Luton Airport DART ticketing discussion

[Bletchleyite]

When the total cost of my trip is just £150, £10 extra is already significant.

Then walk.

News for you: most people spend more than that on a trip!

Where has a pint become so expensive?

£4-5 is the norm more or less everywhere. You live in London don't you? Where bar Wetherspoons can you get a pint for under £4?

£4.90 for 2.2 km? How can ANYONE justify paying this, especially when a service bus costs only £1.90?

It's easy, not subject to the airport's often terrible traffic and of higher quality than the bus. The value proposition isn't purely on distance.

As a result I no longer use Elizabeth line to the airport after trying it out once in the past. Now I use the tube and avoid Zone 1, unless I have intention to cap my Oyster card on that day.

Again, most people disagree.

 

[Haywain]

Where has a pint become so expensive?

London. It's about the average price, I'd say.

 

[Cloud Strife]

DART definitely doesn't take Oyster or contactless bank cards. The former might have required complicated negotiations with TfL, I suppose, but not doing bank cards seems extremely stupid, since they are valid from London stations as far as Luton Airport Parkway. Passengers from abroad, or even locals, might reasonably assume that they would be able to pay for the DART the same way.

What? This is even more stupid than I first thought. How on earth could they open it without contactless payments being the norm on it?

With regard to employees I'd be surprised if a special deal for the Dart wasn't offered to airport employees only.

I thought about this, but does the DART have the capacity to take employees as well as passengers? It occured to me that if they want the DART to serve the amount of passengers that they intend to serve from Luton, the DART might just not have the capacity.

Er, is it?

I'd say so. Luton is much easier from anywhere along Thameslink, and Liverpool Street is relatively out of the way. It works for the City, but those passengers are going to London City or Heathrow, not Luton. And Luton, except at peak times, is a much more pleasant airport than Stansted.

I don't think they're really in competition in that sense, because the main airlines barely compete with one another at all - you have to be mad to go against Ryanair because you WILL lose.

In fairness, Ryanair are not unbeatable. They excel at making short flights profitable (UK-Ireland, internal Spanish flights), but they've been forced to play catchup in other areas. But I agree, they barely compete with each other: Ryanair for instance has barely touched the internal CEE market while Wizzair is all over it. But I think Stansted is really such a horrific experience these days that Luton can only benefit from it, even though they have their own problems with queues.

But going back to fares, I suspect that the Luton Rising bosses have also considered the fact that the price for the train+DART is comparable to the Stansted Express, and therefore they know that it won't be a major problem for travellers.

 

[JaJaWa]

I found a video showing the gatelines (first at 01:25). In the obvious place for a card reader there is the text CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS COMING SOON.

My guess is that the project is still catching up with how much payment preferences have changed since it was originally designed.

They pass through 2 gatelines at Parkway – one to leave the NR station and one to enter the DART station. Looks like the stickers have been incorrectly applied to the first gateline too as contactless IS valid at Luton Airport Parkway NR.

I wonder if DART will be integrated into TfL contactless (as the NR station is) or use its own.

 

[jon0844]

£9.80 return is not a small cost.

I know, but my point was that people will just accept it along with all the other costs of flying that are quickly forgotten about - or not factored in. 'We got a flight to Barcelona for just £35' is what people will tell their friends, ignoring the fact they spent £50 at the airport!

I will give it a go to see what it's like, but after that I'll use the bus unless I'm running late. I bet most people will use the DART every time and just grumble and joke about the price, but still pay. Just as they will when paying way over the odds for a sandwich, coffee, or bottle of water because 'that's the way it is'.

 

[miklcct]

Last year I got a return flight at about £41 to Vilnius. Then, I bought a Rail Sale Advance from Southampton to London at £1.75 and from London to the Parkway at £1.15. (plus Bournemouth to Southampton Advance at £3.45, a cross-London transfer and the shuttle bus) and a through Advance for the return from the airport at £13.95. So that's a cheap journey and I would take all these into account before booking flights.

 

[miklcct]

Also I usually have a choice between Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. If the headline price is equal I won't choose Stansted because getting there is much more expensive than the other 2.

 

[akm]

DART definitely doesn't take Oyster or contactless bank cards. The former might have required complicated negotiations with TfL, I suppose, but not doing bank cards seems extremely stupid, since they are valid from London stations as far as Luton Airport Parkway. Passengers from abroad, or even locals, might reasonably assume that they would be able to pay for the DART the same way.

It does take contactless payment cards, but (as you say) not Oyster.

 

[Kite159]

In true Luton airport style no doubt when they do accept contactless payments for the DART it will probably cost more money as a 'convenience fee'

 

[CyrusWuff]

Fares aren't a secret, as they're all in BRFares, with GTR as the nominal owner: https://www.brfares.com/!expert?orig=LTN&dest=LUA

As expected, the CPAY fare will be £4.90 Single, and it appears you may also be able to use keyGo.

