Tickets that can be used across Dublin Bus, Luas and Dart could be
introduced overnight, but the integrated ticketing project is hampered
by infighting between state bodies. It is also heavily focused on using
’smartcards’ — electronic cards which store credit and travel
information.

Integrated ticketing was first suggested in May 1994, but the
Department of Transport has told this newspaper that the time frame is
now late August 2009 for just Dublin Bus, Luas, and one private bus
operator. While rail services are set to be included only 12 months
later in 2010.

Commuter group, Rail Users Ireland, says that the problem with the ticketing system is just one
symptom of a larger problems due to the lack of a long promised Dublin
transport authority.

“The integrated ticketing problem is systematic of a bigger problem
where you’ve got three different transport providers under the state
umbrella and their ability to work together in all areas including
ticketing is so-far counterproductive to the needs of commuters,” says
Derek Wheeler, spokesman for the users’ group.

“If Dublin had a dedicated transport authority none of this would
happen, because it would be taken out of the hands of the RPA, it would
be taken out of the hands of Dublin Bus, and it’d be taken out of the
hands of Irish Rail”

Operators

The Department of Transport claim that the problems are “business
and commercial in nature,” — this ignores the fact that the
government controls the vast majority of the transport network.

“In dealing with a multi-operator ticketing environment, the issues
that come to the fore are business and commercial in nature, as well as
the interests of the various operators — as opposed to just merely
technical issues. They include how revenue will be apportioned between
the various players in the integrated ticketing system. Then there is
the whole issue of the security of the revenue from the operator’s
viewpoint.”

“This has also been the experience with integrated ticketing
deployments elsewhere in the world,” the department claims.   But the
State transport companies Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, and Bus Eireann are
wholly owned by the Department of Transport. Even with the Luas — which
is operated by a private company — ticket pricing is set by the RPA.

Rail Users Ireland have suggested to use the magnetic card tickets
currently used with Dublin’s bus, rail, and tram services. This could
allow for the induction of integrated ticketing overnight. But the
department also rejects this suggestion, saying such tickets would not
offer “flexibility or scope for integration”.

Low tech

However, paper based intergraded ticketing has been working for years
in cities as diverse as London and Los Angeles. The problem for the
department and the transport operators is likely to be that paper-based
integrated ticketing allows for unlimited travel over all the transport
network for a set daily, weekly, monthly or yearly fee — allowing for
the most flexibility, and ease of integration for users.

The original time scale for the intergraded ticketing project was 2002
for Dublin Bus, and the next year for the main Dublin transport
services. Commuters now have to wait until at least 2010 — nearly 17
years after it was first mooted.

The department, however, are not phased by the delays of the project, a
spokesperson told us: “The Integrated Ticketing Project Board has
recently advised the Department that the integrated ticketing project
is on schedule and within budget”.

Rail Users Ireland are clear that the solution to integrated ticketing
is progress with the proposed Dublin transport authority, first
outlined in the early 1980s.

“Until there is a transportation authority in Dublin nothing is going
to be solved, integrated ticketing, integration of different transport
modes,” says Wheeler.

“None of it’s going to happen and that’s ultimately up to the
Minister for Transport to sit down and say ‘right I’m going to make
this happen’ and the longer it goes on the longer you’re going to
see
problems such as integrated ticketing”.

- Cian Ginty

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