Leap card for Cork city

Eod100

Has anyone been able to use a leap card on buses in Cork city?

According to this they've been available since last month but hadn't seen any publicity for it..

https://twitter.com/TFIupdates/status/440821038620753920

calnand

yeah i started a thread last week about it, its available on most city buses

Eod100

calnand wrote: »

yeah i started a thread last week about it, its available on most city buses

Thanks, was talking to someone from Bus Eireann about it and they told me it wasn't available.. Any idea where you can get the card from?

calnand

I got mine in Dublin, the Bus station might sell them

Pablo Escobar

How does it work? Do you scan it as you enter the bus?

calnand

Pablo Escobar wrote: »

How does it work? Do you scan it as you enter the bus?

There's a touch pad right above where you take your ticket. Some buses have the leap card logo, depending on the age of the bus. But you just hold your card against it, and it makes a noise when it works.

Pablo Escobar

calnand wrote: »

There's a touch pad right above where you take your ticket. Some buses have the leap card logo, depending on the age of the bus. But you just hold your card against it, and it makes a noise when it works.

Thanks, I must get one. Are the machines fitted on all buses?

deRanged

The Centra at Victoria cross is advertising that they sell them - I only noticed that yesterday morning.
It's brilliant - I hope the trains will start accepting them now too.

JohnMearsheimer

I just got on the number 6 bus there about 5 minutes ago. I asked the driver about the Leap cards. He says they have been in operation since Monday. I'm going to get one after work I think.

Bacchus

Is there any site where you can find info on...
1. Where to buy the cards & how to top them up?
2. What the fares are?

I've looked on the official leap card site but they only have info for Dublin. Pretty pathetic that this wonderful development has happened to Cork public transport yet they can't throw up a simple web page with these two pieces of information.

The closest thing I can find is this.... https://www.leapcard.ie/en/PageSetting/ContentViewer.aspx?Val=YP3QDg1KGocnYwAy7%2b%2bvIjAPVbhiixQ2Q1PpMaqdBkumeTpcrSBZ1Ab4q5RR2OcGb1IMdPQGmC1dCQ0quqkF%2bvO9AGWGqIqILD9YXIVPxsL00IAhVrSIbbrx8mehFIuyQS2e%2febr7gJQoioQNUxZJDh9q1jWzthk%2byehkB89G74%3d

but the info is poor....

Where can I buy and top-up a Leap Card?

Travel Credit, 24 hour and 7 day tickets can be purchased at Leap Card agents (PayZone agents). Just look for the Leap Card sign. A list of Leap Card agents is available at; www.leapcard.ie

So..... where can I buy one?

Once I have a Leap Card, what are my ticket options?

You can use Travel Credit on your Leap Card to pay for single trips. Travel Credit fares are 16% cheaper than the corresponding cash single ticket.

Would it be so hard to just put the fares up for all to see?

Pablo Escobar

You can buy them in Spar, Centra and online (the website that you linked)

leahyl

This is great - I already have one as I bought it before Christmas when I was in Dublin for travelling on the Luas.

So do you just swipe it on the bus and it automatically takes the amount owed?

Corholio

Any possibility this could be just a trial period for the card here, hence the lack of publicity?

Bacchus

Pablo Escobar wrote: »

You can buy them in Spar, Centra and online (the website that you linked)

All Spars and Centras in town or just some specific ones?

Didn't spot that I could buy online and they post it out to you, cheers.

evilivor

Corholio wrote: »

Any possibility this could be just a trial period for the card here, hence the lack of publicity?

Go this earlier.

evilivor

Eod100

Got one earlier from the Centra at Victoria Cross.. Got them in 3 weeks ago and I was the 1st to buy one there apparently so the lads had a bit of fun trying to work out how to add top up etc! :P

Tried it on the bus but machine/card didn't work for some reason, hopefully it was just the machine..

Kinda weird alright there was basically no publicity about coming to Cork. I'd heard it was going to be April and only reason I came across that it was in Cork was cos I'm heading to Dublin soon and was planning to pick one up there.. Nothing up on the Bus Eireann site about it either as far as I can tell.

JohnMearsheimer

I just bought a personalised one off the Leap Card website. I threw €10 on the card to try it out, if it goes well I'll up it on topping up.

calnand

Yeah I've had a few times that it hasn't worked. I'm not sure if it's the scanners fault or that the driver hasn't been taught how to use it. The times its worked have been very smooth, and easier

JohnMearsheimer

I've been using my Leap card since Monday on the 206. The scanners haven't worked at all for me so the driver has to press a few buttons and my card is debited. I think the fare is €1.59. I'll continue to use it. It's a bit annoying you can't really top up on the website. You can pay for your top up on the website but the credit needs to be loaded on to the card in a participating top up site. It would be grand in Dublin where you have loads of Luas stops and participating shops but in Cork it's just not as convenient. I suppose it isn't too much of an inconvenience to go to Centra.

