More than 1m journeys have now been taken on Merseyrail using the £10m Tap & Go system with majority by smartphone. Tony McDonough reports
Merseyrail’s Tap & Go has now recorded 1m journeys since its launch in August 2025.
Costing £10m, Tap & Go was first launched in August 2025. It allowed passengers to register their bank card details on the Merseyrail website and then pay for their journeys by tapping in and out of stations with a MetroCard.
In February 2026, after a trial period, there was a full rollout of the system allowing people to tap in and out using a bank card, smartphone or smartwatch.
Tap & Go automatically checks when and how often you have travelled to work out whether a single, return or Day Saver fare is the cheapest. The charge normally goes through the day after your journey.
Now Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which funded the system, says more than 1m journeys have been taken and the majority of passengers have used their smartphones to pay.
City region Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “Reaching 1m Tap & Go journeys in such a short space of time just proves that people across our region were more than ready for a simpler, more modern way to travel.
“Tap & Go is all about putting passengers first by making it quicker and easier to get where you need to be, while ensuring you always pay the cheapest possible fare.”
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Passengers who prefer to use a MetroCard can continue to do so, and ticket offices remain open for customers who wish to buy paper tickets.
“Our network performance levels continue to improve, and together with a freeze on rail fares until 2027 that I announced earlier this year, I hope this encourages even more people to travel using our fantastic train services.”