Trials for contactless ticketing in the North a step closer

Plans to trial simpler and more flexible ticketing across the North have taken one step closer this week with trials on track for later this year.

The Government is kick starting the procurement process to find the suppliers who will run the technology for the trials across the East Midlands and Yorkshire. The successful bidders will work alongside Northern and East Midlands Railways to deliver the trials.

Unlike the previous rollout of pay as you go, these trials will use GPS based technology. This will track your location on your train journey, ensuring you pay the best fare for the journey you take. For ticket inspections and to go through ticket barriers, a unique bar code will pop up in the app to be scanned.

The use of contactless ticketing offers passengers simpler, more accessible and more flexible train travel as well as a guarantee of the best value ticket on the day. By saving both time and money on a number of journeys, the trials will help to improve living standards and make working people better off – delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change.

Backed by Government funding, the trials are part of plans to modernise our transport system, put passenger experience at the heart of the railways and drive more people back onto trains building on the Government’s mission to deliver growth.

Rail minister, Lord Peter Hendy said: “We’ve seen the success that contactless ticketing has on making journeys easier to navigate and attracting more people to our railways.

“It’s only right that we now look to expand contactless ticketing to other major cities across the North, ensuring they can reap the economic benefits that simpler ticketing offers and that passengers are having a better experience.”

Jacqueline Starr, chief executive officer of Rail Delivery Group, said:
“We are proud to support the Pay As You Go trials in Yorkshire and East Midlands. This is another step in making fares and ticketing easier for everyone.

“We are committed to developing a simpler fare system that not only meets passengers’ expectations but also supports the long-term growth of rail travel making customers experience of the railway better.”

This follows the rollout of contactless ticketing at 53 stations across the South East. In the first 6 months of contactless ticketing being available at the first 6 stations, more than 268,000 entries and exits were made using contactless cards or mobile devices – showing how popular the system is with customers using those stations already.

The department is also working closely with Greater Manchester and the West Midlands to develop their proposals for rolling out contactless ticketing even further.

Alex Hornby, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “Historically, ticketing across the rail industry has been far too complicated and so anything that makes the customer experience simpler has my vote.

“We’ve already seen a huge swing away from physical tickets to digital alternatives, which now make up over 80% of journeys on our network. The option to ‘pay as you go’ is a development of that trend which we’re looking forward to introducing on selected routes very soon.”

Last week, the Government launched a consultation on a landmark bill to rewire Britain’s railways, including committing to further overhaul of ticketing and setting up a powerful passenger watchdog to give passengers a voice and hold train operators to account.