Faulty bus/rail ticket

miss choc

I have one of those annual bus/rail tickets for the DART/Bus. I was using it the other day on a bus I put it through the usual way on the validator/card reader and it started beeping showed the driver my ticket and thought nothing more of it. However on the Dart next day it wouldnt let me through the turnstiles and is gone faulty now due to the dodgy card reader on that bus :mad:
I also keep my card separate in a wallet away from magnetic cards so I know it wasnt my fault. Now I have to try and get to Dublin bus office all the way from Dun Laoghaire during my lunch hour as I cant get to the office for the following two Saturdays Grr. I there any way they can post out your new ticket and I can send the faulty one back and is the Dublin Bus office the only place I can get a new one. This has happened before with their validators messing up my ticket really annoys me :rolleyes:

spurious

I think you have to go in, sorry.
I'm on my second replacement annual card this year and like you, keep my card in its wallet away from anything that might cause it problems. I wonder were they a faulty batch.

markpb

Would an Irish Rail ticket office be able to re-issue it? They'll probably say no but it's worth asking.

Rawr

I used to have that problem from time to time with the monthly Bus & Rail ticket. It seemed to happen especially with the Student Bus & Rail monthly pass, back when I was using it.

It is very annoying when it happens, that you have to show the ticket to the driver every time and get the manual gate opened for you by station staff (if any) every time as well. It destroys part of the handiness of having a season pass.

What used to annoy me, was the reluctance of IE staff (or at least those I have dealt with) to actually replace the ticket. Near the end of a month this wasn't an issue, I was getting a new on soon anyway, but thanks to Murphy's Law, when it did fail it would do so at the beginning of the month.

I would approach ticket staff with said ticket and my CIE ID and ask nicely if they would reprint it. Staff at Connolly would sometimes do it, no problem, but you would get a few who would insist that you had to go the station in which it was bought. Unfortunately for me, that was often Leixlip Louisa Bridge and the staff there 'didn't know how to' or would simply say 'no'. Sometimes they'd even pass the buck back to Connolly.

I don't know if that's the same situation across the network. For the OP, I hope not and that the Yearly pass can be replaced easily. A month with a bad card is annoying, but a year with one is just nasty.

Good luck Miss Choc.

Victor

Its seems that there are a lot of failures with annual tickets especially.

miss choc

luckilly I have a day off on Friday so will head into Lower Abbey Street to change it. Seemingly the validators on Dublin bus are old and they can easily mess up your ticket they are "eventually" going to phase those card readers out and get in those new smart ticket validators will probably take 10 years :rolleyes:
The Uk have such a good electronic system called the Oyster card where you can store up to £90 worth on it and use it for trams, tubes, buses and other rail services and it can be topped up electronically Ireland has a bit of catching up to do

markpb

miss choc wrote: »

luckilly I have a day off on Friday so will head into Lower Abbey Street to change it. Seemingly the validators on Dublin bus are old and they can easily mess up your ticket they are "eventually" going to phase those card readers out and get in those new smart ticket validators will probably take 10 years :rolleyes:

It started months ago. All the buses operating out of the Sumerhill depot already have smartcard validators and all annual tickets, staff tickets and taxsaver monthly tickets have smartcards fitted.

The Uk have such a good electronic system called the Oyster card where you can store up to £90 worth on it and use it for trams, tubes, buses and other rail services and it can be topped up electronically Ireland has a bit of catching up to do

Only London uses the Oyster card at the moment. There's talk of extending it but it hasn't really happened yet.

KC61

miss choc wrote: »

luckilly I have a day off on Friday so will head into Lower Abbey Street to change it. Seemingly the validators on Dublin bus are old and they can easily mess up your ticket they are "eventually" going to phase those card readers out and get in those new smart ticket validators will probably take 10 years :rolleyes:
The Uk have such a good electronic system called the Oyster card where you can store up to £90 worth on it and use it for trams, tubes, buses and other rail services and it can be topped up electronically Ireland has a bit of catching up to do

With annual passes it's better not to use the validator on the buses - I usually only show it to the driver unless asked to use the validator - otherwise I doubt you'll ever get a full year out of the ticket. Drivers do have a button on their console to enter a pass.

Victor

Dublin Bus want all tickets recorded so that they can accurately report ot the Department.

Heart

luckilly I have a day off on Friday so will head into Lower Abbey Street to change it. Seemingly the validators on Dublin bus are old and they can easily mess up your ticket they are "eventually" going to phase those card readers out and get in those new smart ticket validators will probably take 10 years

All buses in Summerhill & Clontarf (and currently in the process of converting Phibsboro) have smart card readers above the current validators.

All annual passes can be swiped here rather than put then into the validator, give it a try if you see one of these on your bus, its above the validator, grey in colour with a yellow surround, the screen will read 'present card'.

paulm17781

Heart wrote: »

All annual passes can be swiped here rather than put then into the validator, give it a try if you see one of these on your bus, its above the validator, grey in colour with a yellow surround, the screen will read 'present card'.

Is that in use yet? I'm yet to see it but had heard about it. I didn't know they actually worked.

