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| Multi operator smartcard for Nottingham buses |
I
have been noticing increasing news about the multi-operator tickets being
implemented on bus services throughout England.
First
off, North West of England has introduced a new multi-operator smart card
called SmartZone.
SMART,
MULTI-OPERATOR TRAVEL LAUNCHED FOR NORTH EAST BUS PASSENGERS
·
Region’s
bus users to benefit from innovative smart ticketing initiative
·
Seamless
multi-journey travel across the major bus operators of the North East -
Stagecoach, Go North East and Arriva
·
Unlimited
travel with any bus operator from less than £2 per day
·
Bus
passengers across the north east of England will benefit from smart, multi-operator
travel from today (Monday 14th December).
Bus
operators Go North East, Arriva and Stagecoach North East have introduced a new
multi-operator smart card – “SmartZone”
which allows travel on buses operated by all three major bus companies
in Sunderland, Newcastle and North Tyneside, providing unlimited travel from
less than £2 per day.
Today’s
announcement follows a pledge made last year by the country’s major bus
companies to deliver multi- ‐operator smart ticketing to millions of bus
customers across England during 2015 as part of the government’s Smart Cities
initiative.
Regionally,
this new initiative follows the launch of the South Tyneside SmartZone scheme
last December. Since then bus companies
have worked together across the country and made a multi million pound
investment to deliver smarter ticketing for millions of bus passengers.& ;
The
new SmartZone products can be loaded onto either a StagecoachSmart Card, a Go
North East Key Card and Arriva Connect Card and will be accepted on any
Stagecoach, Go North East or Arriva services in Tyne and Wear, within the
SmartZone boundaries*.
Once
purchased, customers can catch the first bus that comes along, making their
journeys even easier and more convenient. Passengers simply hold their card
over the ticket reader when boarding the bus to record their journey.
The
new tickets offer unlimited travel from as little as £13.50 a week or £52 for 4
weeks in Sunderland, £14.30 a week and £55 for 4 weeks in North Tyneside and
£14.50 a week and £56 for 4 weeks in Newcastle.
Tyne
and Wear already has one of the highest levels of bus use in the country, along
with high customer satisfaction, and it is hoped the new smart ticketing will
encourage even more people to get on board the region's buses.
In
a joint statement, the managing directors of the bus companies involved (Phil
Medlicott, Stagecoach North East, Kevin Carr, Go North East and Nick Knox,
Arriva North East) said: “Our buses are used by millions of people every year
across the North East. Collectively we are investing millions of pounds in new
digital technology to make it easier for people to use the bus. Smart
ticketing, better information and easier ways to buy travel are at the heart of
our strategy and support the government’s wider objectives to make buses better
through effective partnership working.”
Also
Nexus (Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive) have issued a press release
introducing Pay As You Go on their Pop Card system.
Pop
Pay As You Go smart travel is officially launched
Passengers
on the Tyne and Wear Metro can now enjoy the convenience and value of Pay As
You Go smart travel using the Pop card.
Transport
Minister Andrew Jones and Cllr Nick Forbes, lead member for transport on the
North East Combined Authority, met at Haymarket Metro station in Newcastle on
Monday, 2 November to launch the distinctive new purple Pop card, the first
outside London to offer a daily price cap.
Customers
can top up their cards in advance avoiding the need to pay every time they
travel.
Pop
Pay As You Go provides a discount compared to normal single fares on Metro –
while a best price guarantee means people will pay less than the price of a
DaySaver for the zones they use, no matter how many journeys they make.
And
Pay As You Go customers can also use their cards to travel on a growing number
of bus routes across the North East on which the smart technology is now being
tested with passenger groups.
Investment
by local councils, Government and bus operators has made the North East the
first region outside London to offer a single multi-operator smart card.
Cllr
Nick Forbes, lead member for transport on the North East Combined Authority,
said: “The north east is at the
forefront of smart travel and I am delighted that the new Pay As You Go Pop
card is going to make life much simpler for travellers across the region’s
Metro and bus networks.
“The
Pay as You Go System makes paying for journeys easier and cheaper. I have
already signed up for mine and I am sure this is going to be just as popular as
London’s Oyster Card.
