The Railway Procurement Agency, now part of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, was responsible for the development of light railway and metro infrastructure and developing an integrated smart card system. First plans were made at the end of the last century and initially it was planned to introduce an integrated card when the Luas system would start to operate in 2004 or 2005. The development of the new system had many delays and setbacks, including the withdrawal of all three bidders in a 2005 tender; and the costs for the new system were far higher than budgeted. This led to the development of the Leap card platform from scratch; with the first cards becoming available to the general public in December 2011. Prior to this, both Luas and Iarnród Éireann had rolled out their own, non-interoperable smartcard systems with both e-purse and long-term period pass options in 2005 and 2010 respectively. Additionally, Dublin Bus started providing long-term period passes on smartcards from 2009 but did not offer an e-purse option. Smartcard tickets were generally slightly cheaper than cash fares on these systems, but without any consistency or any multi-operator offerings. The reader infrastructure installed at tram stops, rail stations and buses from this period was all physically compatible with the Leap system when introduced and did not need replacement. Initially, only discounted cash fare equivalents were offered; but the ability to load period passes to the card was added in 2013 with all Taxsaver products converted from paper or the operators' prior smartcards by 2014. The fully integrated ticketing element of the project has not been fully delivered as of 2019. Greater Dublin Area fare capping was introduced for single operators in 2012 with a multi-operator cap introduced in 2013. A further step towards the planned 90-minute all-mode fare was introduced in 2015, with the Leap90 discount of €1 on each journey within 90 minutes of a prior journey. The Leap platform has also been used for the rollout of the Public Services Cards, allowing the replacement of the paper or paper + cardboard photocard Free Travel Pass for older people and those with disabilities. This removes the need to get a paper concessionary ticket issued for many rail journeys, reduces fraud opportunities and allows for the cancellation of passes.
Using the Leap Card
Anonymous Leap cards can be purchased at Payzone outlets or from certain Luas or Irish Rail ticketing machines. A new card will cost €10 and that card will have an initial credit of €5. Value from an existing smart-card cannot be transferred onto a Leap Card, but it was possible to get a free Leap Card for holders of the 'old' Luas or Rail smart-cards until 30 September 2014. Personalised cards for use with period tickets are provided free-of-charge but without any credit. Customers can only use the card for e-purse transactions when the card is in credit; although a fare can bring the card to a negative balance of up to -€5. Cards can be topped-up via Payzone outlets, or any Luas or Irish Rail ticketing machines, They can also be anonymously topped up, and recent ticket history viewed, using an Android application on a NFC-enabled smartphone. It is also possible to reload a card using the Leap Card website, but it must then be registered online. When a Leap Card is registered, the cardholder can check their travel/purchase history online, but the card is no longer anonymous.
Transport operators
Acceptance has extended beyond the original three operators, and now covers
Ashbourne Connect
Bus Éireann - all non-Expressway services
City Direct
Collins Coaches
Dualway Coaches - certain scheduled services
Dublin Bus
Go-Ahead Ireland
Iarnród Éireann - Greater Dublin and Cork Commuter services, point to point period passes
The capabilities of the card have been extended to reach almost all groups. The following are currently in operation:
Technical detail
The Leap Card uses a chip inside the card that can be read from and written to without direct contact: a so-called proximity card or RFID card. The original Luas and Iarnród Éireann cards used the MIFARE classic card, which became notorious because of the ease with which they can be hacked into. Because of the security concerns of the Mifare classic the company that designed the card, NXP Semiconductors, have developed RFID cards that use a better encryption method. The RPA has not disclosed which card is being used for the Leap Card but scanning the card with a generic RFID reader shows it as a MIFARE DESFire EV1. The terminals used in Dublin Bus, are made by Mifare/NXP and the 'pole terminals' are also made by Mifare. While the Leap Card is a MiFare DESFire EV1, the standard Dublin bus RFID tickets were using MiFare Ultralight while the Rail Smart Card from Iarnród Éireann used the Mifare Classic 1k. The Leap Card system has cost €55 million to date. However, since its launch in December 2011, it has had a turnover of €263 million as of April 2015.
