From today Merseyrail passengers can use a MetroCard to ‘tap and go’ and pay for their journeys without having to queue for a paper ticket – with bank card and phone payments set to be added later this year. Tony McDonough reports
Tap and go payments have gone live on the Merseyrail network with passengers now able to pay for their journeys without having to queue for a paper ticket.
This new contactless system allows passengers to tap in and out of stations using a MetroCard, guaranteeing the lowest fare on all journeys. Linking a bank account to a MetroCard takes just a few minutes.
At Liverpool Central station on Tuesday morning Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram launched the new system. Later this year passengers will be able to tap and go by just using their bank card, smartphone or watch.
London Underground has been using Tap & Go for several years. It has been a source of frustration for many people travelling on Merseyrail that they still have to queue up at stations to buy a ticket, meaning sometimes they miss their train.
It is promised that tap and go on Merseyrail will be smart enough to work out your type of journey and automatically charge you the cheapest available fare. But how does it know?
The system will register your Metro or bank card when you tap on the machine at the start of your journey and when you tap out at your destination station you will automatically be charged.
It will take into account several factors – the time of day your journey is made (ie before or during off-peak) and the number of journeys made being some of these.
It will automatically check when and how often you have travelled to work out whether a single, return or Day Saver fare is the cheapest. Click here for a full explanation of how it works.
Mr Rotheram said: “Our region deserves a transport system that is simple, affordable, and fit for the future. As someone who regularly uses the train myself, I know how much of a difference tap and go will make for passengers.
“No more queuing, no paper tickets, and no worrying about whether you’ve bought the right fare. This is about making travel easier for everyone and helping build the fully integrated transport network our residents deserve.”
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A passenger pilot, operating for a number of weeks throughout the summer, saw a positive response from users with 96% of passengers actively encouraging the pilot system to other travellers when it became live.
Passengers are reminded they need to tap their MetroCard at the start and end of each journey on the platform validators.
Neil Grabham, managing director of Merseyrail, said: “The introduction of tap and go across the Merseyrail network represents a significant advancement in our efforts to make rail travel simpler, faster and accessible for all.”