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A PLANNED 20% fare reduction currently being rolled out across the country’s transport network can’t be implemented by Dublin Bus any sooner than next month as on-board fare machines each need to be manually recalibrated.
The fare reduction, announced with much fanfare by the government earlier this year, is being rolled out on some bus services outside Dublin from Monday.
Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan announced in February the Government’s decision to reduce fares on public transport services by 20% until the end of 2022. A target of April or early May was given for all of the changes to take effect.
Some had questioned why the changes were taking so long to come into effect.
Due to the mounting pressure on Government to come up with new and innovative measures to ease the cost of living burden, it’s understood there’s also some frustration within Government as to why the discount can’t be brought in sooner.
The National Transport Authority has been working with public transport operators over the last number of weeks to roll out the fare reductions.
The Journal has learned the fare reductions cannot be passed on immediately to Dublin Bus customers due to the need for upgrades to on-board machines. Every ticket machine in every bus has to be manually recalibrated and updated with the fare change, it is understood.
The equipment that deals with fares is “really old” said one source. “There’s no button you can press on a computer that updates them overnight.”
A technical file update is sent from headquarters to bring in the change through the system, but each machine on every bus and ticketing machine needs to upload it.
It is believed Ryan wanted to have the measure in place much sooner but that issues with the machines mean the reductions can’t be rolled out before next month.
The 20% reduction in fares across all Irish Rail, Dart and Luas services will also kick in in May. It’s understood a decision was made to introduce all of these changes around the same time in a bit to present the public with a greater degree of consistency.
Sources state the “interoperability” of the fare system across bus, train and tram in Dublin city requires extensive testing that must be carried out to ensure all systems have integrated the fare change before it is rolled out in May.
They added that it is “most complicated fare change since the launch of the Leap card”, given that there are different groups getting discounts on top of the overall reduction being rolled out.
Dublin Bus directed The Journal to the NTA for comment on the matter.
A spokesperson said the implementation of the fares reduction got under way underway 1 April, adding that it was never the case that all fares were to be reduced at same time.
All changes are on schedule, they said.
On the issue of updating the machines with the fare reductions and the time it takes to do so, the spokesperson said:
“It is a laborious process, that takes time to complete but we’ve always been clear on that.”
Updating the ticketing system is more straightforward when it comes to rail services, as there are only a certain number of machines at each station. However it’s expected that in order to be consistent all Dublin Bus and rail systems in the capital will change their fares on the same date in May.
The NTA spokesperson said they did not know whether some in Government had hoped the fare reductions could be brought in sooner, but said that that NTA had “been at pains not to build up expectations that it could be expedited to any great extent”.
“We’re on schedule to meet that deadline, and in fact we are ahead of it for a lot of services.
“From Monday next, all subsidised services operated by Bus Eireann and all services on our Local Link routes in rural areas will see a 20% fare cut,” they said.
A spokesperson for the minister said the first phase of fare reductions already kicked in on 1 April, with 20% already being taken off the ‘tax saver’ fare.
The second phase of reductions, which will see 20% taken off fares for public service operators such as Bus Eireann outside of Dublin will be rolled out “very shortly”, they said.
Ryan and his officials are currently finalising new measures that will help tackle rising costs with a hope they can be signed off by Cabinet next week.
However, there is concern within Government that there is a need to manage the public’s expectations as to what might be announced next week, with sources stating that it won’t go far enough to cushion the blow of rising costs for everyone.
Any further reductions in public transport fares would likely happen in the Budget in October and not next week, sources have indicated.
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Seems to me that whenever they have put the fares up the machines are recalibrated fairly quickly. But for a fare reduction it takes months?
@Dave Cunningham: A fare enough comment…
@Dave Cunningham: Look at the Government budgets increases can be made at midnight on anything they tax but takes 6 months too drop down. It’ll be the same now with fuel and electricity companies with and see.
@Dave Cunningham: Fare roses are announced well in advance I thought. Maybe people are less patient with a fare reduction.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: the last fare increase was announced two weeks before the fare change came into effect. This reduction was announced in February.
@Dave Cunningham: computer says no!!!!
