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NEW METHODS TO buy tickets and pay fares on public transport could be rolled out within the next three years, the National Transport Authority has said.
Digital payment options that would allow passengers to pay with contactless bank cards, smartphones and QR codes could be available by 2023 or 2024, several years earlier than expected but still behind other countries which have already introduced such options.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) is in the process of appointing a supplier to develop its “next generation ticketing” system.
The NTA’s head of ticketing technology Barry Dorgan said that 2023 or 2024 is a “likely timeline” but that it depends on a range of factors, including funding and the supplier’s work.
A firmer timeline will be set after a supplier has been chosen, but provisional expectations are that the new system could be operational in the next two to three years.
It was previously understood that cashless payments could replace Leap cards by 2027, but current plans indicate that new ticketing options will be available in the nearer future. A date has not been set for the elimination of cash being used to pay for public transport.
The new system, when implemented, would mark a large change in how tickets and fares work in Ireland, starting on Dublin buses under BusConnects and expanding to other parts of the country.
Speaking to The Journal, Dorgan said that “Leap is going to remain for a while but we’re going to bring in paying with Apple Pay, Google Pay, tapping your bank card, or potentially even on some services we might support scanning a QR code from a ticket on your phone, like getting on an airplane”.
It may also include a virtual Leap card that a passenger could store digitally in their smartphone wallet.
“In the longer term, what we’d like it to be is where the customer doesn’t have to do anything,” Dorgan said.
That’s still a bit away, those technologies are still in the early stages, but if you can imagine, once you have your Leap card or bank card on your phone – for a while you’ll have to take out your card or phone and tap it against the reader, but at some point in time we’d like it to be so that you don’t even have to take your phone out of your pocket. Your phone just beeps as you get on public transport and when you get off the bus it beeps again. It says you got on and were on the bus for X minutes and therefore your charge is Y.”
In 2019, the NTA awarded a contract worth €3.6 million for the development of a new mobile ticketing app, which was given to UK-based company Cubic Transportation Systems.
The authority piloted a small trial of the app last year on Bus Éireann’s 133 route between Wicklow and Dublin.
“We want to have an app that will update very quickly so that if you’ve tapped on the bus, within seconds ideally you’ll be able to see in your app that you’ve tapped on – maybe we’ll be able to show you a counter of the number of journeys, maybe an initial price before we apply any discounts,” Dorgan said.
The changes will also involve a shift in how fares are structured.
Currently, bus fares on Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland’s Dublin routes, for instance, are calculated in “stages” depending on how far the passenger is travelling and varies depending on whether they use a Leap card or cash.
When a Leap card is used for an additional journey within 90 minutes of an initial one, a discount is applied to subsequent fares.
“It’s not always clear to customers in some cases what they’re going to pay when they get on the bus,” Dorgan said.
“If you know your bus service and you know where you’re going and you know the journey you’re doing then you probably know how much you’re going to pay. But if it’s not a bus journey that you’re used to taking, how do you know what you want to pay?”
The revised fare structure will include two rates: a short fare and a 90-minute fare.
“The 90-minute fare will allow you to do as many journeys as you want as long as the last journey starts within 90 minutes of the first journey,” Dorgan said.
“You might do that loads of times during the day and then at the end of the day we’ll look at all your taps and say the best deal for all of the combinations of journeys that you did is this price, so we’re just going to charge you one price for the day rather than charging for individual journeys.”
The NTA expects to introduce the 90-minute fare later this year through Leap cards, meaning that there would be no further charge for additional journeys within the time window, instead of a discounted fare.
“We’re introducing some fare changes in advance because we don’t want to wait until the very end and then big bang, bring everything in,” Dorgan said.
Other early changes are still being tested, but some priorities include a simpler application process for student and child Leap cards and new flexible taxsaver ticket options.
“Typically they would have been monthly or annual tickets. In light of the new world we’re in post-Covid and potentially more people working remotely, we’re introducing flexible versions of those,” Dorgan said.
For example, if you take the equivalent of an annual pass but then figure that that person might be working from home two or three days a week, then we’re doing something like 100 days of travel – a 100 coupon ticket that works on any of the forms of transit, a coupon lasts an entire day, and therefore the 100 days of travel could last you for the entire year – and if you travel more frequently, then you can buy another ticket.”
In London, public transport has largely shifted away from cash.
Transport for London (TfL) buses do not accept cash, and instead, passengers can pay with a contactless card, an Oyster card (similar to a Leap card), or other specific travel cards.
On the London Underground, users can scan their card or a paper ticket at a turnstile and make purchases or top-ups at ticket machines.
