Luton DART

[Joshua_Harman]

I'm not aware of any arrangement being in place.

Airport staff get 50% off season tickets with GTR and EMR (Not TfL and travel cards though) with tickets starting from luton airport parkway, but I believe that is a GTR promotion not a national rail one.

 

[Backroom_boy]

Anyone here been on it recently? Have the teething problems from the soft launch been ironed out?

 

[Haywain]

Anyone here been on it recently? Have the teething problems from the soft launch been ironed out?

What teething problems?

 

[Backroom_boy]

What teething problems?

Mainly us posters on here being hypercritical of the initial few days

 

[[email protected].]

Can someone just confirm for my own piece of mind that I'm purchasing the correct tickets.

Saturday 9th September
Thinking of taking the 2 trains highlighted in attachment
St Pancras (STP) to Luton Airport (LUA) via DART RTN

Any other options considered

Thanks

 

[MrJeeves]

Can someone just confirm for my own piece of mind that I'm purchasing the correct tickets.

Saturday 9th September
Thinking of taking the 2 trains highlighted in attachment
St Pancras (STP) to Luton Airport (LUA) via DART RTN

Any other options considered, no fixed times

Thanks

Those are DART inclusive fares, but what you've selected are Advance Singles which have fixed times.

You'll want to scroll down to the return fares section at the bottom

 

[[email protected].]

Those are DART inclusive fares, but what you've selected are Advance Singles which have fixed times.

You'll want to scroll down to the return fares section at the bottom

Thanks,
I removed "no fixed times" from my post, I'm not in any hurry all day to do RTN.

So the advances should be fine.

 

[yorkie]

Reopened to enable @Edvid to post an update

 

[Edvid]

Thanks yorkie

Railcard and Groupsave discounts now apply to DART-only tickets and through tickets in full.

Stats on usage during the first year of full operation have been released too:

The Luton DART is celebrating its first full year of operation today with news that it has carried 2,721,695 passengers and exceeded its targets to date.

Since beginning services on 27 March 2023, more than 2,443 residents of Luton have registered for the half-price travel they are entitled to, making 5,822 journeys.

In addition, 5,651 Older Person Bus Pass Holders and Disability Badge Holders have registered for the free travel they can get, making 19,538 journeys.

Meanwhile, 5,906 airport staff have also registered to access their free journeys. This is arranged through eligible companies’ HR departments.

[...]

Over the year, the Luton DART has achieved 16.2% modal share for passengers accessing the airport, peaking at 21.6% for week commencing 5 November. This represented an 18% increase on the previous bus transfer service for the same week a year earlier.

Despite ongoing rail strikes, over the last three months the Luton DART has averaged 17.2% modal share, which is above target.

Service reliability has exceeded 99 per cent, with no significant downtime other than for safety reasons following the airport car park fire.

The Luton DART service is rated ‘excellent’ under independent Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys.

Meanwhile, DART tickets are now eligible for rail card and Groupsave discounts, the latter saving one-third off the normal price when three or more people travel together, offering further improved value.

The Luton DART achieved its one millionth passenger in August 2023, just 147 days after opening, and its two millionth passenger over Christmas.

Concessionary fare registrations can be made with proof of entitlement at www.lutondart.com. All residents of the borough need to do is provide proof of address when they register, and they receive 50 per cent off all DART tickets bought via the Luton DART website.

Luton DART carries 2.7m passengers in its first year – Luton Rising

lutonrising.org.uk

[N.B. PRIV discounts are apparently available too, as mentioned on another thread.]

 

[lawried123]

Ah. Disappointing. Thanks mate.

I get Privs and I get the discount on Dart through tickets to the airport. If I can be bothered to book before. I get it free with my old persons bus pass

Lawrie

 

[Edvid]

A few years ago (during the shuttle bus days) I once loaded a Parkway-Airport (LTN-LUA) single onto my Key Smartcard. The on-bus Ticketer couldn't verify it and I wasn't allowed on, then whilst getting a refund at the ticket office I was informed its availability on their Ticket Vending Machines (for ITSO fulfilment) was an error.

Nowadays I buy half-price resident barcode singles through the DART website; last weekend was an exception, as I used a TVM to buy another LTN-LUA single on ITSO. It only cost an extra 75p with Network Railcard discount, and with gatelines at both ends I wanted to see if it would work this time.

It didn't. Attempted entry at the DART gateline produced error code 57,* and after speaking to an assistant there I was directed to another assistant at the NR gateline, who upon verifying the ticket on my smartcard app radioed staff at both ends of the DART to let me through.

Granted, most (almost all?) DART passengers use contactless, magstripe, and/or barcode tickets (the Worldline/Evoke TVMs are now issuing the latter on till roll as well), but the aforenoted smartcard issue still needs sorting, one way or the other.

[* PPT INVLD - Location not covered by PPT (pre-paid ticket), barcode: NLC not valid]