New Greater Dublin Region Fares
April 28 2025
The most significant shake up in commuter fares in Dublin since the Short Hop Zone arrived in the mid 1970's has arrived. While overall these changes should be seen as a postive, there are a number of cases where passengers will find themselves worse off. Some of these cases are due to the system raising fares which were historically low, other cases are due to non sensical decisions made by the National Transport Authority.
For decades, particularly commuters in Kildare and Louth have complained that the fares they paid were significantly more per km than those available to those within the Short Hop Zone. While for the majority the changes going live today will result in a fare decrease or no change there are some cases of increases and some cases ticketing options have been withdrawn.
Whats Changing?
From April 28, 2025 a new 4 zone system streching from Dublin outwards
- Zone 1 - All Dublin Bus and Luas services and rail services between Rush and Lusk/Howth/Bray/Hazelatch/Maynooth/M3 Parkway
- Zone 2 - Sallins, Greystones, Kilcoole, Skerries, Balbriggan, Gormanston, Kilcock
- Zone 3 - Newbridge, Wicklow, Enfield, Laytown and Drogheda
- Zone 4 - Kildare and Rathdrum
Journey Examples
Bray to City Centre
No change to the cash or leap fares. A rail only short hop zone ticket was €115 is replaced with an all operator monthly ticket of €96 valid in the new Dublin Zone 1
Drogheda to City Centre
The old cash fare single was €11.95, the new single leap fare is €6.00. Monthly ticket is now €196.00 down from €211.00. Free transfer to Luas, Bus and other rail services within zone 1 which may be of significant value to some commuters. Example Drogheda - St James hospital would have been €13.95 single is now just €6.00 using a Leap card.
Sallines to Dublin Heuston
Previous Leap single was €3.00, the new single leap fare increases to €3 90. However the commuter has free transfer to Luas, Bus and other rail services within zone 1. A large portion of Sallins commuters will avail of this so no change to leap fares applies for most as the previous fare to Connolly/Tara/Pearse/Grand Canal Dock was €3.90. Monthly ticket is now €140.00 up from &euro115.00, but again this allows unlimited travel on Luas Bus and Rail in the Zone 1 area and is the same price as the Rail+Luas or Rail+Bus annual
Problems - Zone 1 Bias
Multimodal Ticketing
Multimodal only applies in zone 1 which is unfair and non sensical. We want to encourage passengers to make door to door journeys using public transport. If a passener holds a Zone 1+2 monthly or annual ticket and boards a train in Balbriggan and changes to the Luas at Connolly, there is no extra charge for the Luas, but do the opposite and travel Connolly to Balbriggan and then board the local B1 bus, an extra fare will be charge applied. This doesn't make sense and is completely at odds with European practice
No Monthly Tickets
To avail of capping or have access to monthly or annual tickets you must start/end or have your journey pass through zone 1. So Sallins Kildare, Laytown Drogheda can no longer purchase monthly tickets and by extension cannot avail of the tax saver scheme.
Fare Capping Only in Zone 1
Only within zone 1, while day and weekly fares are defined for zone 1+2, zone 1+2+3, zone 1+2+3+4 the passenger must purchase these in advance via the leap card app and download them to the leap card.
Fare Calculator
To help commuters understand the new fares we have provide a detailed fare calculator which will zone the fare basis and where applicable zone details https://www.railusers.ie/passenger_info/fare_calc_2025.php