NTA Publishes 2024 Fares Plan Changes

System

Most of the discounted Leap fares introduced in 2022, including the €2 TFI 90-minute fare in Dublin, are to remain in place, according to the National Transport Authority (NTA) Fares Determination for Public Service Obligation (PSO) services in the Greater Dublin Area, published today.

The TFI-90 €2 fare, which allows passengers free transfer between Dublin Bus, Luas and most DART, commuter rail and Go-Ahead Ireland services in Dublin, has been a huge success and has contributed to the increase in passenger numbers recorded across the city’s network last year.

NTA fares strategy
The new fares announced today are based on NTA’s fares strategy published last year. Under that strategy, fares are to be determined on a more equitable and easy-to-understand basis. The cost per kilometer travelled is to be consistent, and will be related to the straight line distance between the origin and destination of journey.

The NTA’s Fares Determination being published today focuses primarily on Dublin city and surrounding commuter counties, as a first step.

Dublin City Zone and Dublin Commuter Zone
Last year’s strategy also announced that a Dublin City Zone and a Dublin Commuter Zone were to be introduced. The Dublin City Zone is to extend approximately 23km from the city, and broadly equates to the existing 90-minute fare zone. The Dublin Commuter Zone extending to approximately 50km from Dublin city centre will include towns such as Drogheda, Navan, Trim, Enfield, Clane, Prosperous, Newbridge, Kildare, Greystones and Wicklow.

New all-modes tickets in 2024
Also announced today is a new all-modes ticket to be introduced this year, offering full access to Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland, Luas and Irish Rail services in the Dublin City Zone. The ticket is to cost €96 monthly or €960 annually, representing a saving of 38% compared to the existing equivalent of €155 and €1550. Additional savings can be made by customers availing of the product via Taxsaver.

Similarly, a weekly Leap cap covering services provided by all operators in the City Zone will be €24, compared to the current equivalent of €32.

For frequent travellers in the Dublin Commuter Zone the weekly and monthly ticket costs will vary according to the distance travelled. As an interim measure, commuters in towns just outside the Dublin City Zone travelling into the city, like Skerries, Balbriggan or Greystones, can continue to use the existing €32 weekly Leap ticket (€16 for young adults and children), so that they will see little or no difference in what they are paying now.

Bus fares in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford
Standard bus fares in the cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford will remain at the discounted rate of €1.35 under this Determination.

These changes are not projected to increase overall fare revenue, but represent a rebalancing of fares so that they are fairer and more consistent across the board. As such, fares for some journeys will go up a little, while fares for others will go down. Most customers covered by the Fares Determination published today will see no change whatsoever. Of the remainder, some will see a modest fare increase and some will see a fare reduction.

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/news/nta-publishes-fares-plan/

lordleitrim

RTE news : Discounted public transport fares in Dublin to stay

http://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0124/1428326-transport-fares/

Good news!

LXFlyer

Lots of changes to analyse in the fares determination report:

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/publications/nta-fares-determination-2024/

bk

Some highlighted points:

A new all-modes ticket will also be introduced this year which will offer full access to Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland, Luas and Irish Rail services within the 'Dublin City Zone'.

Costing €96 euro per month or €960 annually, this will represent a saving of 38% for those availing of this ticket who would have previously paid €155 or €1,550 respectively.

Good news, though still very far off the €365 per year ticket you can get in the likes of Vienna and some other German cities.

A weekly Leap card cap for those travelling in the City Zone will now be reduced to €24 compared to the current €32 per week.

Fantastic news, a nice reduction the folks will automatically get without any effort.

Basically if use public transport 5 days a week and take more then 2 journeys, you will save with this. If you travel 7 days a week, you will save if take 2 journeys.

Standard bus fares in the cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford will remain at a discounted rate of €1.35.

Given the flat fares in these cities, I really don't understand how the Leap ticketing is so poor and requires driver interaction. They really could roll out the simple model 1 EMV tap to pay we discussed earlier. I suspect they are planning to also roll out a 90 minute ticket and capping in these cities too.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664604#Comment_121664604

The 90 minute fares & capping will come in the provincial cities as they roll out the new networks - frustrating to have to wait I know, but they are in the pipeline.

I suspect that it’s a case of (like the network map!) the NTA want to have a good news story all in one go.

L1011

This is an odd case of the new system being quite simple, but relatively hard to explain to people initially I'd guess.

People in the existing shoulder short hop towns will not be happy, possibly less so next year!

I wonder what Irish Rail will take off a card as the deposit for an epurse fare now, it's currently 4 but the max epurse fare looks like it will be 14 now.

960 all mode city zone is going to make Taxsaver make sense for hybrid WFH again now.

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664031#Comment_121664031

Agree, that timetable isn't well thought through. Maybe the NTA thinks that it's a bit too soon to amend it since we don't know how busy it will get within the next 12 months or so with the passenger numbers and need more data from the buses of how much time they need to make the trips. I'd of course, when we struggle with having enough drivers, reduce times so that we perhaps could use those free extra drivers on the other routes instead. I think that slashing off 7-12 minutes off some trips is possible.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664638#Comment_121664638

I'd say more of a case that the other cities get little attention from the NTA. It also took them years to roll out Leap cards, it was many years after Dublin got them and even then it was a piss poor implementation.

Though perhaps they are also waiting for the Next Gen ticketing to rollout before implementing it. Maybe not worth adding it to the old system if a new one is coming.

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664750#Comment_121664750

as someone in one of those Short Hop towns (Greystones) I can confirm I'm not happy. Dart fare was reduced from €4 to €3 last year, now it's going back up to €3.90 and as far as I can tell we're also losing the 90 minute free transfer. Cost of an annual ticket increasing from 1150 to 1400. Report unsurprisingly highlights a location (Gormanston) where fares will significantly reduce, but not the small (single?) number of locations facing increases. But at least I can take comfort that the new system is "fairer".

