Bus fares going up today

BOHtox

OldNotWIse wrote: »

Student grants are means tested, means they do not get anything more than they are due. A grant (even the maximum one) is only the tip of the iceberg if you consider how much education actually costs. I'm not complaining - its a good investment (and I am a student who is not on a grant by the way, it doesnt bother me). Will you still be complaining when this person is earning big bucks and paying the higher tax rate?

I'm a student and work over 20 hours a week as well as being in college for over 20 hours a week. When this semester is over this friday, I'll be doing around 30. There's a way to go about college. Complaining that they don't have enough free money isn't it! But it's not just the poster in question, it's a problem with most students. I know students who use their grant money to session and go out!

OldNotWIse

BOHtox wrote: »

I'm a student and work over 20 hours a week as well as being in college for over 20 hours a week. When this semester is over this friday, I'll be doing around 30. There's a way to go about college. Complaining that they don't have enough free money isn't it! But it's not just the poster in question, it's a problem with most students. I know students who use their grant money to session and go out!

Free money? If you want to have a pop at people about free money there are plenty of other places you can start.

I work forty hours a week. I am in college four nights a week and every second saturday. Thats not including study/assignment time. There are plenty of people doing it the way we are. Doesnt give us the upper hand, or the right to have a go at others for receiving "free money". As I said, its means tested, and its only the tip of the iceberg.

Since we're resorting to the "I know this person" mode of debate, I know a guy from college, a good friend who could not have gone were it not for his grant. He came from literally nothing. I lived with him in first year and his staple diet was noodles and a share in the wrap ups that my ol' reliable Dad used to send down. He never used his grant money for drink. He's now on a six figure sum and you can bet your rear end that he has more than paid back what he got in tax.. He will pay more tax in his life than a lot of us.

kylith

BOHtox wrote: »

Get a job so. It's my taxes you're giving out about. To you, it's free money. I can't believe someone is giving out that their 'free money only gets me to college with 30% left over".

BOHtox

OldNotWIse wrote: »

Free money? If you want to have a pop at people about free money there are plenty of other places you can start.

I work forty hours a week. I am in college four nights a week and every second saturday. Thats not including study/assignment time. There are plenty of people doing it the way we are. Doesnt give us the upper hand, or the right to have a go at others for receiving "free money". As I said, its means tested, and its only the tip of the iceberg.

He's giving out about his grant only paying for 70% of his bus card a month.
I know there's a ton of welfare that I'd cut in a second! Communion allowance being the first!
I sure as hell don't envy that workload but I certainly applaud it! It does give us the upper hand though. An employer would much rather someone who is used to having worked 50 hours a week, work and college, over someone who posts memes on the internet justifying why people are unemployed

kylith wrote: »

Took me about 6 months to a year to get one, personally.
But they are out there. Especially for students looking for part time work.

OldNotWIse

BOHtox wrote: »

He's giving out about his grant only paying for 70% of his bus card a month.
I know there's a ton of welfare that I'd cut in a second! Communion allowance being the first!
I sure as hell don't envy that workload but I certainly applaud it! It does give us the upper hand though. An employer would much rather someone who is used to having worked 50 hours a week, work and college, over someone who posts memes on the internet justifying why people are unemployed



Took me about 6 months to a year to get one, personally.
But they are out there. Especially for students looking for part time work.

A communion allowance? I've officially heard it all Really?? :mad:

BOHtox

OldNotWIse wrote: »

A communion allowance? I've officially heard it all Really?? :mad:

Unfortunately so. It subsidises communion and confirmation clothing. Why they can't do it in their uniform and wear fancy clothes around the house at the party afterwards I do not know.

NegativeCreep

BOHtox wrote: »

He's giving out about his grant only paying for 70% of his bus card a month.
I know there's a ton of welfare that I'd cut in a second! Communion allowance being the first!
I sure as hell don't envy that workload but I certainly applaud it! It does give us the upper hand though. An employer would much rather someone who is used to having worked 50 hours a week, work and college, over someone who posts memes on the internet justifying why people are unemployed



Took me about 6 months to a year to get one, personally.
But they are out there. Especially for students looking for part time work.

