# €1.00 bus fare max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 miles



## Murt10 (3 Jul 2007)

In the budget in Dec I wonder if the Greens will rob the Labour promise of a E1.00 max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 mile radius. (I presume this also includes commuter rail/Luas services as well).

It could cost the Department of Finance an awful lot of money in lost revenue if a large numbers of people were to switch.

Murt


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## ClubMan (3 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

In a word? No.


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## elefantfresh (3 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

Its not the issue of price that will get people onto the buses and out of their cars. Its the service. My journey by car to work is 15-20 mins. It takes over an hour on public transport as i'd have to get 2 buses. You couldn't PAY me to take that journey every day instead. My last job was 30mins in the car but almost 2hrs on public transport. 

I read somewhere recently before the election of a survery regarding this (i think it was in the herald) and that was the consensus of the people surveyed.


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## z108 (3 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

They've already let special interests in to run private bus services such as Mortons/Circleline who would have to be subsidised too in such a situation.


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## Sn@kebite (3 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*



Murt10 said:


> In the budget in Dec I wonder if the Greens will rob the Labour promise of a E1.00 max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 mile radius.
> Murt


My view on this is: If they put bus fares down to €1, then they would be sure to put something else up in price to get it all back. You have to remember that most politicians are not charity workers but business people. (and are big fans of the "give with the left hand, take with the right" cliche)


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## Happy Girl (11 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

Just back from Spain and this is how they operate their bus system. Irrespective of how far you are going basically every time you get onto the bus you put your euro on the counter and go as far as you like. No delays with giving change. Kids under 4 are free (provided they do not take up a seat). Thought it was great idea. Basically the ones only going on a short trip subsidised the ones travelling further.


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## ClubMan (11 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*



Happy Girl said:


> No delays with giving change.


There are no delays with giving change on _Dublin Bus _for the past good few years - if you tender too much then you get a change receipt that you can exchange for cash elsewhere but you never get change on the bus.


> Kids under 4 are free


 Isn't that the case here too? Or is it under 3 or something?

Update: yes - [broken link removed].


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## ang1170 (11 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

One of the problems with an idea like this is that the Govt. (more specifically Finance) assume that if you drop fares, revenue will fall.

Of course if you make it significantly cheaper and more attractive and simpler to use (a low standard fare would go a long way: more busses and more efficient operation would help too), you'll find that passenger volumes will increase (this happened in London many years ago when Ken Livingstione was in charge).

The volumes mightn't increase enough to do keep the bus service at the same revenue, but the improvement in everyone's ability to get round would improve (and hence reducing the cost of congestion). Overall costs would go down.

Of course, trying something like that would require a bit of imagination and an ability to get beyond the dead hand of Finance).

Will it happen? Don't think so - Bah!


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## Gordanus (14 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

While we look to the EU for what we can get out of them, we never take ideas from EU countries but rather the US and sometimes the UK.  I wonder if this is because our politicians can't be bothered learning other languages? (Even though the majority of EU politicians speak fluent English...)


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## Guest127 (14 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

maybe because dublin bus have no real competition they structure their charges accordingly. a few years ago there was a private bus operator on the Dundalk/Dublin route. something like £6 daily return. pick up on main street in Dundalk. Bus Eireann commenced pulling their coaches up behind him to compete with him. fair enough. eventually packs up and departs scene. BE now inform customers they can no longer pick up bus on main street and fares revert to normal ie around double the old prices. M1 is opened between Dublin and Dundalk. Do Bus Eireann use it? not on your nelly. along comes a new private bus operator. €5 single to dublin and €10 return. using motorway not old N1. Who suddenly decides that the fares to Dublin should be €5 single and who now use the motorway? no prizes for the answer. and just to add to the turnaround I phoned BE around 2 years ago and enquired as to why they weren't using the motorway.Reply: because we have a public service obligation. ''fair enough but could you not run every second bus on the motorway ( difference in time journeys -1 hour opposed to 3 hours) and every second bus through Castlebellingham, Dunleer, Gormanstown, Balbriggan, Swords etc'' . answer: ''No way''. That was before the new operator however and now happily BE do use the motorway and offer a very good service and for a very reasonable fare. would they have moved so fast without competition? who knows but I doubt it. To prove how frequent services and cheap fares attract custom - the private bus operator runs about 22 return services to dublin daily and BE around the same. cheap fares and frequent,reliable fast services attract customers. 
the €1 journey ticket for any journey on dublin bus is probably very feasable,volume alone would increase to the point that it would probably be utilised to the max all day.


