PAYG ticketing schemes set for Midlands and Manchester

THE Department for Transport (DfT) has announced it is to run a pilot scheme using Pay As You Go (PAYG) technology in the Manchester and Birmingham areas.

The scheme will cover more than 90 stations and these will be fitted with technology allowing passengers to tap-in and tap-out, knowing they will pay the best fare. There will be no need to plan ahead or search for the right ticket.

The DfT says these trials will also pave the way for the future rollout of similar technology to more stations across the North and Midlands.

The West Midlands pilot will cover 75 stations across the Transport for

West Midlands (TfWM) area (including five currently under construction), and use existing‘Swift’smartcards, meaning passengers can travel seamlessly on local bus and tram services as well.

Greater Manchester’s pilot scheme will cover 17 stations on the Glossop-Manchester Piccadilly and StalybridgeManchester Victoria lines, but rather than smartcards it will use contactless bank cards and smart devices. This will help support a wider ambition to deliver full multi-modal fares and ticketing integration across bus, Metrolink, rail and cycle hire as part of the conurbation’s Bee Network by 2030.

Work will continue to finalise plans for the pilots ahead of launch in 2025.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Thanks to this pilot scheme, we will now add rail to our offering – making Swift truly multi-modal and bringing us much closer to a London ‘Oyster card’ style system.”

There are plans already in motion to expand ‘pay as you go’ in the South East later this year, which will see the total number of tap-in-tap-out stations in England grow to around 500 by 2025.

Separately, a project to roll out barcode technology – which allows passengers to scan digital tickets at the gate – has completed its final phase, supported by £16.4 million DfT funding.