Oh I'm not complaining really. It's just annoying that the majority of my grant is going on this lousy ticket. there's other college things I have to get which aren't cheap either.
And I am looking for a job. It's just not happening at the minute :L

Gavin "shels"

NegativeCreep wrote: »

And I am looking for a job. It's just not happening at the minute :L

To put it bluntly, the Retails Assiocation of Ireland said 2 weeks ago they've failed to fill nearly 30,000 seasonal jobs this year, if you've found it hard to get a job in November/December (when places cry out for staff) you'll find it harder come January!

Recently sent a letter to the Government with regards to grants, all grants should be based on which college course a person does along with means testing. Myself and BOXtoh both do a fairly intense college course, and neither get a grant so HAVE to work, while I know people who have 15 hours of college a week and get a grant so couldn't be bothered going about getting a job when their course allows them a lot more flexibilty than us.

Miguel_Sanchez

Gavin shels wrote: »

Well you're meant to state your stop not fare?

I never do that. Just tell them the fare amount and that's it.

tomboylady

When they brought in the leap card first they urged people to state their stop and not the fare. Which I did for about a week. Then two separate bus drivers told me that it was easier for them if I just stated the fare so that's what I do now again. I'll only state the stop or where I'm going if I'm not sure how much the fare should be.

ibarelycare

Gavin shels wrote: »

http://www.herald.ie/news/free-trips-for-leap-card-users-3321385.html

That's a good initiative. I don't use the leap card though, I get 4 buses a day so it's far cheaper for me to buy the €115 (€125 in the new year :mad:) 30 non-consecutive day ticket.


What routes are the new buses on? Haven't seen any of them yet.

GLaDOS

I always state the fare, sometimes they'll ask where I'm heading to, but they're not going to give out to you for it!

LXFlyer

ibarelycare wrote: »

That's a good initiative. I don't use the leap card though, I get 4 buses a day so it's far cheaper for me to buy the €115 (€125 in the new year :mad:) 30 non-consecutive day ticket.


What routes are the new buses on? Haven't seen any of them yet.

The new buses are on the 1, 4, 7, 7b, 7d, 8, 29a, 33, 33a, 102, 104, 151 but may float onto other routes as well. That's totally different though from the fare capping that the article refers to.

The fare capping has yet to be implemented - basically the maximum people will be charged will be the equivalent 1 day ticket price.

dfx-

ibarelycare wrote: »

What routes are the new buses on? Haven't seen any of them yet.

Off-side or from the front/back, they're very alike the slightly older familiar 'VG' type (2009) to most people. The centre-door side is the real obvious difference.

i hate picking usernames

Kinda unrelated but does anyone know if those change receipt things run out after a certain amount of time? I have piles of them that have built up over the last few months but I don't know if I'd need to have exchanged them ages ago or not

Mr.Saturn

i hate picking usernames wrote: »

Kinda unrelated but does anyone know if those change receipt things run out after a certain amount of time? I have piles of them that have built up over the last few months but I don't know if I'd need to have exchanged them ages ago or not

Not that I know of, as my other half cashed hers in that'd built up over the course of a year. This was in 2010, so I can't vouch for it all that much currently. They've got a receipt-donation bucket beside the counter too, I vaguely recall, so you'll feel like a right miser for striding by it and taking the pennies.

Anyone have any idea what the 83A does that the 83 doesn't? From the little I've seen of it on both ends of the route, it follows the same route as the 83, and curiosity is only heightened by the fact there's no record of it on any bus stop timetables, besides the real-time updater, and nothing on it at all on dublinbus.ie. It's weird seeing a new route introduced, considering the number of services that've been culled or amalgamated over the last couple of years.

Think_then_talk

Route 83a via Tolka Estate,

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/83/

kylith

BOHtox wrote: »

Took me about 6 months to a year to get one, personally.
But they are out there. Especially for students looking for part time work.

Oh yeah, it took me 6 months to get a job, then I was made redundant again after 3. So now I'm trying to decide whether it's better to show a job for only 3 months, or to leave it out so that rather than having 6 months unemployed, then three months work, then another 6 months unemployed it'd look like I've been unemployed for 15 months.

My point being; it's not as easy as just saying "Get a job". Maybe it is over Christmas if you're ok with part time work for a couple of weeks, but I'd have to quit my FÁS course to do that, so it's not really an option. I'd quit for a full time permanent job, but not for two weeks.