Last year, cash payments were suspended from ticket machines in an attempt to reduce the spread of Covid-19, but were reintroduced last month.
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam’s public transport is also largely cashless.
Card machines were introduced on buses and trams from 2016 in a bid to make public transport safer after a series of robberies on board buses, with payment switched to cashless across transport modes over the following years.
Similarly, in Sweden – where card and smartphone payments dominate – most public transport is cash-free.
Dorgan said that the NTA is not in a rush to eliminate cash, but that the planned digital or card payment options could speed up loading times on buses and make the process simpler.
“One of the things that’s a characteristic of the current bus transport system, particularly in Dublin, is that the payment process as you get on the bus can be slow and can be messy,” he said.
“If you’re paying by cash when you get on the bus, that can be slow, or when you tap your card it can be slow, or if you go to the driver and say you want the exact fare, it’s not the quickest process.
“If you’ve ever been waiting to pay the driver and there’s people behind you practically breathing down your neck, it’s not the nicest experience.”
However, no firm date has been set for moving entirely away from cash, with plans to develop infrastructure in the meantime that would avoid problems for people who prefer to pay with coins.
Dorgan said the NTA “will be looking at options to make sure there are alternative payment methods, that we’re not disadvantaging people, that we’re not excluding people because of cash”.
“It could be hugely disadvantageous for people if you happen to live somewhere that’s not near a shop or you don’t have a Leap Card or bank card, which is something we’re conscious of and we don’t want to disadvantage anybody,” he said.
One alternative option, if transport services are accepting QR codes as tickets, would be to sell a QR code on paper from a vending machine or from retailers that people could pay for with cash before boarding.
A common complaint about public transport planning in Ireland is the suggestion that it is slower to adapt and develop systems than other countries – in London, for instance, contactless bank card payment has been available on public transport since 2014.
“There are probably things we can do and it’s probably a valid criticism to say we could move faster,” Dorgan said.
“We are particularly conscious that we’re spending taxpayers’ money here in terms of the supplier and we have to do our due diligence, we have to make sure that we’re going about the process appropriately,” he said.
“There’s various checkpoints where we have to get approval, these are structured processes, and there should be – for big projects and programmes like BusConnects, it does require that there’s a rigorous approach taken.”
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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She hasn’t paid anything towards her mortgage in two and half years…if I’d didn’t Pay my rent tomorrow for December I’d be out on the street for Xmas too.
Two kids, Christmas? What difference a few weeks in the scheme of things?
It’s got feck all to do with Christmas. Shes clearly using the publicity being evicted at Christmas is bringing hoping that the bank/sheriff have a change of heart or want to avoid the negative publicity. If she hasn’t paid rent since 2013 she’s lucky to have stayed in the property for so long. I hope she gets fined for over holding
Exactly no attempts made by her, now she is gone to media..
strange I did not read how she has gone to media
very sensitive about media coverage are some people, whats wrong with highlighting an ordinary families story dealing with the banks? the banks won aren’t you happy???
Highlight ppl who are pushed out of homes… Not those who feel they should get a free one…she made no attempts to pay mortgage, should she be rewarded??
pushed due to unemployment? is that what you mean? or now she has a job its too late banks want their house back plus interest?…im confused
No ciaran, she opted not to engage or pay any money.. If she tried paying 10 euro a week I bet the bank would have had trouble putting her out, but she decided she didn’t need to pay her mortgage..
you don’t know that via this article
Well she hadn’t paid anything since 2013. Think its clear to say she didn’t engage. I have a problem with the headline of this article though. The bank are not evicting her. The house was repossessed because she wasn’t paying anything some time ago. She took it upon herself to re-enter a home she no longer had a right to be in and is being removed from it again. There is a line of thinking among some people who think that just because someone was able to get a mortgage in the past, that they are entitled to the house for free. Get real people. Houses cost money and if you are not willing to pay for it, the real owners of the house (the banks) will find someone who will. As for this woman, if she couldn’t afford the mortgage, she should have handed back the keys long ago and rented somewhere or moved somewhere she can afford. If she has failed to get alternative accommodation at this stage nearly nine months after a repossession order has been given, she is a very silly person indeed.
Confused coz you’re another freeloading waster !!!
No disrespects but there will be an Xmas next year too. She hadn’t paid in 2 years for gods sake.
