Commuters particularly in the Dublin area have to brace themselves for a pre-Christmas shock – using public transport goes up by as much as 15 % from today – adding almost €70 to the annual cost for some regular users.
The National Transport Authority has announced increases will come into operation before the end of the year. The NTA, who approved the rise, say they’re doing so to make fares less complicated and to encourage more people to use Leap cards and said there will be increases in some of the fares for Dublin Bus, Iarnród Éireann, Bus Éireann and Luas.
Dublin Bus users paying in cash will have to pay an additional 5 cent in the 1-3 zone area, while the 4-7 stage and 8-13 stage bands for cash fares have been merged into one single band.
The fare for the merged band will be €2.70, an increase of 15 cent for the 4-7 stage, but a decline of 10 cent for what was once the 8 to 13 stages.
Even school children using Dublin Bus will have to pay an additional 5 cent each day on Leap cards if they pay in cash, but the regular child fares will not increase. Some users of the Luas service will be hit with increases of €60 a year – although they will be able to travel further on the network at no additional cost. As it stands, passengers with three zone annual tickets pay €850, but the three zone tickets are being scrapped in favour of an all-zone ticket which will cost €910. On the Luas, the one-day, seven-day and 30-day tickets go up 4%.
John Lowe the Money Doctor said “With the latest increases, it now makes more sense than ever to think ahead and avail of any discount cards on offer. Better in your pocket.”
On Iarnród Éireann, some moderate fares increases for rail services are planned.Short Hop zone train fares are to go up by between 1.4 % and 4.2 %. The price of three-day and seven-day tickets will go up 4%. Bus Éireann were granted an overall fare increase of 1.5 % with some fares on the network increasing by up to 5%, while others will fall by a corresponding amount.
Anne Graham, CEO of the NTA said that the company wants to “further incentivise people to choose Leap card to pay for their travel – by maintaining a substantial price differential between Leap fares and cash fares.”
The fare changes are to be implemented from 1 December, with the exception of a small number in Cork which will only change when the Leap card has been rolled out on certain rail services there.