“Nowhere
other than London and the North East currently have this system and many are
watching with interest. I hope that before too long we can create a wider
network of joined up journeys and ticketing as part of our Transport for the
North plans.”
Transport
Minister, Andrew Jones, said: "The Pop Pay as you go card is a great
initiative that will ensure passengers across the North East can enjoy seamless
journeys and save money on their local bus and Metro services.
"The
government is fully committed to improving the ticketing experience for all
passengers. That is why we’re investing £2.2 million in smart ticketing
technology in the North East as part of our £12 million Smart Cities
Partnership scheme.
“Congratulations
to the Nexus team for launching the first capped pay as you go ticketing
outside London.”
The
new Pop Pay As You Go card goes on sale today at Travelshops and from later
this month will also be on sale at selected shops in the PayZone network across
the region.
The
card allows users to store a cash value topped up online, at PayZone agents or
station ticket machines. Pop Pay As You
Go customers on Metro also benefit from a ‘last journey’ guarantee – allowing
them to travel even if the journey takes them into a negative balance, provided
that they top up to a positive balance before they next use the card.
Customers
touching in and out at Metro validators and gates will see the best fare for
them calculated automatically.
Single
journeys made with Pop Pay As You Go cost 10p less than the standard fare, and
all day travel will cost 20p less than the equivalent DaySaver price for the
zones used. The smart system keeps track
of journeys made, and stops charging once a guaranteed daily price cap has been
reached for the zones used.
The
launch of the purple Pop Pay As You Go card is the latest phase in the roll-out
of smart travel in Metro by Nexus, which owns and operates the system.
More
than 80,000 Metrosaver season ticket, student and Gold Card passengers already
use smart cards for travel. Metrosaver
and student customers can ‘click and collect’ online, loading their new ticket
onto their card as they pass through a station the next day.
The
fast growth of smart travel has helped increase Metro passenger numbers to
their highest in five years, with more than 39 million people using the system
in the last year.
On
bus routes Pop Pay As You Go can be used to pay or single and return fares
purchased from the driver, instead of passengers having to search for notes and
change.
The
North East Smart Ticketing Initiative, a partnership of local authorities,
transport operators and Nexus has delivered a single multi-operator smart
technology from the Tees Valley to the Scottish border.
The card can already
be used in this way on Arriva services in Northumberland and those services
operating ‘North of the Tyne’, with some Go North East and Stanley Travel
services accepting the card in County Durham and some Stagecoach services in
the Tees Valley. The number of routes
will continue to grow as bus companies introduce Pop Pay As You Go alongside
their own smart products.
And
over in Manchester, Transport for Greater Manchester have also launched their
own Multi Operator smartcard ticket.
SMARTER, CHEAPER BUS
TRAVEL COMES TO GREATER MANCHESTER
·
Region’s
passengers benefit from launch of new smart multi- ‐operator bus travel
·
Cost
of multi- ‐journey bus travel cut by an average of 10% with switch from paper
to smart technology
·
Bus
operators working with Transport for Greater Manchester deliver on pledge to
introduce multi- ‐operator smart ticketing to the city region
·
Transformational
initiative welcomed by Transport Minister Andrew Jones
·
Millions
of bus passengers in Greater Manchester will benefit from cheaper fares from
today with the introduction of a new smart ticketing scheme that works across
bus companies and the region.
The
ground- ‐breaking scheme is one of the largest in the UK outside London and is
the result of collaboration between more than 30 bus operators through industry
body Greater Manchester Travelcards Ltd (GMTL), the organisation behind the
System One brand, in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).
From
today, customers can purchase great value multi- ‐operator travel, which is
stored on a smart card and can be used on buses across Greater Manchester.
Fares will be cut by an average of 10% for the new electronic products compared
to the equivalent existing printed products, saving customers up to £5 a week.
Customers can buy adult and junior 1- ‐day, 7- ‐day and 28- ‐day products,
providing unlimited bus travel across the Greater Manchester area.
