COMMUTERS IN DUBLIN and surrounding counties are paying for 35,000 trips a day with the new integrated Leap ticketing system, the minister in charge of overseeing the project has said.

Alan Kelly said 57,000 of the Leap cards have been circulated since their introduction, with holders topping up their cards with more than €2 million in advance credit since they were rolled out on December 12.

Over 900,000 journeys had been made using the integrated ticket system – which can be used in place of cash fares on both the Dublin Bus and Luas systems, as well as DART and Irish Rail commuter services – between the launch date and last Thursday, the minister said.

Despite suggestions that the rollout has been fraught with difficulty – with some travellers complaining that fares are being incorrectly levied – Kelly said only around 200 formal complaints had been made to its call centre by the end of January.

The overwhelming response from customers has been positive and although there are some teething issues which are being addressed the volume of sales and usage has exceeded expectations for this stage in the launch period,” he said.

“Over the course of 2012 there will be a progressive increase in functionality and expansion to additional operators.”

Fianna Fáil transport spokesman Timmy Dooley said there had been many complaints relating to the online top-up system and the availability of top-up locations.

He said online top-ups could take up to 48 hours to process, which was unacceptable for many commuters, while it was frustrating for travellers that they could not top up their cards at train stations because Iarnród Éireannd did not offer top-up facilities.