes you will get away with it at the train station as the Irish Rail card will register at a greater distance than a DB one.

Dublin Bus or Luas cards or equipment should not interfere with an Irish Rail card.

And yes, presenting an IR card on a bus will result in a very upset card reader. :D Eventually (probably in about a years time) you will hopefully be able to get a smartcard that works across a variety of transport services http://www.rpa.ie/en/its

[karlr42]

Karl, have you tried registering the card on the website? I suspect its possible someone accidentally registered your card, but that doesn't explain the trip reported. I take it that you didn't do such a trip. It would make sense to phone Irish Rail at 1850 211 777 or use the contact form. http://www.irishrail.ie/contact_us/contact_sc_issues.asp

I registered it straight away on receiving the card. I will hold off on getting in touch with IR until I make my first journey with the card on Friday.

[Mark Gleeson]

If you don't get any joy, let us know and we can pass the details on.

First thing you can check is the transaction history at any ticket vending machine. It will be different

[karlr42]

Tvm balance check gave the correct 10 euro. Must just be a server side issue. Tagged on at Pearse, off at Clonsilla, tvm in clonsilla gives correct history

[Thomas Ralph]

The online system can take a little while to catch up with the card.

[fergn]

Got my smartcard at Connolly this evening. Tagged on and tagged off no problems. I registered as soon as I got home and checked my history and it says my card number followed by (null). Then E-Purse Amount: €0.00 when I should have 6 euro credit and then 25/11/09 4:59 PM Customer Services Centre 391101 production at encoding machine. How long does it take before it will show the correct details and whats the null after my card no. for?

[Colm Moore]

I registered as soon as I got home and checked my history and it says my card number followed by (null). "Null" is the default name if you don't give the card a user name. I've registered a few times as "Colm Moore #1", "Colm Moore #2" and "Colm Moore #3". If you want to change it, unregister the card and re-register it in whatever name you want to give it.

For a business you could call them "Staff" or "Staff #567" or "Sales" or "Repairs" if they are shared between staff, but relevant to departments.

For family you could have "Mum", "Dad", "Little Johnny", "Mary" and "Grandma" for when she vists (or "Visitor").

Then E-Purse Amount: €0.00 when I should have 6 euro creditDid you see the display (top of ticket gate / tag-off post) when you were tagging on / off? It will give a balance.

and then 25/11/09 4:59 PM Customer Services Centre 391101 production at encoding machine. Thats just a relic in the system of when the card number was added to the system.

How long does it take before it will show the correct details They are saying 24 hours for the moment, but hope to have that reduced substantially. I'm not sure if it will reach real time, but it will improve a lot.

[maxheadroom]

For reference if you already have registered for seat booking on IE's site, the same email and password will work the smartcard login page.
FYI, this is not working for my irish rail account.

[Colm Moore]

FYI, this is not working for my irish rail account.

There has been a semi-persistent "Online topup is unavailable." message on the Smartcard page over the last few weeks (it was cleared last week). Are you able to do any other Smartcard functions?

[Mark Gleeson]

If you registered the card by phone during the trial period in March/April you will need to change you password on the main irishrail site, in doing so both passwords will become the same.

[maxheadroom]

There has been a semi-persistent "Online topup is unavailable." message on the Smartcard page over the last few weeks (it was cleared last week). Are you able to do any other Smartcard functions?

I don't actually get that far. I bought a smartcard from q TVM. When I go to register the card online, it tells me to log in with my irishrail.ie username and password. This does not work. If I use the same username/password combination on the main irishrail site it works fine.

[Mark Gleeson]

Send me a pm with the email address you use with your Irish Rail account and we will get it sorted for you.

[Thomas Ralph]

Try registering anew. The system still has some kinks that are being ironed out.

[Mark Gleeson]

Its being looked after, its a 'strange' issue which is user specific

[Mark Gleeson]

The web access issues are now resolved and it not longer uses port 8443

[peter t]

"No online top-up available" keeps coming up for me.

[Colm Moore]

"No online top-up available" keeps coming up for me.

That has been regular. I've mentioned it to them. You can still top-up at the ticket machine. Not ideal.

[Mark Gleeson]

Top up at machine is instant

Top up online takes 8-24 hours to hit the card, there has been some difficulties with getting this to work on the ground. It did work fine and transaction 1 was performed by an RUI member during the trial

I know of 1 card which refused to be topped up no matter what was tried it just wouldn't accept an offline credit increase. New card was sent out to the customer to resolve issue.

