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BUS PRICES ON three million journeys in Irish cities will drop next year, but some Dublin Bus prices will go up.
In the determination for 2018 fares, the National Transport Authority has decided that the capital’s cash fares will climb for short, medium and Xpresso journeys.
The NTA is keen to stress that any cash price raises can be offset if commuters use the Leap card.
They have also added a year to the age that children can travel for free – it will go from four to five.
Dublin Bus has seen what the NTA calls “modest increases” for the third year in a row and the withdrawal of the city centre fare.
That means for cash fares:
The €2 fare will become €2.10
The €2.70 will become €2.85
The Xpresso €3.60 will become €3.65
For Dublin Bus Leap Card fares:
The €2.05 fare will become €2.15
The Xpresso €2.85 fare will become €2.90
There is no change to the cap on Leap Card spending on the bus of €7 a day and €10 across operators.
The price of a Nitelink will go up from €6.50 in cash to €6.60 and €5.20 on Leap cards to €5.29.
Luas
On the Luas, a new €1 off-peak Leap card fare will apply for 2018 for any city centre journeys.
Off-peak Leap journeys will all become more expensive:
For peak services on Leap cards:
If you’re paying for your ticket by cash, you will pay 10 cent more for 1-4 zone journeys and the top €3.30 fare will remain unchanged.
Iarnród Eireann
The biggest winners from the fare determination will be longer commuters in Ireland’s other cities.
In Cork, users of the Leap card on the Cork-Cobh-Midleton route will see a 5% drop in their fare, from €4.74 to €4.50. Cash users will drop from €6.15 to €5.90.
However, users of Dublin’s rail network will see raises across the board on Leap and cash fares. Notably, single cash fares will climb from €3.95 to €4.10.
Leap fares will rise by between 1.3% and 4.6%.
On intercity routes, there will be 5.1% cuts to single fares from zones D onwards.
Bus Eireann
Bus services in regional cities will see small fare cuts for many Leap users, with cash fares climbing.
The NTA says:
“Take for example a passenger travelling in from Carrigaline into Cork city. Currently the fare for an adult passenger taking this trip is €3.52 leap or €4.40 cash. With the changes to the city fare zone from 1 December 2017 this passenger will pay €1.89 leap or €2.70 cash, which represents a saving of 46%.”
The NTA says that these cuts, coupled with adjustments to fare zones will save money on around three million journeys in 2018.
On staged Bus Éireann services, every Leap card band will see cuts, with the highest priced ticket dropping from €18.80 to €14.70.
The NTA said:
It is the view of the NTA that current areas served by regional city fares were not accommodating all areas where regular city type commuting was taking place.
“Following an analysis of the hinterland of each of the current red zones in the regional cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway based on the population density and job density, an extended city fare zone will be in place from December 2017 onwards.
As a result, significant savings will be made by the commuters travelling from one of the new areas which are now included in the city fare zone.
“Currently about 20 million passengers each year use city services in Cork (12.7 million) Galway (4.3 million) and Limerick (3 million) each year.
“When the city fare zone is expanded to satellite towns around these cities an extra 3 million passenger journeys each year will be able to avail of the lower city fares with most of these additional passengers within the Cork city area.”
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I think we are approaching the perfect storm in Ireland. Everything is falling apart all at once. Property prices, rents, underpaid public workers now all striking at once. Increasing childcare costs, no support for the government… what a time to be in FG!!
Public sector needs reform with the disbanding of unions and professional contracts for our teachers and guards that are not linked to tenure. On the housing front we need high rise in certain areas of Dublin.
What’s with you and teachers? You have an agenda as you’ve nothing good to say on them or their profession. Some of the largest class sizes in Europe and new entrants paid pittance, that together with rising house prices and ridiculous rents means a husband and wife teacher or guard cannot even think of buying in Dublin or the commuter belt and hope to start a family. But go ahead, those bad teachers and your agenda.
Underpaid Public workers?
Hi rise is that because there is land shortage or just maximising developers pockets
James, out of curiosity which ” certain” areas in Dublin are most suited to high rise buildings ?
Hi=high
@Catherine Mc: The areas that aren’t anywhere near him?
Daisy, that is what I was thinking.
James, you must be a secondary school drop out. Don’t be ashamed of it.
@Shawn, THEIR INCREASING WORKLOAD WOULD ONLY MEAN ONE THING..,YES THEY’RE INDEED UNDERPAID!
Let’s keep the recovery going.
I do wish people would stop coming out with ‘The government must do/act……’. The government are not going to do a damned thing except throw out some soundbites and bide their time til they’re thrown out, FF will come in, do the same (as in nothing), get thrown and it’ll be FGs turn again. And so it goes…
James Darcy: yeah, lets make conditions even worse for workers in your thatcherite dreamland. That’ll solve homelessness alright
I have been looking for a place for someone with 2 kids. She can not go over 1,400 that’s the max that she can go. No where to be found. The ones that she has looked at and applied for have gone or they wont take rent allowance. Horrible thinking that you and your kids are going to be homeless. Great place we live in (sigh)
All our professional people are leaving this country – Our Garda, our teachers, our doctors and nurses Ireland will be even more strained in the coming years that we will have no one to fill these positions and we won’t have to worry about unions or pay structures.
You’ve just got to love Ireland!
Successive governments have failed this country. Nothing has changed over the last 10 years. What an opportunity we had to redistribute the wealth, but successive FF and FG governments facilitated making the rich richer and the poor poorer. The current govt are on the payroll of lobbyists too. Ireland is no better off than it was in 2006. Despite whatever spin they tell you, the future is more uncertain than ever…..
Someone is making a fortune on the backs of others.
Ireland is a failed society where 1 income is insufficient to put a roof over your head.
Call for Referendum on “Right2Home” in Ireland … amend Constitution like Germany.
https://www.change.org/p/referendum-on-right2home-in-ireland
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