Dairmuid, if it was an ordinary recession and I was 35 years old I guess I would have agreed with you. The mortgage crisis is one where people have been oversold loans for properties that have become worthless to sell on. When family homes are at stake, when deposits and life savings are wrapped up, and there’s job losses (again due to a catastrophic climate unheard of since the 30′s) so the depression an numbness sets in. Like a rabbit in the headlights it’s hard to know which way your going, especially with kids, and 24 months is not an unheard of timescale in the repossession process. Most people at the beginning of this mess were will to pay and were working all house god sends – but when the Government also makes it hard with taxes and USC to keep your head up, when costs are increasing all around you, its easy to sink, loose your will to live even.
Where I think the Banks are failing (and the judiciary ) is in recognising thing do change, as they clearly have. This verdict is being churlish and short sighted. The banks didn’t behave straight with us, nor came clean with politicians questions, and they had a second chance no problem – so why shouldn’t she? Indeed where is the justice.
We are rewarding failed politicians every day in fact we pay out over 65 million a year to the ones that ruined this country …. this woman or any of us did not get bailed its was the banks and the gamblers …. and then this gov’t passed an illegal bill to give the vultures we bailed more power to put families out of their homes …… shame on the people that think its ok to throw this woman and her children out of their home … we have over 200 thousand children homeless already in this country .. what part of that do people not get .. over 750k living in poverty yet our politicians can turn up in the dail to pass a Fat 6% increase on their already over inflated salary …. its time to cut that gravy train cord …
Not really the bank’s fault here, is it? It’s unfortunate but everyone has to live in reality too.
If she had of engaged with her lender come to an agreement she wouldn’t be out on the street , the bank may have even written off a portion of the loan.
Did the bank offer that option? I doubt it.
Not up to bank to offer Kerry if she can’t be bothered to talk with them even.
Try telling that to Paul Murphy and Ruth coppinger!!!
The sympathy on this site is overwhelming. Is it fair that her children are homeless for Christmas? Do you think she wants to live on the streets with them? Ass-holes on here talking about the ‘real world ‘ have no idea about what that means for some people. Well done to the politicians who promised this behaviour by the banks would be stopped. This shows where the real power lies in this country.
John she was evicted in October, she went back illegally so it’s down to her that it’s so near Christmas now.
What do you suggest the banks do? When someone doesn’t pay their mortgage and won’t even engage with them what are they suppose to do? If they do nothing and let her stay well where does that leave the rest of us? Is it ok if I decide I don’t want to pay my mortgage anymore? Can I stay in my house?
John Judd I am paying a mortgage for myself and did not engage with the bank, no arrears on my account but the bank did not engage with me when they are charging me for the new mortgages at the bank. This was confirmed by the central bank last May in their report available on line. My point is the children are innocent and are victims . They unlike me cannot call the bank to explain why my mortgage contract states I should only pay my own mortgage and nobody else’s . The financial omnibus man await their answer. As I do.
The mother should have moved into rental accommodation prior to now as she has clearly defaulted on her mortgage contract.
so you bought houses for your kids then. put them in their names..you pay the morgages…well good for you.
Yeah but the mothers inaction has caused this not the banks action. If you see the kids as the victim then it’s the mothers fault. Not the banks.
The bank more than likely got paid already, through the securitisation process and they also insure the loan so get paid 3 months after default. Why would you pay someone that got paid already? Also, the banks got bailed out what about the people?!
That is the stupidest comment I have ever read. You clearly live in cloud cuckoo land. I’d expect your logic from a 5 yr old
Securitisation is a FACT. They sell your mortgage on the stock exchange as a bond and therefore get paid. So you are the one living in cloud cuckoo land. Maybe you should do some research before you open your dumb mouth . sheep!
Don’t see any issue here. Time of year is irrelevant especially as she was evicted previously. Headline should read “trespasser/squatter removed from property”
Will the rent-a-crowd from the Gorse Hill episode turn up to help her or do they only turn up at really expensive houses?
She may end up being stuck with the Coppinger mob instead.
There is no issue. She hasn’t paid her mortgage in years. She did not engage with the bank. Clear cut case if there ever was one. This is just the media trying to capitalise on people’s heartstrings for all that sweet click money.
How much was your click worth Timbo?
About Tree Fiddy.
well she didnt pay anything for years, then after a hefty plea from her lawyers was given 6 months to engage with the bank..but didnt. Theres not a landlord in the country could or would do this. She should have copped on after the last court case, and her, probably free legal aid, should have been checking. The whole thing stinks..and not a red cent should be paid to her legal team, they didnt check up on her. I do feel sorry for the kids, and I hope they have family around to help them have a lovely Christmas.
