Brighton & Hove/Metrobus to introduce tap in/tap out

Even if there is some fraud by people touching out early, that would probably be outweighed by maximum fares incurred by people forgetting to tap out and not bothering to ask for a refund. Most passengers travel on urban buses around Brighton and Crawley where there is little difference between the lowest and highest fare (£2.50 vs £1.70 in Crawley, £2.60 vs £2 in Brighton), so the scope for fraud is small on these routes.

It should be noted that it is cheaper to get a day ticket on mobile than using tap on tap off for day tickets as tap on tap off is charged the same as cash fares, although if you are not sure if you need a day ticket then contactless makes sense as you can take advantage of capping. Also, 60 minute tickets are still only available on mobile. You might have thought that they could offer unlimited tap ons in 60 minutes for the same fare.

In addition, KeyGo (where valid) is cheaper than contactless in most cases.

The system is also now live on Brighton and Hove Buses.

Had my first ever onboard ticket inspection today on a Metrobus service after 2 years of daily travel.

For obvious reasons I won't explain what they did, but the focus appeared to be on a particular type of payment.

I'm glad to say there were no issues with any of the passengers onboard!

Carousel Buses (also Go-Ahead) are to introduce touch in and out contactless ticketing soon.

https://www.carouselbuses.co.uk/news/freeflow-fare-changes/

The company has recently announced that more than a million tap-on-tap-off transactions have been made since the system was introduced just over 4 months ago (this seems to cover both companies). They also state that cash payments are now under 10% on Brighton & Hove (it was around 15% before).

• More than 1 million tap-on, tap-off transactions completed since September 2019
  
  
• 34,400 passengers experienced savings as a result of the daily fare caps
  
  
• Cash payments now represent less than 10% of the journeys made in Brighton & Hove
  

Tap On, Tap Off has hit one million transactions since it was introduced by Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus less than four months ago.

Adult passengers have enthusiastically embraced the ticketing scheme, which makes paying more convenient, speeds up boarding and keeps buses moving. In fact, less than 10% of journeys in Brighton & Hove are now paid for with cash.

So far, Tap On, Tap Off has helped 34,400 passengers save money with its daily fare cap, where passengers automatically pay no more than the cost of a day ticket bought on the bus, no matter how many journeys made that day."

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"Savings as a result of the daily caps"

Most if not all daily caps are higher in price than the equivalent mobile ticket. So whilst there may be savings if the passenger is not sure whether a day ticket is going to be needed at the start of the day, they are actually losing money by using contactless compared to mobile. It is a missed opportunity not offering a discount over the cash fare.

Bletchleyite said:

That's going to cause trouble. On most buses, people are already starting to board and pay fares as others alight, which will cause a flow conflict around the driver's area and increase dwell times.

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In theory that shouldn't happen if passengers always wait for others to get off before they get on, but in practice not everyone does wait and you can easily not notice someone getting off as you get on (especially if they are sitting near the back of the bus and aren't ready to alight as soon as the bus arrives at the stop).