The National Transport Authority (NTA) has approved a modest increase to some fares from tomorrow, 1st December 2015:

• Adult cash fare:  -3.6% to 5.9% due to reducing one fare stage band
• Prepaid rambler tickets: 3.7%
• Bus & Rail/Bus & Luas monthly and annual prepaid tickets: 2.6% to 2.9%
• Schoolchild fare: cash fare increase by 5 cent and Leap Card fare increase by 2 cent

There are no changes to adult Leap Card fares, Dublin Bus adult monthly and annual tickets, child cash and Leap Card fares or city centre cash and Leap Card fares.

The NTA and Dublin Bus have introduced a number of options on Leap Card which provide discounts to customers such as daily and weekly capping and Leap 90 discount (a refund of up to €1 when you board a second bus within 90 minutes of your first trip). Leap Card fares are up to 20% cheaper than paying with cash.

Reducing fare stage bands
The NTA and Dublin Bus have also simplified the fare structures making Dublin Bus fares easier to understand for customers so they can choose the best value option for them.

This year the adult cash fare for stages 4-7 and stages 8-13 will be merged together. To do this the stages 8-13 fare will reduce by 10 cent to €2.70 while the stages 4-7 fare will increase by 15 cent also to €2.70. This change will reduce the number of main adult fares to 5 different fares namely stages 1-3, stages 4-13, over 13 stages, Xpresso and the city centre fare. By reducing the number of fares this has resulted in savings to customers and also allows quicker boarding of the buses.

Further savings can be made by purchasing annual and monthly tickets through the TaxSaver scheme. Customers can save up to 52% on an annual product which means that they can travel across the Dublin Bus network for less than €2.00 a day.

Dublin Bus has experienced an increase in passenger numbers since 2014 and have recruited additional employees and acquired new vehicles in the fleet to meet this extra demand. However despite this, and the annual efforts of Dublin Bus to reduce costs and achieve efficiencies, the company is facing increasing annual costs of €6.8 million for the company. These include increases in the cost of fuel, expiry of cost reduction measures and increased fleet maintenance and integrated ticketing costs. 

Full details of the increase in Dublin Bus fares are available at www.nationaltransport.ie.