You pay (or in this case the state pays) lawyers to represent you in court, they are not paid to babysit an individual and check that they’re doing what they’re told. If she hadn’t the cop on to engage with the bank that totally down to her. You can’t blame her legal representative.
yes I can..they went back into court for her again..who do you think is paying for this pallava..in fact the legal help she was getting should not have represented her as they knew she had broken a previous court judgement..but what do they care..its just another bill/invoice for us real taxpayers.
So what do they do? Refuse to represent her because she didn’t engage? Everyone is entitled to a defence regardless of what they’ve done.
This woman is to blame and she alone is responsible for the predicament she’s in.
yes. maybe her legal free team could make a qualified argument for the kida..and dont get me wrong, I would wish the best of holidays for the kids..their mum knew what was happenning..she was told, she ignored it..her fault
jane jenni the legal bill like the mortage will follow her around so no public money will no be frittered away like say a 100 million write down for special customers
The taxpayer will foot the bill for this individual through legal aid scheme.
that’s whats wrong with you, you think you know it all, the cost of the legal teams, yes teams, will be added to her bill when the now decently priced house is sold. she will still owe the money yet the banks will get their money back maybe not all they had expected but enough in their mind to warrant the eviction
Three years of arrears and failing to turn up to court? Already evicted and went back anyway? Didn’t make a single application during the 6-month extension she got? What other outcome could be expected?
8 years of arrears. 2007 was the first default and only 2 payments made in that time.
Yep it sounds like she cut off contact when she got into difficulty and, if that’s true, it would never work. Not sure how much different it would have been if she’d engaged with them but it sounds like the situation is past the point of rescue. A real lose-lose situation.
Boo hoo it’s Christmas. So what! Sounds like she should have been out long ago. Shame she did nothing to help herself.
This is what happens when people bury there heads in the sand about stuff like this….. No other course of action she obviously gave the bank the two fingers along time ago…
No word of your man from AAA saying it’s here right not to pay and every F##ker on dole for years should be giving everything for free.
Call in the Coppinger.
I’ve visions of her and murphy dressed up as batman and robin!!!!
Maybe Wally can tap a keyboard and print some money for her..
maybe Kenny can arrange some favourable terms and conditions on her loan
Hear you all. But Christmas is a time for family and home so really if its going on for over 2 years could they not just wait until the festive season is over.
No, time of year is irrelevant
Nope, time has well expired here. She has been living in the property for years without paying a cent and with no engagment. She had her chance to engage and didn’t bother. Only one person at fault here and that is the her.
Emotion has no place in business, Vinnie.
Even her heart felt pleas couldn’t sway the judge. Hopefully she has family to stay with over the Christmas and being around them will make her understand she really couldn’t afford that house.
I’m with you. It is a heart breaker but maybe her and her children sleeping on family/friends couches for the foreseeable (over 3 years on the list?) will do her and her children good…
Charlie, the time of the year doesnt matter certainly when the ‘laws’ of business are put to one side when some failed business entities and not let fail and are instead propped up with public monies!!!!!!??
I kinda get what you are saying Nigel and I am as angry as any about the availability of affordable accommodation but…she dug this hole for herself…
I don’t want to think of how the kids will suffer but her approach to this was kind of silly. Granted we don’t know all the details but she really made a balls of it all by herself. False pride or brazen stupidity it is of her own doing.
Agreed in that she looks to have gone about things the wrong way..youre correct there. My point is in terms of the application of the law and also the rules of free market
wouldn’t pay her way out to be f@cked
cheapest rent in Ireland 7k for 8 years.
Pay your mortgage love.
I dont see any issues here. The time of the year is irrelevant. If I dont pay my rent this month, Ill be kicked out of the property before Christmas too. She had years to engage with the bank and try to sort things out.
It is not unusual for people who are faced with the loss of their home to be paralysed into activity.
In the 1980s, lending institution started sending out mortgage counsellors to distressed borrowers in a proactive way to talk to people in their own homes and proactively to seek early compromises and restoration to compliance where possible.
There are now major problems:-
1. Most distressed borrowers can’t afford legal representation and it takes too long to process civil legal aid applications. The income threshold to qualify for civil legal aid is too low.
2. The Courts are frightening places to those without legal representation.
3. The option of affordable rental properties no longer exists.
4. Social housing is impossible to obtain even for unemployed couples with young children on little or no incomes.
5. Greeting a security deposit and 3 months rent in advance together is impossible.
It is not unusual for houses which are possessed by Court Order being left vacant for longer than 12 months whilst the properties increase in value sold only when property prices increase enough for the lending institution. This adds to the housing shortage.
The entering back into possession was done out of pure desperation.