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## ang1170 (14 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

I agree with you on "cheap fares and frequent,reliable fast services attract customers", and your example is a perfect one of the benefits of competition in action. However, a "free for all" where everyone is allowed to compete on every route doesn't work either: they've tried this in the UK.

My guess is that the best system is competitive tendering for routes in a regulated enviroment (by a regulator that is actually effective: I'm not talking ComReg here). It's not easy though if you want to do things like integrated ticketing (how do you share out the revenue?). Still, it can't be rocket science: just requires a bit of political will.

Now, when was the last time you saw some political will in this green and pleasant land that wasn't attached to some vested interest or other??


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## Guest124 (17 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

My bus costs aprox 69 cent. I buy a pack of 6 adult 5-day rambler tickets for €83. I get four buses a day and if I go back into Town at night maybe 6 buses in a day. I can jump on and off any bus I like including the Airport Link. I am very happy with Dublin Bus but of course we are Irish and it is far simpler to just keep moaning about everything and not give some credit when it's due.


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## niceoneted (22 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*

sorry broadbandken but your numbers don't seem to add up can you explain further? eg 4 buses X 5 days is 20  journeys @83euro therefore  €4.15 a journey??


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## Dreamerb (22 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*



niceoneted said:


> sorry broadbandken but your numbers don't seem to add up can you explain further? eg 4 buses X 5 days is 20  journeys @83euro therefore  €4.15 a journey??


Divide by 6. He gets 6 * 5-day ramblers for €83.


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## Guest124 (31 Jul 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare*



Dreamerb said:


> Divide by 6. He gets 6 * 5-day ramblers for €83.


 

- Thank you Dreamerb for clearing that up.


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## ClubMan (31 Jul 2007)

6 x 5 day _Rambler _tickets @ €83 suggests €13.83 each but they are advertised [broken link removed] at €17.30 each? Can you explain please?

Update: oops - I see that they sell 6 x 5 day Rambler packs for €83 [broken link removed]!


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## sinbadsailor (3 Aug 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 miles*

If the governemnt could get their head around the idea of economies of scale in regard to public transport a price reduction might look more attractive.

More people paying €1 will far outweight the smaller amount paying the higher cost. They just need to make public transport a viable and attractive 'service' and a lot of people would use it.

People driving cars generate HUGE amounts of revenue through direct and indirect taxes. They dont want us all on a low cost, efficient and regular public transport system. THat would mean that we as citizen's would be benefitting from the state we live in, not the other way around?


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## ClubMan (3 Aug 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 miles*



sinbadsailor said:


> More people paying €1 will far outweight the smaller amount paying the higher cost.


€1 is the minimum adult fare these days so I would imagine that the majority of passengers would not be paying this but a larger fare.


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## Purple (3 Aug 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 miles*



sinbadsailor said:


> More people paying €1 will far outweight the smaller amount paying the higher cost. They just need to make public transport a viable and attractive 'service' and a lot of people would use it.



I don't care if it was free, I still wouldn't use the bus as my primary method of transport.


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## sinbadsailor (3 Aug 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 miles*

not even if it was clean, on time and took a half of the time driving did?

I agree there is a lot to change for the above to happen, but it would work I think.


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## Purple (3 Aug 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 miles*



sinbadsailor said:


> not even if it was clean, on time and took a half of the time driving did?


 It will never happen.
Even if it did it will never be as convenient as driving.
As things stand I would rather walk/ cycle or get a taxi. If I was paid a fiver to go into town on the bus I’d still rather get a taxi.


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## Guest127 (3 Aug 2007)

*Re: €1.00 bus fare max busfare for the entire Dublin Bus network within this 25 miles*

I wouln't even consider driving to Dublin now.  €10 return on a (relatively) luxury coach taking 1 hour 20 mins. That said I don't work in Dublin so I don't need to commute further in order to get to work. €1.60 each way through the toll bridge, petrol and parking charges far outweight the €10. I still  need a car though as pretty much everyone does. but I dont use it half as much as I used to. Dublin bus could experiment on a couple of routes with a flat rate fare of €1 and report back to the department of transport at the end of a given period. the nra/corpo  could also monitor volume of traffic on those particular routes over the period to see if there is any decline in car traffic.  worth a shot anyway.


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