The
new product range, branded get me there,
is an extension of the equivalent existing printed System One multi- ‐operator
products. Customers will be able to load the new products onto widely available smart cards issued by bus
operators, including StagecoachSmart or by TfGM, including igo passes for young
people, other concessionary passes, and a get
me there smart card. Passengers then
touch in at smart readers when they board the bus to validate their travel.
The
scheme has involved joint working between private and public sector
organisations and represents a combined multi- ‐million pound investment by
Greater Manchester’s major bus operators and TfGM, in partnership with GMTL, to
support the regional economy by making it cheaper and easier for people to
travel by bus.
Today’s
announcement follows a pledge made last year by the country’s major bus
companies – which include Arriva, First and Stagecoach – to deliver multi- ‐operator
smart ticketing to millions of bus customers across England during 2015. It
also delivers on a commitment by TfGM to introduce the next stages of its get me
there smart ticketing scheme for Greater Manchester before the end of the year.
Transport
Minister Andrew Jones said: “Smart ticketing will transform everyday journeys
in this great city, making travelling across transport modes easier and saving
people money. We’re committed to rolling out smart ticketing across the country
through our Smart Cities Partnership, and it’s great that Greater Manchester is
leading the way.”
Currently,
System One printed tickets are the only ‘multi- ‐bus’ option for bus passengers.
More multi- ‐operator and multimodal products will be made available as part
of get me there over time.
The
city's major bus operators have invested heavily in the new scheme and have
delivered the technology in partnership with GMTL and TfGM. GMTL, working with
TfGM, has ensured that get me there travelcards can be used with any bus in the
scheme whilst also allowing interoperability with individual operators’ own
smart cards. TfGM has funded the on- ‐board
smart card readers for smaller operators so that customers can have seamless
access to travel on Greater Manchester buses.
Trevor
Roberts, Chairman of GMTL, said: “It has
long been our aspiration and an integral part of our business development plans
for some time to bring the flexibility and accessibility of smart travel to our
System One customers who have enjoyed the benefit of multi operator multi- ‐modal
travel for over 20 years. It is by
working in a strong partnership with transport operators across the Greater
Manchester area and with TfGM that we can now start to move our products across
to smart card technology utilising the back office infrastructure of the three
major operators and TfGM.”
Councillor
Andrew Fender, Chair of TfGM Committee said: “We want to make travel easier and
more attractive in Greater Manchester and technology and smart ticketing is one
of the ways we can help. We’ve worked hard with operators to ensure that get me
there was built into their smart ticketing plans and I’m delighted that we’ve
been able to bring on board even more operators.
“With
eight of every ten public transport journeys made by bus and most Greater
Manchester bus services part of this new scheme, today marks a good step
forward on our smart journey with passengers.”
Stagecoach
Manchester Managing Director Christopher Bowles said: “This is great news for
Manchester’s bus users. Stagecoach is making an £11million investment across
the country in new
digital
technology to make it easier for our customers to use the bus. Smart ticketing,
better information and easier ways to buy travel are at the heart of our
strategy. This announcement shows that, by working together, bus operators,
local authorities and the Government can make buses even better for the many people
who rely on them every day.
Teresa
Broxton, Managing Director for First Manchester added, “The introduction of the
rebranded get me there smart tickets will help make bus travel even more
convenient for customers. We’ve worked together with other operators and our
Manchester transport partners to invest in technology to improve accessibility
for customers across the network.”
Phil
Cummins, area managing director for Arriva Manchester said: “Arriva’s
commitment towards innovating for the good of our customers has always been
right at the heart of our business and we welcome the opportunity to partner
with our peers in order to explore new technologies which will enhance the
passenger experience. The launch of the get me there smart card scheme is another
example of how collaboration can deliver greater choice and better services for
customers, and make bus travel a more enticing, accessible method of
transport.”
Next up is Norfolk
where Norfolk County Council have introduced their own smartcard ticketing
system as well.
holdall®
is a Norfolk County Council initiative in partnership with some bus operators
in Norfolk including lynx, Norwich Park & Ride, Sanders, Simonds and West
Norfolk Community Transport. You can pay for tickets on the bus with money
pre-loaded to your card in the sQuidTravel Purse.
What benefits do I get
from using holdall®?