[Eddie]

Personally, I can't see Smart Cards really taking off here as things stand at the moment.

In London, everyone uses the Oyster smartcard because it offers substantially discounted fares when compared to standard bus and tube cash fares and the fare structure is simple to understand. I have an Oyster card for when I visit London. Daily limits apply, so you never pay more than a set amount which varies, depending on the zones you travel in and whether you use it during peak times or not. The technology is robust.

Here, the price of a smartcard single is half of that of a standard return. So if you make a return journey, you save nothing.

The tax saver ticket in Ireland is easily the most compelling commuter ticket to have for higher rate tax payers, with buses, darts and trains in the Dublin region at your disposal for little more than an after tax rate of €2 per working day and all your leisure journeys are thrown in for free.

[Mark Gleeson]

The problem is not technical its political. Irish Rail could deploy a daily or weekly cap on smartcard fares, but are not allowed by contract. They must follow the instructions of the ITS project team.

Long term a weekly capping mechanism will be in place when the integrated package comes along

A further roll out to annual ticket holders will take place this month

Despite its current restrictions, the cards are proving quite popular amongst those you travel frequently and queue daily for single or return tickets

[Brian Condron]

Couple of Smart Card issues today which I suppose will have to wait until Tuesday until the office reopens to sort out.

I went to the game in Lansdowne and the new wide stadium gates don't have any Smart Card readers. So I had to double back to the regular gate to tag off. Same issue when getting back on after the game. This time when I tagged back on I was already inside the station so I used the reader on the exit side of the gates. When I arrived home and tagged off I noticed that I had been charged about €11 for the whole journey, normally only costs €4.20 return.

Second issue, went to the Irish Rail website to check the exact figures. Tried to log in but it is not recognising my password. Therefore I clicked "forgot password" and now it tells me my email is not registered. I registered the email way back during the trial, and have topped up online since, so my account seems to have been deleted.

[Mark Gleeson]

I was concerned about the Lansdowne Rd issue, and yes the entry and exit sides of the gates are different.

Can you log into the normal Irish Rail website?

[Brian Condron]

I can log into the normal Irish Rail website, but when I go to the smart card section and try log in there it tells me my email address is not registered.

Curiouser and curiouser.

[Mark Gleeson]

I'll pass that on

[Brian Condron]

All problems have been sorted out by Irish Rail, my compliments to them.

Now we need to get them add a few readers to Lansdowne Road so this doesn't happen again, I have heard that this problem happened to other people, not just me.

[ThomasJ]

Any update on the status of the introduction of smartcards for bus and rail holders?

[Mark Gleeson]

Any update on the status of the introduction of smartcards for bus and rail holders?

Any ticket issued as of July 31st consists of two smartcards, one bus, one rail. These are full year tickets as in new sales, I don't think existing tickets can be replaced with smartcards until they expire.

If in doubt call the Taxsaver office and they will in there usually helpful way clear things up.

All schoolchild tickets will be smartcards starting September

[Thomas Ralph]

Any ticket issued as of July 31st consists of two smartcards, one bus, one rail. These are full year tickets as in new sales, I don't think existing tickets can be replaced with smartcards until they expire.


By "any ticket" do you mean "any bus+rail ticket issued by IÉ"?

[Mark Gleeson]

Dublin Bus + Irish Rail

[Thomas Ralph]

So are BÁC-issued tickets going the same way or will they still be smartcard on bus, stripe on train?

[Mark Gleeson]

So are BÁC-issued tickets going the same way or will they still be smartcard on bus, stripe on train?

As far as I know Dublin Bus has not changed its tickets

[Mark Gleeson]

To online top issue is being worked out, some class of technical problem and will be back once resolved.

[Mark Gleeson]

Online top up is back online

[CastaheaneyMan]

Clonsilla station last night.
Tried to Tag off with smart card reader on pole on Maynooth platform after arriving from city centre. Tag machine displayed 'Ready' but gave error each time went to tag off.
Went to other platform and tagged off succesfully. Maybe card reader Maynooth platform is faulty.
Same smart card worked correctly at turnstile at Connolly and Tara.

[Mark Gleeson]

That one has given trouble before. It will be looked into by Irish Rail, they follow this thread.