Bus Éireann introduces separate Expressway and Non-Expressway tickets

Bus Éireann have announced changes to ticketing for Expressway coach services, from Tuesday, 23 February 2021.  They say that when you buy a ticket for a journey on a route that is served by both Expressway and PSO (ie government subsidised) Bus Éireann bus services:

• You must choose the type of bus (ie Expressway or non-Expressway) when you buy the ticket, and
• You can only use the ticket on the type of bus that it is for.

This means that tickets for Expressway services can only be used on Expressway services, and tickets for Bus Éireann PSO services (ie everything but Expressway services), can only be used on non-Expressway routes.

This is different from the past, when Expressway coaches accepted regular Bus Éireann tickets and vice versa.

Consequences for longer journeys

If you want to travel with Bus Éireann from a place that is not served by Expressway services, to somewhere far-away that is , eg from Foynes to Cork, then you will need to buy two separate tickets.   One will be for the  non-Expressway part of the journey eg Foynes to Limerick, and one for the Limerick to Cork (ie Expressway) part of the trip.

This change will be phased in over four weeks, from 23-February to 23 March 2021. 

However it is already (20-Feb-2021) impossible book through-journeys in one transaction on the Bus Éireann website;  If you try, you get a message that "There are no direct journeys for your search."   And it is very likely that you will not be able to buy tickets for through journeys on-board buses from 23-February.

If the Bus Éireann website or driver tells you that "there are no direct journeys for your trip" then you need to buy separate tickets (single or return) for each part of the trip.   And because the website doesn't have a shopping-cart, you need to do a separate transaction for each part of the trip: there is no way to group tickets together and buy them all in one transaction.

Questions can be emailed to CustomerCare@expressway.ie
All e-tickets will be issued from tickets@expressway.ie

A high-level map of Expressway services is available here.

Note:   There are times when an Expressway coach is used to provide a non-Expressway service.   Presumably in these cases, the non-Expressway rules will apply because it is a non-Expressway route.

Other changes to Expressway ticketing

A number of other changes are being make to the Expressway ticketing system, from Tuesday 23-February-2021:   

• Advance Seat reservations will be available on all all Expressway routes, including an option for Free Travel Scheme passengers.
• There will be priority boarding for pre-booked customers:  walk-up passengers will only be accepted if there is a seat available for them.
• On-coach payments can be made using Contactless, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and TFI Leap Card.

Note that these features will not be available for non-Expressway services.