·
Discounted
bus fares on all types of lynx bus tickets that are originally £50 or less.
·
Special
offers exclusive to passengers that use holdall®.
·
No
need to worry about having the correct change for the bus.
·
Easier
and quicker boarding times.
·
If
you’re a parent/guardian you can add funds to a holdall smartcard® or Norfolk
school bus pass so that your son/daughter doesn’t have to carry cash to pay for
bus fares.
Lastly,
Nottingham City Council has introduced their own multi-operator ticket for
their local bus services.
ROBIN
HOOD SMARTCARDS: MAKING TRAVEL CHEAPER AND EASIER
Travelling around
Nottingham is about to be made easier and cheaper with the new pay-as-you-go
Robin Hood smartcard.
Available from
Citycard ticket machines from Monday 14 December, the card will create a
hassle-free way of getting around Greater Nottingham on bus or tram – even when
using different transport operators.
As part of its
introductory first phase of testing, the smartcard will run on buses and trams
to ensure everything is working properly across the network.
In
2016, other retail outlets such as travel centres, newsagents, web and tram
stops will come on line. More bus stop
vending machines will also being added.
The
Robin Hood smartcard will work like London’s Oyster card – customers can add
money to the card to pay for bus and tram fares. Passengers will always know
they are paying less than the standard daily rate: 10% cheaper than a day
ticket when paying with cash. The Robin Hood card itself is free and the fares
are set by the transport provider.
It
is the first scheme of its kind outside London, where the Oyster card has
revolutionised the way people get around the capital, and has come about through
a partnership between the City Council and local transport providers.
The
Robin Hood card will be valid for travel on Nottingham Express Transit (tram),
Nottingham City Transport (NCT) – including Pathfinder and South Notts buses –
Kinchbus, Trent Barton and the City Council’s Linkbus network (including park
and ride) within the Greater Nottingham boundary.
To
use the card, a customer will present it to a smartcard reader once for each
trip made. On bus services, this will be the reader on entering the bus. To use
the tram, the Robin Hood card should be touched on to the validator on the
platform. It’s easier and quicker, too, because passengers only need to scan as
they get on their bus or tram, not when they get off. This is important to
prevent being charged twice.
Councillor
Nick McDonald, Portfolio Holder for Growth, Jobs and Transport at Nottingham
City Council, said: “This is a really exciting development and further
underlines our commitment to providing a world-class public transport system
for Nottingham. An integrated travel card has never been done before outside
London and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to work with our commercial
partners to make it happen.
“The
Robin Hood card offers a flexible way to pay for travel across participating
company services and guarantees to be the cheapest way to move around the area
without using a season card. It is a crucial part of providing integrated
ticketing in the city to make travelling by public transport as easy and
appealing as possible.
“We
hope that other bus companies and East Midlands Trains will be on board soon.
The Robin Hood card will be valid over the Greater Nottingham area, from Arnold
to Ruddington, and from Netherfield to Beeston, so will be great for occasional
public transport commuters and for shoppers and visitors to the city.”
A
single trip on one day will be £1.70 with any operator. Unlimited day trips can
be made for £3.15 from any one given operator or £4.00 for more than one
operator. The minimum top-up on the card will be £10.
Over
the next year it is planned to introduce weekly fare capping, out-of-the-area
travel and child and student cards.
My conclusion
Many Councils are
implementing multi-operator smartcard ticketing systems for their local
services and this is a step forward towards a cashless society. Transport for London made London Buses cash free
during the summer of 2014, but passengers that have a UK Contactless Bank card
are able to pay the fare on London Buses and rail services which is covered by
the Oyster card system. The question is, will it be the end of paper tickets
for the London Transport service as smartcard payments are the cheapest option
to pay their fares? It’s still a long way off until we are able to see
contactless bank card payments for bus services around England.
I believe it will
spread to other bus services around England, but it will take time because cash
payments are still in use. The Fastrack Bus Rapid Transit service from the KentThameside area is still using cash payments where passengers can pay their fare
at the bus stop.
I found an article
from 1997 which talks about the Smartcard ticketing system for London Transport
services. It can be read here.
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