Problems with Annual Rail Ticket

ecom

Sometime 2 weeks ago my annual ticket stopped working in the ticket machines at all the stations I use. I initially presumed that my ticket was damaged somehow and have resigned myself to the hassle of showing it to an Irish Rail employee each time now until its due for renewal in 6 months.

However I have spoken to a couple of people since who have told me their annual ticket stopped working also in the last few weeks.

At the stations I'm told that it must be a damaged ticket, but now I'm beginning to wonder if the problem lies with their machines. There were problems in the early days of the machines at Connolly and Pearse stations.

Has anyone else experienced this recently?

It's not a big issue, just a bit of an inconvenience!

godtabh

ecom wrote: »

Sometime 2 weeks ago my annual ticket stopped working in the ticket machines at all the stations I use. I initially presumed that my ticket was damaged somehow and have resigned myself to the hassle of showing it to an Irish Rail employee each time now until its due for renewal in 6 months.

However I have spoken to a couple of people since who have told me their annual ticket stopped working also in the last few weeks.

At the stations I'm told that it must be a damaged ticket, but now I'm beginning to wonder if the problem lies with their machines. There were problems in the early days of the machines at Connolly and Pearse stations.

Has anyone else experienced this recently?

It's not a big issue, just a bit of an inconvenience!

Cant you get it replaced?

ecom

kearnsr wrote: »

Cant you get it replaced?

I didnt ask but I'm sure I could. Problem is getting to their office on Abbey Street during working hours. Thats not so easy!

KC61

ecom wrote: »

I didnt ask but I'm sure I could. Problem is getting to their office on Abbey Street during working hours. Thats not so easy!

That office is now closed, and has moved to Connolly Station.

The taxsaver office is now through the door to the right at the junction of Sheriff Street and Amiens Street looking from the other side of Amiens Street.

ecom

KC61 wrote: »

That office is now closed, and has moved to Connolly Station.

The taxsaver office is now through the door to the right at the junction of Sheriff Street and Amiens Street looking from the other side of Amiens Street.

thats great! thanks for that info. makes things so much easier

Africa

Ha! Was it you that got their article in the Metro this morning?? :P

but yeah, my mate is having problems with this as well. So i shall tell him to do the same

thanks!

MOH

ecom wrote: »

Sometime 2 weeks ago my annual ticket stopped working in the ticket machines at all the stations I use. I initially presumed that my ticket was damaged somehow and have resigned myself to the hassle of showing it to an Irish Rail employee each time now until its due for renewal in 6 months.

However I have spoken to a couple of people since who have told me their annual ticket stopped working also in the last few weeks.

At the stations I'm told that it must be a damaged ticket, but now I'm beginning to wonder if the problem lies with their machines. There were problems in the early days of the machines at Connolly and Pearse stations.

Has anyone else experienced this recently?

It's not a big issue, just a bit of an inconvenience!

It happens regularly, due to the poor quality of the tickets, though they'll never admit that. My gf had to change hers four times in about 3 months last year. Various explantions she was given for why it was her fault ranged from keeping it too near mobiles, bank cards, etc to her having too strong a personal magnetic field :rolleyes:

Polar101

I use my Irish rail annual bus/rail mostly on buses, the Dublin Bus readers tend to eat the ticket for breakfast every few months - doesn't really matter what I do, but the ticket just doesn't last a full year. This year's ticket only lasted a week before it stopped working.

"Wrong Side Up" (or "Turn Card Over" on buses).

Propellerhead

I've had an annual rail/luas ticket for the last three years, and it's up for renewal at the end of this month. Always it has to be replaced part of the way through the year, and a major part of the problem is that the tickets are placed wet/freshly printed into a clear plastic wallet by the careless eejits in the ticket office. The ink bleeds off the ticket and onto the wallet, so it is no wonder that the damn thing malfunctions.

This time I'm only renewing the rail element - I now only use the Luas from Heuston to Jervis so I'm clawing back some of the money stolen off me by the government in the increased levy by walking instead.

The ticket ends up a few hundred euro cheaper then.

The off licences in Newry look even better now for my business :pac:

dereko1969

had various train and bus tickets over the last 6 years and never had to change one.

