THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT Authority has announced its plans for fare increases for Ireland’s public transport.

The Luas in Dublin will see increases in most fares, but the majority of Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann fares will remain the same. Bus Éireann will also see some increases in cash fares in its regional services.

The biggest increase will be in some Short Hop Zone fares on Dublin’s rail network, which will increase by between 16 and 18%.

The new fares can come in any time from 1 December, depending on when the operators decide to introduce them.

The NTA said that the increased fares will lead to a revenue increase of less than 1% for the transport providers, and said that the majority of passengers will not face a fare increase.

DUBLIN BUS

• Fares will remain the same for adult and child cash fares and Leap cards, as well as for city centre cash and Leap cards.
• No change to Dublin Bus monthly and annual tickets.
• Pre-paid Rambler tickets will go up by around 2.8%.
• Multi-operator monthlies and annuals will go up by between 1.9% and 2.3%.

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN

• Fares will remain the same for Intercity single and return fares. Intercity weekly fares will go up by 2%.
• Cork commuter fares are by 2%, except the top zone will will stay the same.
• Short Hop Zone and intercity taxsaver fares will increase by 4%.
• The fares for 226 Short Hop Zone journeys will be reduced by between 16 and 18%, while the fares for 36 Short Hop Zone journeys will increase by between 16 and 18%.
• Sallins/Naas and Kilcock stations will be moved into Dublin’s Short Hop Zone, which will lead to a reduction of almost 50% in fares.

LUAS

• 10-20 cent increase on adult single cash fares, while adult Leap card fares will increase by 9 cent
• Adult pre-paid tickets (for 1-day, 7-day or 30-days) will increase by 6.3%. Child pre-paid fares will increase by 3.6%.
• Adult monthly and annual taxsaver fares will go up by 9.9%.
• No change to single journeys for children, but return journeys for children will be up 10 cent.
• Fares for zones 3 and 4 to be merged, with fares to change from between -4.2% to +7.4%

BUS ÉIREANN

• Regional cities and towns will see cash fares go up by 10 cents for adults and 5 cents for children. There will be no increase in Leap fares.
• Pre-paid tickets (1-day, 7-day, monthly and annual) will change by between -5.9% and +2.8%.
• Stage carriage fares will stay the same in adult, children and student one-way journeys paid for with cash or by Leap card.
• Adult return fares will increase by 1.1% but child and student returns will stay the same.

The National Transport Authority said that the changes in fares will more “accurately reflect the journeys” that people are making.

“Today we are taking a significant step towards making our public transport fare structure simpler, more streamlined and more consistent,” said Anne Graham, the CEO of the NTA.

Leap cards will be at least 20% cheaper than cash for a single journey, the NTA said. The cards are used to pay for around 3.5 million journeys in Ireland every week, representing about €4.3 million.

“It’s important for us to continue to incentivise people to choose Leap card to pay for their travel by maintaining a substantial price differential between Leap fares and cash fares.”

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