Stagecoach Group is leading the way in delivering smarter travel options for millions of passengers every day. The Group is pioneering the use of smartcard technology in its bus and rail operations as well as making travel easier through the use of online travel planning and ticket sales.
- UK’s first national rail smartcard
- Web-based journey planning
- Online ticket sales
- Bus smartcard technology
- Tap and go bus travel
- Solar powered on-street ticket machines
UK’s first national rail smartcard
South West Trains has launched a passenger pilot of the UK’s first national rail smartcard. A number of season ticket holders are taking part in the pilot between Staines and Windsor to help test and perfect the ITSO smartcard technology before it is rolled out across the network. The pilot is the first step in the delivery of the smartcard system across South West Trains, the biggest commuter rail network in the UK. Equipment is being installed at stations across the South West Trains network to allow smartcards to be introduced gradually on a route-by-route basis. The Department for Transport (DfT) is working with Transport for London (TfL) on making TfL’s smartcard system compatible with the national ITSO system, to allow London to be included. Developing the first ever national rail smartcard has taken two years of hard work after it was specified as part of the new South Western franchise, which is operated by Stagecoach Group. Further ITSO smartcard schemes have been specified for other rail franchises, including the East Midlands franchise, which is also operated by Stagecoach.
Stagecoach is continuing to invest in online solutions to make travel easier for customers. East Midlands Trains has launched ‘My Journeys’, an online journey planning tool available at eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/myjourneys. The technology vastly reduces the time taken by passengers to find relevant information relevant to them. Following registration, customers receive a range of customised journey planning services all on one easily navigable screen. Repeat users are immediately recognised, their previous information and search requests visible within seconds – saving time spent planning and organising. By providing information about their travel plans ‘My Journeys’ offers:
- customised timetables
- personalised live departure board
- live countdown timer to the next train from your home station
- notice of planned engineering works interactive engineering works map
- advance warning of ticket release dates
Stagecoach has launched an online 28-day bus ticket as part of a drive to make it easier for people to switch from the car to public transport. The 28-day megarider ticket offers a discount on the cost of buying four individual weekly tickets. Passengers can log on to www.buymymegarider.com and purchase travel on their local Stagecoach bus network. Passengers using Stagecoach services already purchase more than 6.3million weekly bus tickets across the UK every year. Research has found a huge increase in demand for online purchase of bus travel, with a 60% increase in sales of Stagecoach’s popular unirider student ticket in the past 12 months.
Stagecoach has installed smartcard technology on around 2,000 of its buses operating in the UK. In Scotland, Stagecoach is on target to install brand new smartcard ticket machines on all of its buses by spring 2009. So far, the machines have been used to facilitate well in excess of two million concessionary travel journeys in Scotland. Currently, the use of smartcards in Scotland is limited to concessionary travel cardholders. The new machines require concessionary travel passengers to show their National Entitlement Card to the driver while placing their card on the new readers. The new machines make concession travel recording more accurate and reduce the likelihood of fraudulent behaviour, as well as making life easier for passengers. The implementation of the scheme is being managed and funded by Transport Scotland, an agency of the Scottish Government, and is the first time the technology has been introduced in an entire country rather than a city. The only similar schemes on such a scale are in cities such as Hong Kong and London. The programme of work in Scotland is part of a UK-wide Stagecoach initiative to work in partnership with local authorities to install ITSO certified machines on all 7200 Stagecoach buses. The project is part of the introduction of national concessionary travel schemes using smartcards across the UK. So far new smartcard enabled machines have been fitted on Stagecoach buses in Merseyside, Cambridgeshire, the South West, and Wales. A number of other English local authorities have already signed up to work with Stagecoach on new smartcard ticketing, and the Group expects more to follow.
Bus passengers in Liverpool are to be the first in the UK to be able to use a bankcard to make on-board payment for travel. The initiative is as a result of a partnership between Stagecoach, MasterCard and The Royal Bank of Scotland. A one-year trial will see the major roll-out of the technology in the second quarter of 2009 on around 200 Stagecoach buses in Merseyside, allowing passengers to make fast, convenient and safe payments simply by tapping their card on a dedicated reader. MasterCard® PayPass™ and Maestro® PayPass™ allows holders to make payments under the value of £10 and will be a direct alternative to cash, saving customers fumbling for cumbersome coins or waiting for change. Customers will still be given a bus ticket as proof of purchase. It is the first ever use of contactless bankcard payments on public transport in the UK and the first significant extension of the ‘Tap & Go™’ way to pay outside London for members of the general public. Cardholders will also be able to use the PayPass functionality in several shopping locations across Liverpool to make small value payments quickly.
Solar powered on-street ticket machines
Bus passengers in Manchester are finding it quicker and easier to get their tickets thanks to brand new solar-powered on-street ticket machines. The new machines – the first of their kind in the country – have been installed by Stagecoach and Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) and as part of a 12-month trial. Around £80,000 is being invested in the project, which will make it even easier for customers to buy tickets in advance, speeding up boarding and helping services run on time. Britain’s busiest bus route – Stagecoach’s 192 service in Manchester – is among those to benefit from the new machines. Around 9 million people a year - 189,000 passengers a week - travel on the route, with services operating every five minutes. Stagecoach, which operates around 690 buses in South Manchester, has seen the number of full fare paying bus passengers on its services increase by more than 30% in the past 10 years. The company has invested £21m in new vehicles in the city in the past two years. The machines incorporate the latest chip and pin security technology for card payments. Passengers can buy Stagecoach’s Dayrider and Megarider tickets from the machines, and System One DaySaver tickets for those needing to use two or more operators’ services. The equipment is manufactured by Parkeon, a world leader in automated mass-transit ticketing systems, which has installed 5,000 ticket vending machines for transport operators in the UK, France, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark.