This might make people think about fare evasion

[James Howard]

Some bloke got hit with a €5,500 fine after only buying a pass to cover part of his journey.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/free-rail-trips-end-up-costing-passenger-5500-30958835.html

[Jamie2k9]

Is there not some technology to restrict the card to the route paid for.

[grainne whale]

He was very silly: the Short Hop Annual Ticket would have covered him from Balbriggan. He certainly had a hard neck

[Mark Gleeson]

Is there not some technology to restrict the card to the route paid for.

Yes, in theory

RUI reported two major bugs to Irish Rail over 2 years ago concerning failures to correctly configure the gates

1. SHZ annual opens gates at all stations nationwide, not just SHZ. This was fixed promptly

2. Point to Point ticket, used beyond its validity still opens gate. Irish Rail removed the ability to add credit to these tickets but the ticket will still open any turnstile on the SHZ

Irish Rail are as guilty as the passenger for failing to close out this huge hole

[James Howard]

That's useful to know as I might have inadvertently dodged a couple of fares myself. I went out to the RDS a couple of times a few months ago and tried my point-to-point after having bought a ticket for the first journey. Since it worked I assumed it was OK. My point-to-point used to cover me as far as Sydney Parade due to fare zones but I noticed that this year they put Pearse on it.

It's hard to see how this guy's behaviour could have been construed as unintentional though. I would think that he is slightly more guilty than Irish Rail. I'd say the number of commuter passes from Enfield and Kilcock will go up a bit over the next few months.

[grainne whale]

This chap was a 'chancer', he obviously knew what he was doing - he got what he deserved.

[Kilocharlie]

Taxsaver Point-to-point tickets are now being issued on Leap Cards. Does this correct the previous, erroneous, functionality?

[berneyarms]

Well this case and the increase in the number of fixed penalty notices issued would indicate to me that the RPU random ticket check blitzes at stations seem to be well justified.

All of these people who have been caught deserve exactly what they get as they are being subsidised unfairly by the rest of us who pay our way.

[Mark Gleeson]

That's useful to know as I might have inadvertently dodged a couple of fares myself. I went out to the RDS a couple of times a few months ago and tried my point-to-point after having bought a ticket for the first journey. Since it worked I assumed it was OK. My point-to-point used to cover me as far as Sydney Parade due to fare zones but I noticed that this year they put Pearse on it.

This guy played a slightly different version of something known as gaping, have a ticket valid at each end but not the middle. Done properly at rush hour its almost 100%, i.e. this guy need only have bought a Blackrock - Booterstown 7 day ticket to completely avoid the RPU.

Irish Rail knew about the issue with point to point since we told them. They had to refund a very honest passenger who added credit to a point to point to use it on the DART, credit was never deducted...

[ThomasJ]

So how does point to point work?

If I go beyond the point does it tap into my credit balance?

So if I have a Drogheda to Balbriggan ticket and I want to go to blackrock. What happens ?

[James Howard]

I've always operated under the assumption that I need to buy a ticket for the extra distance. Occasionally I have need to travel to Longford on my Edgeworthstown pass, so I just buy a (outrageously expensive) ticket from Edgeworthstown to Longford.

Going a bit off-topic, it's something that's always struck me a bit unfair about the way point-to-point tickets work in Dublin - particularly if you live just past the edge of the short hop zone. A P2P to Kilcock is something like 200 euro dearer than a Short Hop that covers you for Maynooth. So far so good, fair enough. Yet with the Maynooth ticket, you can go to any station within the short hop zone. Furthermore, you can add Dublin bus to the Maynooth ticket for about 300 euro extra, yet this option doesn't seem to be available to the guy living 5 miles further down the line in Kilcock.

Personally, it doesn't really bother me as somebody who uses a P2P from much further out, but it seems to be a bit of an anomaly. Is there an official reason why a P2P customer can't add a Dublin Bus ticket for the 300 euro extra it costs a short hop customer?