Totally agree Fiona, and least we forget the Banks, had all the money provided to make the adjustments to assist distressed mortgages, looks more like they’ve just have horded it, or totally refitted all their branches! ! Meanwhile, a huge swath of the population face inordinate stress and oblivion, even if they do engage. Its like talking to people with amnesia.
God what has happened to irish society when we have people changing profile pictures to filters of the French flag but would see there own citizens out on the street in favour of banks who robbed this nation if freedom! It’s sickening and turns my stomach
What happened to people paying their bills, engaging with their lenders? What happened to people showing a good example to their kids, being responsible adults and responsible for their own actions?
Perhaps what happened was the economic crash, the billion(s) dollar bank bail out, and thousands of people losing their jobs through no fault of their own? Followed by years of austerity, double down of taxes, and the roll back of wages/benefits?
Well said gold
its amazing how the number of repo’s for the banks ties in with the housing market upturn in prices
the statistics are uncanny on this
@ West Cork Lad
We cannot possibly put any blame on those banks for giving out 100′s of million € loans to developers as it was the ordinary Irish persons fault 100%-did you not know of this ?
@Suzie
“Well said,Gold”
Well said what,exactly?
This woman probably went into arrears for the first time ever in her life for one of many a reason (look at West Cork Lads post) -Also ,the banks haven’t really be a shining beacon when it comes to engaging with people in the very early years of this bust ..
At least engage your brain ..somebit
“What happened to people paying their bills, engaging with their lenders? What happened to people showing a good example to their kids, being responsible adults and responsible for their own actions?”
id hate to think this country will be full of kids raised by parents like you and your ilk, do you need reminding of what happened and how people were sacrificed so the banks could be kept going?
ff/fg/lab have decided who they will back when push came to shove
Frank , I’m well aware … The woman didn’t even engage with the courts , she did not even try to seek any advise , there was help there for her , even if it wasn’t from the banks . you can’t just live for free for 8 years .
This case does a disservice and detracts from genuine unjust cases of couples struggling to keep up mortgage payments to callous banksters who’d rather they’d default so that they can repossess and resell.
Can not both sides come to an arrangement via insolvency…or something like that?
Would the outcome not have been the same if she went insolvent? Wouldn’t she have to give up her home regardless?
She probably won’t have any debt following her out of this as I’m sure the bank will sell the house for at least the outstanding mortgage value.
Her credit rating isn’t going to be great though for the foreseeable.
I think you’ll find she’s had 8 free Christmases since 2007!
She refused to engage for years , she may not be in this state if she worked with them from the beginning .
Yeah Suzie because the banks are such understanding folk…….
If you talk with them Kerry, you’ll find that they will assist.
Kerry , makes no odds , you still can’t ignore them for 8 years.
I know things can be hard & with kids but 3 years with out paying a mortgage you think you could save some thing, if not I m sure you could get help if your are homeless with kids as bad as things are I don’t think the council would turn you away.
Fg force is all over this, enjoy evictions much or does it depend?
With so many “honest thieves” in this country (et hem) it seems disingenuous to hold this woman/family as the poster children of greed. There are far, far, better clowns out there in a race to the bottom for this award, including, ironically, many bankers. Ironic is it not? Her circumstance and theirs is a result of the absence of sound public policy.
Any pictures of her? Might let her stay at my gaf.
Knuckle draggers are out tonight! Same crew different story
It time like this we see which side people are on… I for one admire her fight and courage.
Any attempt to pay something is a good thing . But to totally ignore it is simply stupid
Hold the phone, this country has a sheriff!?
Tell her to get to the hub. They will help her
Hello,
My name is Amanda Flinch, I was struggling with funds and in need 0f a quick loan of 18,000 euro to settle my debts and I tried everything I can think of and couldn’t seem to find any other way of getting the money because I had a bad credit and the bank wouldn’t answer to my cries. To God be the glory I just got my loan today December 29th in my banking account by the help of John Michael from ACE LOAN SERVICE (aceloanservices@hotmail.com), a loan company, after applying 3 weeks ago. I was directed to him by a friend after I was scammed of my hard earned. Initially, I needed a sum of 9,000 euro but after several scammers took money from me, I was left in a bigger debt in the period of 7 months but today I can boldly and proudly say I have paid the debts and I assure you out there looking for a loan to contact him he is a real and a legitimate lender. aceloanservices@hotmail.com
They are legit and honest and I promise myself to help those in need of a loan and also to expose those people who take advantage of our defenseless situation. contact Mr John now on aceloanservices@hotmail.com
Thank you.
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