Is anyone else having trouble getting your change receipt since the fare hike?

Pretty much every time nowadays, I have to ask. Or else they give me 5c instead of the 35c they owe me (€2.15 fare, I usually put in €2.50)

Yesterday there was a bus driver with a pile of receipts beside where he takes the money. I had to ask him for my change receipt as well. When I did, I just got the "roll-eyes". I think it's safe to presume, he's taking them himself as most people only see it as 5c/10c etc.

OldNotWIse

Deleted User wrote: »

Is anyone else having trouble getting your change receipt since the fare hike?

Pretty much every time nowadays, I have to ask. Or else they give me 5c instead of the 35c they owe me (€2.15 fare, I usually put in €2.50)

Yesterday there was a bus driver with a pile of receipts beside where he takes the money. I had to ask him for my change receipt as well. When I did, I just got the "roll-eyes". I think it's safe to presume, he's taking them himself as most people only see it as 5c/10c etc.

happened me before too. my receipt was from a couple of hours before. Bus driver was verbally abusive to my partner when she queried it. No point reporting them of course, Dublin Bus drivers could go postal and annihilate all their passengers and customer comment would just say "sorry judge we'll send them for additional customer services training" - seems to be their answer to everything.

cson

Yet another reason why a flat fare should be adopted.

Out of interest; can any DB employee outline if DB have any safeguards against the potential abuse of change receipts?

[Jackass]

So now I pay 2.15 for an 8 minute bus journey...

For a bus that comes once an hour, and I mean at literally any point during that hour, with 2 different time tables (one I got from head office and one at the bus stop) and neither are correct or are simply irrelivent to real time keeping....and I always have the dilemma of do I make the 45 minute walk home from UCD, or do I wait for up to 80 minutes (my record to date - after an hour it was a matter of principle) ... I really am getting value for money.

Wish a private sector company would come in to do some key city routes, dublin bus would be out of business in a few years. Can't run a monopoly properly, can't even make a profit, can't provide a good service....jokers.

Mr Simpson

cson wrote: »

Yet another reason why a flat fare should be adopted.

Out of interest; can any DB employee outline if DB have any safeguards against the potential abuse of change receipts?

The one thing I can think of is that they have to be presented with the actual bus ticket.

Tar.Aldarion

[Quote=[Jackass];82239189]So now I pay 2.15 for an 8 minute bus journey...

For a bus that comes once an hour, and I mean at literally any point during that hour, with 2 different time tables (one I got from head office and one at the bus stop) and neither are correct or are simply irrelivent to real time keeping....and I always have the dilemma of do I make the 45 minute walk home from UCD, or do I wait for up to 80 minutes (my record to date - after an hour it was a matter of principle) ... I really am getting value for money.

Wish a private sector company would come in to do some key city routes, dublin bus would be out of business in a few years. Can't run a monopoly properly, can't even make a profit, can't provide a good service....jokers.[/Quote]
You'd be home in a few minutes on a bike

LXFlyer

[Jackass] wrote: »

So now I pay 2.15 for an 8 minute bus journey...

For a bus that comes once an hour, and I mean at literally any point during that hour, with 2 different time tables (one I got from head office and one at the bus stop) and neither are correct or are simply irrelivent to real time keeping....and I always have the dilemma of do I make the 45 minute walk home from UCD, or do I wait for up to 80 minutes (my record to date - after an hour it was a matter of principle) ... I really am getting value for money.

Wish a private sector company would come in to do some key city routes, dublin bus would be out of business in a few years. Can't run a monopoly properly, can't even make a profit, can't provide a good service....jokers.

No you don't have to pay €2.15.

You can get a LEAP card and pay €1.90, the same fare as the old cash fare.

Frankly that is yet another stupid post (and I have no qualms about using that word) that ignores cheaper options that are available. I'm getting sick of reading this sort of nonsense from people who just don't bother checking whether cheaper options exist. It's frankly ludicrous.

As for the different timetables, I think you'll find the one from Head Office shows the times from the terminus, while the second one shows times from an intermediate point.

bobin fudge

if you are "sick of reading this sort of nonsense" no need to read. "another stupid post" how so? The point is the fares were a rip off at the start and with the hike they are a bigger rip off, a leap card does save money, not much though and still "ludicrous pricing" from an inept company that cant manage its overheads for the last 10 years during a celtic tiger as well.