Eod100

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I've been using my Leap card since Monday on the 206. The scanners haven't worked at all for me so the driver has to press a few buttons and my card is debited. I think the fare is €1.59. I'll continue to use it. It's a bit annoying you can't really top up on the website. You can pay for your top up on the website but the credit needs to be loaded on to the card in a participating top up site. It would be grand in Dublin where you have loads of Luas stops and participating shops but in Cork it's just not as convenient. I suppose it isn't too much of an inconvenience to go to Centra.

If you register your card online you can see how much your fare is. Used mine on the 208 and was €1.59 so seems right. Only times I've used it, the bus driver just puts it on the scanner on his machine, are there meant to be scanners you use yourself on the bus? Mustn't have spotted them..

Yeah I noticed that, not sure how they could get around having to scan it to load on credit though.. Do all Centras sell them/allow top-up? I know there's the map with payzone shops on the site but wasn't sure how accurate that was..

JohnMearsheimer

Eod100 wrote: »

If you register your card online you can see how much your fare is. Used mine on the 208 and was €1.59 so seems right. Only times I've used it, the bus driver just puts it on the scanner on his machine, are there meant to be scanners you use yourself on the bus? Mustn't have spotted them..

Yeah I noticed that, not sure how they could get around having to scan it to load on credit though.. Do all Centras sell them/allow top-up? I know there's the map with payzone shops on the site but wasn't sure how accurate that was..

Thanks, I've registered the card. It's looks like I've only been charged for 3 of the 8 times I've used the bus this week. None of the drivers seem to know what to do with the card. The Centra on Grand Parade sell top ups, I asked when I was in there yesterday.

Dravokivich

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I've been using my Leap card since Monday on the 206. The scanners haven't worked at all for me so the driver has to press a few buttons and my card is debited. I think the fare is €1.59. I'll continue to use it. It's a bit annoying you can't really top up on the website. You can pay for your top up on the website but the credit needs to be loaded on to the card in a participating top up site. It would be grand in Dublin where you have loads of Luas stops and participating shops but in Cork it's just not as convenient. I suppose it isn't too much of an inconvenience to go to Centra.

It's a limitation of smart card technology. Has been discussed a lot in the commuting and transport forum. There seems to be a test project in place for "Auto Topup" which'll topup your card once the balance goes below a threshold and charge you via direct debit.

Eod100

Do you know if you happen to lose a card with credit on it, are you able to cancel it and get a refund of the credit on it? Or just able to cancel it to stop someone from using it and the credit would be gone?

Kinda wary of topping up by a large amount just in case I happen to lose it..

Dravokivich

Create an account on the website and register the card to it. Otherwise, according the the T&Cs they won't handle replacing or refunding it.

Eod100

Dravokivich wrote: »

Create an account on the website and register the card to it. Otherwise, according the the T&Cs they won't handle replacing or refunding it.

Have done that alright, so they'll refund me if I happen to lose it then?

Dravokivich

They should do, yeah.

shawki

This card is saving me so much money!

I've been let on twice for free because the driver couldn't get to work.

Seriously though the process of scanning the card is really slow that I now wait until I'm the last person getting on the bus so I don't have a load of people behind me glaring at me wondering why I'm holding up the queue.

namloc1980

shawki wrote: »

This card is saving me so much money!

I've been let on twice for free because the driver couldn't get to work.

Seriously though the process of scanning the card is really slow that I now wait until I'm the last person getting on the bus so I don't have a load of people behind me glaring at me wondering why I'm holding up the queue.

Why can't it be a simple process of scanning the card like in normal transport systems around the world. But no, here we have to make it complicated by forcing the passenger to interact with the driver so no time is saved using cash versus leap card.

Eod100

shawki wrote: »

This card is saving me so much money!

I've been let on twice for free because the driver couldn't get to work.

Seriously though the process of scanning the card is really slow that I now wait until I'm the last person getting on the bus so I don't have a load of people behind me glaring at me wondering why I'm holding up the queue.

Same happened to me actually!

Yeah sometimes it seems it takes longer than paying with cash even.. Only thing I can think of why the driver has to do it is to make sure the fare is actually taken from the card. But then on the Luas it's completely up to the passenger so guess that wouldn't be consistent.. Is it the same on Dublin bus I wonder?

namloc1980

Eod100 wrote: »

Same happened to me actually!

Yeah sometimes it seems it takes longer than paying with cash even.. Only thing I can think of why the driver has to do it is to make sure the fare is actually taken from the card. But then on the Luas it's completely up to the passenger so guess that wouldn't be consistent.. Is it the same on Dublin bus I wonder?

Dublin bus buses have 2 card readers. One that the driver has where he deducts exact fare, and another inside the front door on the right where you just scan if you have a weekly/monthly type ticket. No need to interact with driver. With flat fares on the vast majority of cork city bus routes having to interact with the driver is such a waste of everyone's time. On buses in London you never ever interact with the driver. You scan your card on a reader and it deducts a flat fare. Makes loading times so much faster.