KC61

Victor wrote: »

Dublin Bus want all tickets recorded so that they can accurately report ot the Department.

They may well do Victor, but realistically no annual ticket will survive going into those validators every day over an entire year. And in particular the IÉ originating tickets that cover buses, as they have a scanned photo embedded into them which gets destroyed if put through the bus validators.

In Connolly there is actually an official sign directing annual pass holders to use the manual gate. As long as the fact that a pass is recorded on the machine by manual intervention, the journey is recorded. That's what happens on any Bus Éireann trip too I may add, given the lack of validators.

Until they all have a chip in them (and Irish Rail created tickets don't), there isn't really any other option if you want the ticket to survive.

daheff

KC61 wrote: »

And in particular the IÉ originating tickets that cover buses, as they have a scanned photo embedded into them which gets destroyed if put through the bus validators.

.

its not just the bus validators that wreck the IE photos...mine has been blurred/worn away from using the ticket machines in Connolly

markf909

Do only the DB issued tickets have the smart card bit?

My missus has the yellow ticket with a chip visible when help up to the light.
I've got the Irish Rail issued (but valid on DB) ticket with the picture but no visible chip in it.

Polar101

Heart wrote: »

All annual passes can be swiped here rather than put then into the validator, give it a try if you see one of these on your bus, its above the validator, grey in colour with a yellow surround, the screen will read 'present card'.

I've seen quite a few "readers", but they've always been "NOT IN SERVICE" or similar. And I don't even know if my IE bus/rail annual ticket is supposed to work with them (I am assuming not since it doesn't exactly look like a smart card).

markpb

Polar101 wrote: »

I've seen quite a few "readers", but they've always been "NOT IN SERVICE" or similar. And I don't even know if my IE bus/rail annual ticket is supposed to work with them (I am assuming not since it doesn't exactly look like a smart card).

They should look exactly the same because they can be validated using magstripe as well. There'll be a small swirl logo in the middle, on the right if it's a contactless card.

rx8

The new generation of tickets,both monthly and annual, all have a chip built-in.
These will work on the new scanners or in the current validators.
The advantage of the new scanners is that you won't have to take your card out of your wallet, similar to oyster-card system.

Hotblack Desiato

KC61 wrote: »

With annual passes it's better not to use the validator on the buses - I usually only show it to the driver unless asked to use the validator - otherwise I doubt you'll ever get a full year out of the ticket. Drivers do have a button on their console to enter a pass.

But then you have to queue up behind the "where does this bus go to" crowd and the oul' wans rooting for 2c in the bottom of their handbag, when you're supposed to have priority boarding with a prepaid ticket.

KC61

ninja900 wrote: »

But then you have to queue up behind the "where does this bus go to" crowd and the oul' wans rooting for 2c in the bottom of their handbag, when you're supposed to have priority boarding with a prepaid ticket.

Not at all - I get on the righthand side and flash my pass to the driver - generally they just key it in - as I say he/she just needs to hit a button on the console.

mikedragon32

+1 for that.

My ticket hasn't worked on the buses at all! With the exception of one ignorant inspector at the Airport who expected me to know why my ticket wasn't working on the Airlink, I've had no worries at all.

Last year my wife's ticket never worked at all on the buses and stopped working on the DART after April!

KC61

markf909 wrote: »

Do only the DB issued tickets have the smart card bit?

My missus has the yellow ticket with a chip visible when help up to the light.
I've got the Irish Rail issued (but valid on DB) ticket with the picture but no visible chip in it.

It's just the DB issued tickets that have the chip.

The IÉ issued tickets with embedded photos do not have a chip, so tickets such as the annual IÉ all services and DB, annual point to point IÉ with DB, or the annual CIÉ all services (i.e. IÉ, DB and Bus Éireann) will not work with the DB smartcard readers.

rx8

ninja900 wrote: »

But then you have to queue up behind the "where does this bus go to" crowd and the oul' wans rooting for 2c in the bottom of their handbag, when you're supposed to have priority boarding with a prepaid ticket.

The pre-paid ticket is to enable the holder to board in a quick efficient manner without having to worry about using cash!
It is not a queue skipping card, or a priority boarding card! You get a discount also for using this card,so you are not paying a priority boarding fee.
Just try skipping up from the backof the queue, waving your ticket,at a busy stop and see what happens !!

KC61

rx8 wrote: »

The pre-paid ticket is to enable the holder to board in a quick efficient manner without having to worry about using cash!
It is not a queue skipping card, or a priority boarding card! You get a discount also for using this card,so you are not paying a priority boarding fee.
Just try skipping up from the backof the queue, waving your ticket,at a busy stop and see what happens !!

Exactly...the queue does however split into two - one on the left paying with cash and one on the right with prepaid tickets.

I certainly don't jump the queue!!!

Hotblack Desiato

rx8 wrote: »

It is not a queue skipping card, or a priority boarding card!

In effect it is, as the queue on the right always moves much faster. This can mean getting a seat instead of standing, or maybe even getting on the bus rather than being left behind. Proper order, given the delays and costs and security risks associated with needlessly handling cash.