Replacing the Walrus card in January 2020, the Liverpool city region Metrocard allows public transport users to buy tickets online and sales have now passed £1m. Tony McDonough reports

Ticket sales via the Metrosmart online travel portal have passed the £1m mark this week.

Liverpool city region’s Metrocard travel scheme replaced the Walrus card in January 2020. It gave people using public transport across Merseyside the ability and flexibility to buy smart tickets and manage their accounts online for the first time.

It is a first step in a programme that will deliver Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram’s vision for a London-style smart ticketing scheme with ‘tap and go’ travel, digital season tickets and online accounts for bus and rail users.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the Combined Authority says this upward trend in sales indicates a growing appetite for smarter digital ticketing among travellers in the city region.

Cllr Liam Robinson Transport and Air Quality Portfolio Holder for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, said: “The Metrosmart portal is all about making ticketing simpler and easier for people travelling around our region so it’s great to see that passengers are embracing this online service.

“We are developing more products and services to meet the growing demand for smarter ticketing options that offer greater levels of convenience and choice”.

The Metrosmart portal allows passengers to register their smartcard, buy a range of smart tickets, for use on bus or rail and manage their accounts online. Once purchased, tickets are collected by tapping the smartcard on board the bus or at the rail station.

More ticket products were made available online earlier this year and platform validators were installed at 66 stations across the Merseyrail network. Further products and enhanced services are under development as part of the Combined Authority’s smart ticketing programme.