Each leg of the journey costs half the return fare. So a single from Bray to Connolly costs €2.35 instead of €2.75. A return is the same as the booking office or vending machine fare. This was the same fare structure Veolia adopted when it launched its smartcard, although there has been few to no smartcard fare increases but several standard ticket increases over the intervening years.
A smartcard is currently the best value for people who make odd journeys, single journeys, or journeys to and from different stations. It's also best for people who make 5 or fewer journeys in a 3-day period, or people whose normal return fare is €2.80 and make 9 or fewer journeys in a 7-day period.
There is a project underway for price capping so that smartcard users will only pay the cost of the lowest possible combination of tickets for the journeys they make in a 3-day or 7-day period.
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