CJackson

Started my new annual pass last friday(Heuston). Wouldn't work that day or tuesday but seems to be ok now:)

godtabh

I'm on my third annual ticket and not a bother

patrickmooney

I've always had issues. My current started in April and broke within 3 weeks. So I'm on my second in two months

Victor

Heuston is a (mostly technical) problem for the moment. Part of the problem is getting used to things.

A lot of problems seem to arise immediately after using a Dublin Bus ticket machine.

Smart cards are expected by the end of the year and this should sort most problems. The known problems with the Smart Cards are (a) they won't work if you present more than one card at a time, i.e. if you swipe you wallet with several cards in it (b) they won't work through a cartain thickness of material, eg. if you have the card in purse with lots of coins.

L1011

Victor wrote: »

(a) they won't work if you present more than one card at a time, i.e. if you swipe you wallet with several cards in it

My Luas card works perfectly well whilst in my wallet with another RFID card (work door card) and a stack of mag/chip cards.

However, add a Travel 90 smartcard to the mix and the bus ALWAYS picks up the Luas card first and rejects it! Luas doesn't seem to see the DB one, might be weaker.

markpb

MYOB wrote: »

My Luas card works perfectly well whilst in my wallet with another RFID card (work door card) and a stack of mag/chip cards.

Door access cards and transit cards aren't the same type of card which is why they don't interfere. Transit cards are contactless smartcards, not RFID. Magstripe and chip cards aren't contactless so they can't interfere.

patrickmooney

My Luas Smart Card won't work if my Oyster Card is my wallet at the same time. They appear to interfer with one another. Have to take my luas card out.

Victor

MYOB wrote: »

However, add a Travel 90 smartcard to the mix and the bus ALWAYS picks up the Luas card first and rejects it! Luas doesn't seem to see the DB one, might be weaker.

Most travel smart cards operate to a common standard and only one will be accepted at once to prevent both being charged at the same time.

Luas card readers know when you present a Dublin Bus card, but don't know what it is.

L1011

markpb wrote: »

Door access cards and transit cards aren't the same type of card which is why they don't interfere. Transit cards are contactless smartcards, not RFID. Magstripe and chip cards aren't contactless so they can't interfere.

They're all using the same basic technology, in the same unlicensed frequency bands. My door access card is a 'contactless smart card' just the same as a Luas/DB one and should the Luas/DB cards be removed from my wallet the door reader doesn't need anywhere near as close contact to activate.

"RFID" has become (slightly incorrectly) used as the term to cover all forms of contactless radio identification of an item, be it a bus smart card, a toll tag, or an actual RFID tag on a product in a warehouse. Using that meaning, transit cards are most certainly RFID, as are radio door cards.

ecom

sorry to bring this up again....in the end and just a few weeks ago I went to the Irish Rail office near Connolly and had my ticket replaced.

It worked fine for a few weeks until this week. Again its now doing the same thing when you put it into the machine....it pops in and out for a few seconds before being rejected.

Yesterday I asked one of the staff if this was happening to others and he said yes they are waiting for the machines to be updated.

This morning I deliberately went over to the machine that is manned because I knew the card wouldnt work. Staff member was off chatting to someone so I had to wait a minute or so before I could get out of the station! Kinda frustrating.

Looks like I will again have to go out of my way to get the card replaced.
Is anyone here experiencing the same?

Ste.phen

patrickmooney wrote: »

My Luas Smart Card won't work if my Oyster Card is my wallet at the same time. They appear to interfer with one another. Have to take my luas card out.

I keep a travel 90 in one side of my wallet, and the Luas card in the other, then open the wallet and touch the appropriate side against the reader. Like a ninja.

mandz

Yeah my new annual ticket is doing the same. I lost my ticket back in May which I never had any issues with but my new one has given me probs. I just wave it as I walk through the supervised machine as I couldn't be bothered getting it redone as its up in September. A girl that used to work with me had awful trouble with her ticket, had to have it fixed/replaced four times within a couple of months and of course she was been blamed for it not working. Its quite irritating!!

jasonbourme.cs

got an annual taxsaver bus and rail ticket ( issued by dublin bus ) at the start of this month , it wont work in any of the stations with the new automated validation machines , works fine on bus and no problem at all in the old machines has anyone else come across this issue ?



how do you go about getting tickets replaced ?