AngryLips

This seems worthy of its own thread: €960 annual Dublin public transport ticket covering all modes of transport (bus, rail and Luas)

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0124/1428326-transport-fares/

AngryLips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664604#Comment_121664604

They've chosen a very weird time to announce a new annual ticket for Dublin given that the vast majority of people have just signed up to renew onto the old annual tickets in the last month. Will there be a facility for people to switch to the new tickets when launched?

pauraic1990

Link to current year (2024) fare Determination

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Fares-determination-v4.6.pdf

Dublin City Zone was extended and that cover Ratoath and Ashbourne. A new introduction to Dublin Commuter Zone.

Old Leap Fare:

Ratoath to City Centre: €3.64

Ashbourne to City Centre: €3.40

24 Hours Bus Eireann Red Zone: €7.30

7 days Bus Eireann Red Zone: €31.80

Note: It does not cover free Transfer to Dublin Bus, Luas or Dart

New Leap Fare:

Ratoath/Ashbourne to City Centre and onward within Dublin City Zone: €2.40 (Xpresso Fare)

Daily Cap: €6.00

Weekly Cap: €24.00

It a great improvement.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121665067#Comment_121665067

They’re not happening until later in the year (end of Q3).

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121665193#Comment_121665193

Interesting how Greystones is out of the "Dublin City Zone", but Rush & Lusk are within it. Supposedly the leap fare for Greystones has gone back up to 3.90 (from 3.00) and you can no longer avail of the 90 minute fare as part of the same trip.

pad199207

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121665474#Comment_121665474

I think it’s the same for Naas too, which is scandalous as I would consider Greystones and Naas in the Metro Area. Although I think the 90 min fare still counts

cgcsb

That ticket is a joke at €960. If you assume 25 days annual leave there's 225 working days a year assuming a 5 day in office week. That's 450 single journeys. At €2 a journey that's €900. If the average worker is wfh 2 days a week thats more like €700. You have to travel weekends and holidays to make it worth while, quite pointless really, might aswel abolish or actually operate a good value annual ticket like the €365 in Vienna

Repo101

I would have thought it would be better. Current price of Newbridge Dublin City Centre via Luas/145 is €19.70, new price is €15, a saving of 24%. Still much more expensive than the original SHZ and considering more people are being forced out of Dublin due to housing/rent, it's hardly much to be celebrating unless you are in work 5 days a week.

howiya

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666192#Comment_121666192

Don't think it's what people had in mind when they were campaigning for the short hop zone to be extended

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121665857#Comment_121665857

Well as someone who does use public transport 7 days a week and paying the higher tax rate, this will mean I can get around for €46 a month (using the monthly ticket) which in my book is brilliant. Anything but a joke!

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666380#Comment_121666380

They were never going to get the €2 fares and rightly so.

Graduated fares based on distance, without the current cliff edge is a much fairer system.

My fear is that far more people from outer stations may now try the train that those boarding at stations closer to the city may find it increasingly difficult to do so as a result of these changes.

The Taxsaver scheme will offer more discounts over this too for regular travellers.

devnull

Note that all discussion from the main BusConnects discussion relating to today's announcement has now been merged into this one.

Moderator

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666709#Comment_121666709

Is it not just cheaper getting the annual tax saver ticket via work?

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666873#Comment_121666873

I have a monthly tax saver.

AngryLips

Does this mean that we can expect intercity fares to increase over what they are currently? I assume yes, and potentially substantially.

Also, the fare structure is now separated from mode of transport. You will no longer be able to confidently catch Dublin Bus or Dart knowing that you'll only pay for a €2 journey because, for example, if you stay on the dart as far as Greystones, you'll cross into the commuter zone. Also, how will the fares be structured for someone doing a multi-modal journey into a Dublin suburb be charged for their fare? One fare into the city centre at commuter rate then another €2 fare for travel within the city zone? Or would that be classed as all one journey?

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666889#Comment_121666889

Is the yearly one not cheaper overall?

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666921#Comment_121666921

It is but the monthly one suits my personal circumstances.

Not everyone wants to pay that much up front or owe their employer money.

Everyone is free to make their own choices you know!

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666897#Comment_121666897

Intercity fares are already in distance based fare bands.

So no is the answer.

Repo101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666735#Comment_121666735

People were already travelling to closer stations to avail of the Short Hop Zone. Sallins had to expand its car park as a result of people travelling further to avail of the capped fares. Its absurd to suggest everyone was looking for €2 fares and these changes will hardly change any behaviour if you're in the city 2 days a week.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666709#Comment_121666709

It is certainly an improvement. But still far from ideal.

The fact that the maximum savings only apply to higher earners and only if your employer is part of the scheme (which many aren't) is really ridiculous.

At the very least, it should be available to all employees directly from revenue, with no need to get your employer involved.

But really the whole tax saver part should be scrapped and it should really be something like €365 annually like it is in Vienna, available to all, independent if they work or not or how much tax they pay.

€365 would be €30 per month. Say €35 or €40 if you take up a monthly option.

KLF

I happen to be moving to between Kilcock and Enfield and will need to get the train to Connolly the odd time. I was pretty surprised by the difference for the fare with Kilcock being at the edge of the short hop zone but Enfield(with a better car park and access) a few kms up the road was double, and you needed to buy a ticket.

I think this new system based on distance is fairer but people in the likes of Kilcock won’t be happy with the increase.

pad199207

People in the likes of Naas, Greystones and Kilcock definitely wont be happy.

The fare increase and also losing the 90min fare cap.

Can see a lot hopping on at Sallins and then scanning on in Celbridge quickly