 

[spag23]

You can't just swipe your pass.
At least 72 hours before your first journey, go to

Luton DART concessions

Save on the Luton DART with a buss pass, disability badge, or if you're a local Luton resident.

www.lutondart.com

to register. You'll need to upload a copy of your ENCTS (bus) pass.
Once your account is set up, you can book your tickets, on the day or in advance.
Beware the "From the Airport" radio button. Don't hit this if your flight starts and ends at Luton.
(I've asked the Company to address this GUI ambiguity, and they are "looking at it")

I originally flagged this Booking GUI issue as affecting advanced Concessionary (ENCTS) bookings. But it also affects general online pre-bookings on DART (though I imagine most non-ENCTS people will simply have added this leg to the their train ticket, or plan to PAYG contactless).
However DART have just told told me they acknowledge the travel direction ambiguity caused by their selection button layout. They say they will remedy this within 72 hours.
But I suspect many may have already bought tickets the wrong way round, and won't realise it till they arrive at Luton!

 

[MrJeeves]

it appears you may also be able to use keyGo

Added on my list of "try to break the system" ideas.

 

[Ediswan]

They pass through 2 gatelines at Parkway – one to leave the NR station and one to enter the DART station. Looks like the stickers have been incorrectly applied to the first gateline too as contactless IS valid at Luton Airport Parkway NR.

I see what you mean. Hopefully it is just the stickers which are wrong rather than the NR gatelines truly not accepting contactless. Has anybody here tried ?

 

[spag23]

DART's General Manager has just confirmed to me that Contactless DOES work on the shuttle, but not Oyster.
She also tells me that - just like on NR - tickets are valid till 0400 the next day. Useful to know for those flights that are scheduled to land between 21:00 and 23:00, but might suffer delays into this all-night airport!

 

[Haywain]

I see what you mean. Hopefully it is just the stickers which are wrong rather than the NR gatelines truly not accepting contactless. Has anybody here tried ?

Contactless payment is definitely being accepted.

 

[MikeWh]

DART's General Manager has just confirmed to me that Contactless DOES work on the shuttle, but not Oyster.
She also tells me that - just like on NR - tickets are valid till 0400 the next day. Useful to know for those flights that are scheduled to land between 21:00 and 23:00, but might suffer delays into this all-night airport!

Presumably she means 0430?

 

[spag23]

Correct! She initially agreed with my query mentioning an 04:00 extension. But I just re-checked with her, and she (very promptly!) agreed it is indeed 0430.

 

[DeverseSam]

Presumably she means 0430?

0429?

Thanks everyone for highlighting the arriva bus by the way, I didn’t know of it

 

[JaJaWa]

DART's General Manager has just confirmed to me that Contactless DOES work on the shuttle, but not Oyster.
She also tells me that - just like on NR - tickets are valid till 0400 the next day. Useful to know for those flights that are scheduled to land between 21:00 and 23:00, but might suffer delays into this all-night airport!

Can you ask her to get the stickers taken off then?

 

[spag23]

Can you ask her to get the stickers taken off then?

OK. I've just emailed her with this request.

 

[jon0844]

Didn't they spot this stuff during testing?

 

[Haywain]

Can you ask her to get the stickers taken off then?

There are no stickers on the DART barriers suggesting that contactless payment is not accepted.

 

[MrJeeves]

There are no stickers on the DART barriers suggesting that contactless payment is not accepted.

"Contactless payments coming soon" doesn't imply that contactless isn't accepted?

 

[Ediswan]

"Contactless payments coming soon" doesn't imply that contactless isn't accepted?

Saved me finding that again. The (same ?) video I linked yesterday is dated 26th March.

 

[Haywain]

"Contactless payments coming soon" doesn't imply that contactless isn't accepted?

View attachment 131856

Is that the DART barriers or the GTR barriers? And when was the photo taken?

 

[MrJeeves]

The (same ?) video

Yeah, same one

Is tgat the DART barriers or the GTR barriers? And when was the photo taken?

DART barriers. In the full frame you can see the dart island platform thing ahead. GTR has had contactless to Luton for a while now, so it would be rather strange for it to be the Luton barriers.

 

[Ediswan]

Yeah, same one

For completeness, the barrier I was in the process of screen-grabbing showing the sticker in question is #51, in the Luton Airport DART exit gateline, definitely not GTR.

 

[spag23]

Luton's Ms Sweet tells me they have now taken these stickers off:
"Already done, we didn't have contact less in our soft launch period"

 

[Haywain]

Yeah, same one


DART barriers. In the full frame you can see the dart island platform thing ahead. GTR has had contactless to Luton for a while now, so it would be rather strange for it to be the Luton barriers.

So, when was that taken?

 

[Ediswan]

So, when was that taken?

Posted to YouTube on 26th March. I have not spotted a date when it was taken.