@Dave Cunningham: The plan had been in place for much longer and the schedule worked out for the entire fleet of vehicles.
@Dave Cunningham: It was announced to the public with two weeks notice, but the company would probably have been advised several weeks earlier. The normal public notice for fare changes is four weeks, which would mean 6-8 weeks for the company to do this work.
@Dave Cunningham: fare increases are announced months before they go up, so machines are done in the same amount of time
Refund all stamp duty. Hard pressed people using credit cards get something back. Reduce tolls on roads. There is no political will to help ordinary working people.
@ZPaul MacOireachtaigh: there never has been
@ZPaul MacOireachtaigh: Are there any extraordinary working people?
They’ve known about this initiative for months, there are no excuses, get it done. Under no circumstances can the fare on a TFI bus operated by Go Ahead be lower than an equivalent journey on a TFI bus operated by Dublin Bus. Its a nonsense, fix it.
@Eoin Roche: under no ….. it’s gonna happen
@Eoin Roche: They dont do the same journey and Go ahead has a lot of old Dublin Buses so they are in the same situation.
@Eoin Roche: The GoAhead fares that are changing ahead of the Dublin Bus fares are those for the regional commuter routes to Kildare and Offaly, not for Dublin City. Those fares will all change at the same time.
Bring in debt card payment though and with smartphone interaction like the rest of Europe.
With a country as rich and as well of as us it’s embarrassing for tourists to see the state of our transport (luas quite good though)
@alan scott: The NTA are currently slowly bringing this through a Next Generation Ticketing project but the government dragged their heels with approving the preliminary business case that all capital projects need. Contract is due to be awarded in 2023 and rolled out in 2024.
@alan scott: When I came to Ireland I found it strange that they would not give change and that they only accept coins on busses. Would they accept up to € 20 bills and give change it would be much more convenient already.
@Inno Items: Back in the 1990s there was a significant number of violent attacks on bus drivers across the city to rob the cash they had. A large number of drivers were out sick as a result, and hence for health and safety reasons the autofare system was introduced whereby no change was given.
@alan scott: Freudian slip- “debt card”?
Scrap the machines and replace them with modern ones that can take contactless and google pay etc .
@gavin o brien: at a cost of 200 billion
@gavin o brien: Wouldn’t that still take time? Be handy all right.
It’s positive first step to be actually reducing fares, but the sooner they bring public transport fares down to as close to free as possible the better for everyone and the environment
@EsperAnto: Maybe when busses run on fresh air and they get built by baby unicorns that fall out of the huge money tree growing in the front garden of Leinster House. Any day now.
@LaoisWeather: Might not cost that much, would increase use of the service, eliminate delays in paying fares and would probably be a net benefit to the country. Not a completely insane financial plan, compared to some of the schemes proposed in the Journal comments section.
Michael has the spanner, but he’s in Finland.
If only we had wireless technology……
@Jim Buckley Barrett: How much money will that cost to put on every bus. How long would it take and what to do with the system been designed for the entire transport sector if you got in a stand alone system for Dublin.
Welcome to the 19th century…
@Paul Shepherd: I wish, these changes were implemented faster in the 19th century.
Surely that’s a huge reason for the running costs of DB. If they can’t change fares, read onboarding, cash takes etc remotely
Our beloved Country is run by the public sector. They have us all, by the proverbials. Each government struggles with them, akin to the previous religious order. The pension pot is the latent fiscal bomb that no one wants to address. The war for Ireland isn’t a foreign one, its civil. We need to stop this ‘wait till your pension attitude’, allow for forced redundancies, stop promoting based on longevity and reward those who aspire.
@Charlie Brown: Of course it’s run by the public sector, would you prefer it to be privatised?
What a load of bull surely the machines are all computerised and connected to a central hub. This statement saying they have to be manually adjusted beggers belief.
@Orla Cosgrave: Unless they’re actually not connected and do need to be adjuted manually.
What bs
The National Transport Authority has spent millions on consultants for so-called next generation ticketing that can’t even accept TAP payments
WTF
Another failure for our beloved sleepy Eamo. The lad is a gift that keeps on giving.
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