UK: Stations across the West Midlands and selected routes in Greater Manchester are to be equipped for tap-in and tap-out payment with ‘best fare’ capping from 2025, Rail Minister Huw Merriman confirmed on February 1.
Meanwhile, the Great British Railways Transition Team is working on the development of new partnerships with Transport for West Midlands and Transport for Greater Manchester which would provide greater local decision-making on ticketing, services and stations.
West Midlands
The West Midlands pilot scheme is planned to cover 75 stations across the TfWM area, including five which are under construction. It will use the existing Swift smart card, with daily and weekly capping.
Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street said ’our Swift smart card already enables passengers to transfer seamlessly between our various local bus operators and tram services whilst guaranteeing they get best value fares.
’Now thanks to this pilot scheme, we will now add rail to our offering — making Swift truly multimodal and bringing us much closer to a London Oyster card style system. This is a practical example of how the deeper devolution deal we agreed with government is delivering tangible benefits.’
TfWM is also working with bus operators and transport project promotional body Midlands Connect to develop a contactless payment system which would allow travellers to use contactless bank cards with fare capping across buses and trams, and eventually trains.
Greater Manchester
The planned Greater Manchester pilot scheme would include 17 stations on the Glossop – Manchester Piccadilly and Stalybridge – Manchester Victoria routes.
It will use contactless bank cards and mobile devices, in support of a wider ambition to deliver fully multimodal fares and ticketing integration.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said ‘we are transforming how people travel in Greater Manchester, with the aim for people to pay for journeys easily and seamlessly across buses, trams, trains and cycle hire. We look forward to progressing with these new contactless rail pilots, and working together to develop a more meaningful and accountable partnership that allows us to integrate local rail services across the city-region into the Bee Network by 2030.’
- The Rail Delivery Group and industry partners, supported by £16·4m of Department for Transport funding, have completed the final phase of rolling out equipment to scan digital barcode tickets at station ticket gates. DfT said passengers at every station in Great Britain (outside devolved Merseyrail and Transport for London) will have greater flexibility around how they buy tickets.
