Leap cards to bring cut in Galway bus fares

A new prepaid Leap card system to be rolled out on Galway city bus services in September will offer reduced fares to passengers.

The card will be introduced in the city first by Bus Éireann before being used on public transport buses in the rest of the county.

The cards can be purchased from accredited outlets for €5 and credit bought for them as pre-paid fares. Bus fares on all city routes will be up to 16% cheaper.

It will operate along the lines of similar transport cards in other countries, like the Oyster Card in London, and can be used on the Luas, the Dart, short-hop Irish Rail trains and on the buses in Cork, where it has already been rolled out. It will be introduced in Limerick later in the year.

Bus drivers in Galway will be offered training to use the special TGX boxes which are currently being installed on all city buses.

Nicola Cooke, Media and PR Manager for Bus Éireann, said Galway City was being used as a ‘test bed’ before the Leap card would be rolled out on county bus routes.

“It is an ‘e purse product’ and fares will be cheaper using the Leap card. It does mean a drop in revenue for us but we are introducing this in line with international practice.

“It should attract more passengers. There was a huge jump in passenger numbers in Galway city in 2013, possibly helped by dedicated priority bus lanes, real time electronic information at bus-stops and the increase of public confidence in the bus service,” she said.

A total of 1.2 million passenger journeys are now being recorded annually on one of the city’s successful bus routes – the Doughiska one.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel