The Leap Card Thread

[OisinDunne]

From earlier: Effectively the rules are if in school term Mon-Fri (up until sometime after 16:30) and before 13:30 Saturday the card charges schoolchild fares



I just asked why my childs fare wasn't reduced for last weekend and I was told that IR have done away with the Saturday time....when did this happen does anyone know??

[Mark Gleeson]

There was a recent change to the charging file for Dublin.

Irish Rail states Monday-Friday only and will not work from July 1st through to end of 3 week of August, though this has never been communicated

What are the conditions of travel?
Schoolchild fares on DART and Commuter services apply during school term only, until 19:00hrs, Monday to Friday.

http://www.irishrail.ie/fares-and-ti...e-singlereturn

[Eddie]

Dublin Bus continues to charge 77c schoolchild fare on Saturdays, as long as you use the validator on the right of the entrance door, and not the drivers machine, which will charge 90c / €1.10, depending on the destination.

So in fact there's an anomaly here:
If an adult uses the automatic validator they will be charged a maximum fare for the journey so must go to driver for a lower fare for a shorter distance.

If a child uses the automatic validator Mon to Fri before 7pm / Sat before 1.30pm they will be charged the lowest fare by using the validator, and be charged more for using the driver's machine.

I bet not many people know that!

The discount of 75c for a child for each subsequent bus journey made within 90 minutes of the previous validation also means that after the first journey, subsequent fares can be 77c-75c=2c, a bus fare probably not seen for about 50 years!

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by OisinDunne

From earlier: Effectively the rules are if in school term Mon-Fri (up until sometime after 16:30) and before 13:30 Saturday the card charges schoolchild fares

I just asked why my childs fare wasn't reduced for last weekend and I was told that IR have done away with the Saturday time....when did this happen does anyone know??

To my knowledge it hasn't been done away. Feel free to make a complaint to Irish Rail and info@nationaltransport.ie

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/pub...eterminations/

Originally Posted by Determination No. 4 2014 – Determination of Child Fares on Public Transport in the Dublin Area and Regional Cities, June 2014

7. Determination by the Authority
The Authority having considered the four options as outlined above in some detail has determined that option C Dispense with Scholar fares, increase Child age to 18 and retain Schoolchild variant is to be the fares determination. The Authority has further determined that the Schoolchild fare will be available during school terms on Monday to Friday up to 19:00 and on Saturday up to 13:30.

[Eddie]

Last week I found a leap card, so I checked to see if it had a value on it at a Dart station to see if it was worth reporting as lost. It had a credit of €12.31 on it, so I sent an email to Leap Card and after a couple of days I got an email back thanking me, but that it had already been reported as lost and had been replaced.

Just for interest, I checked its value this morning and I expected it to have been cancelled with no value, with the credit being transferred to the owner's new card. Instead, it still had credit balance of €12.31.

What's going on?

[Mark Gleeson]

The credit on the card cannot be changed, but the card is most likely marked as hot so cannot be used for travel

[Eddie]

Discounted / free second journeys within a set period of the first journey have now spread to London... Not sure if Dublin was the first with the idea or it it copied the idea from elsewhere too...

https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/hopper-fare?cid=hopper

[James Howard]

These second journeys should be entirely free unless they are in the opposite direction on the same route. For the customer, it isn't a second journey - it is the second part of the one journey.

Making people pay to complete their journey only provides a disincentive for the operator to make journeys more convenient for customers by providing direct routes. Effectively the customer getting better service is paying less.

[berneyarms]

Originally Posted by James Howard

These second journeys should be entirely free unless they are in the opposite direction on the same route. For the customer, it isn't a second journey - it is the second part of the one journey.

Making people pay to complete their journey only provides a disincentive for the operator to make journeys more convenient for customers by providing direct routes. Effectively the customer getting better service is paying less.

Like everything else it boils down to funding from government - we get what we pay for.

Making the second journey free would reduce farebox revenues and squeeze the operating companies' finances even tighter.

I totally agree with your view by the way but until the politicians and ergo the population at large decides that they are prepared to pay proper levels of funding for public transport in this country you are only going to see very slow and gradual change.