You work for dublin bus? you like your job and feel a loyalty to them with your posts it would seem and nothing wrong with that,but to be branding people stupid/ludicrous is pathetic. Perhaps if the hirearchy within dublin bus knew how to run their service we as passengers would not be paying "ludicrous" rates in the first place

StudentDad

CIE definitely needs to be privatised or reformed. The train service in Ireland is seriously behind the times. Whenever I have to go by train - too often for my liking - I get the distinct impression that the company are an airline on rails! I should somehow feel 'privileged' because I'm on a train.

I don't want overpriced food, announcements in Irish and English at deafening levels every two miles - yes an exaggeration.

More frequent trains, more non-stop trains - eg. Non-Stop from Westport to Athlone then non-stop to Dublin - lower fares and timetables based in reality! Why is the last train to Westport from Dublin 6:30? So many times I've had to take the car because the timetable is useless.



SD

LXFlyer

bobin fudge wrote: »

if you are "sick of reading this sort of nonsense" no need to read. "another stupid post" how so? The point is the fares were a rip off at the start and with the hike they are a bigger rip off, a leap card does save money, not much though and still "ludicrous pricing" from an inept company that cant manage its overheads for the last 10 years during a celtic tiger as well.

You work for dublin bus? you like your job and feel a loyalty to them with your posts it would seem and nothing wrong with that,but to be branding people stupid/ludicrous is pathetic. Perhaps if the hirearchy within dublin bus knew how to run their service we as passengers would not be paying "ludicrous" rates in the first place

For the record I do not work for CIE or any of its subsidiaries.

I am just someone with an interest in public transport.

I am no happier about the fare increases than anyone else, and yes the CIE Group need to be more aggressive in reducing costs, but the fact remains that many of the underlying reasons for the fare increases are matters outside their control as I outlined above, including a shift by the government of more of the burden for paying for public transport onto the end user.

I am pointing out that Irish people (it would seem) need to be held by the hand. Both yourself and jackass started complaining about cash fares, despite the fact that cheaper alternatives exist. And yes, I do think that anyone who persists in paying cash fares needs their head examined when they can avoid the increases by using LEAP. You also need to realise that cash fares have increased by a higher percentage than LEAP fares in order to incentivise people to switch to LEAP.

I don't apologise for using blunt langauge about this as I do think people need to cop on and become far more intelligent about how they pay for public transport.

LXFlyer

StudentDad wrote: »

CIE definitely needs to be privatised or reformed. The train service in Ireland is seriously behind the times. Whenever I have to go by train - too often for my liking - I get the distinct impression that the company are an airline on rails! I should somehow feel 'privileged' because I'm on a train.

I don't want overpriced food, announcements in Irish and English at deafening levels every two miles - yes an exaggeration.

More frequent trains, more non-stop trains - eg. Non-Stop from Westport to Athlone then non-stop to Dublin - lower fares and timetables based in reality! Why is the last train to Westport from Dublin 6:30? So many times I've had to take the car because the timetable is useless.



SD

The bilingual announcements are a requirement of the Official Languages Act, something that had nothing to do with Irish Rail.

As for your timetable suggestions, how many people are going to need to travel to Westport after 18:30 that would justify a train being provided? I can't see potential customer numbers that might justifying the additional costs of operating more trains than that? Any such train wouldn't be arriving in Westport until around midnight.

What about the people from all the stations between Westport and Athlone that would be discommoded by your proposed non-stop service? Do they not count? What you propose would mean having to operate additional trains at additonal cost, something that frankly the companies do not have very much room to do right now. In addition there are the physical restrictions to operating extra trains and indeed non-stop ones due to the fact that the line is single track and trains have to cross one another at passing loops.

I have to agree with lxflyer here. While I don't like that the fares have increased so much, the amount of people I see who still pay cash is unbelievable. It's attitudes like this which contribute to slow boarding times on our buses. Yesterday I was on a 40 where a woman boarded, started rummaging for change on the bus and eventually paid about 30 seconds later.

I'm all for reforms but I'm completely against blanket privatisation.