Contactless payment on the bus. How common is this?

[adamedwards]

Southern Vectis have wave and pay on all the routes we used on the island during our recent holiday. Arrivals say not possible in Herts as fare stages are too complicated. So curious to know where else you can wave and pay on the bus? London of course. But where else?

 

[radamfi]

Southern Vectis have wave and pay on all the routes we used on the island during our recent holiday. Arrivals say not possible in Herts as fare stages are too complicated. So curious to know where else you can wave and pay on the bus? London of course. But where else?

Southern Vectis only let you buy paper tickets from the driver using a bank card. They don't let you use the card as the ticket like in London. Therefore you still waste time having a conversation with the driver. Given we are not talking about using the card as the ticket, I don't see what complicated fare stages have got to do with anything as the card simply replaced bank notes and coins. And if the fare stages are "complicated", whose fault is that?

 

[alangla]

If you mean using the card instead of a ticket, I think that's London only. If you mean accepting contactless card payment for a standard ticket, it's pretty much universal among the big operators in Glasgow, many offer mobile tickets as well

 

[Megafuss]

Southern Vectis have wave and pay on all the routes we used on the island during our recent holiday. Arrivals say not possible in Herts as fare stages are too complicated. So curious to know where else you can wave and pay on the bus? London of course. But where else?

That is rubbish, ARRIVA use contactless in the North East. I very much doubt the farestages on the X18 Newcastle to Berwick 4 hour trip with a three way registration split is less complex than the 724.

They should have just been honest and said it costs too much to install.

 

[Typhoon]

Contactless widely available on Stagecoach for payment of a ticket. https://www.stagecoachbus.com/help-and-contact/national/is-contactless-available-in-my-area

Arriva say not possible in Herts as fare stages are too complicated.

I suspect this is code for 'we don't know the answer, please go away'.

 

[RT4038]

Contactless widely available on Stagecoach for payment of a ticket. https://www.stagecoachbus.com/help-and-contact/national/is-contactless-available-in-my-area


I suspect this is code for 'we don't know the answer, please go away'.

As is pointed out above, I think you and/or Arriva, are confusing 'pay contactless' with using the bank card as the ticket. Using the bank card as the ticket would require 'touch in' and 'touch out' in rural/ regional areas due to the graduated fare system, which is a different story.

 

[ag51ruk]

As is pointed out above, I think you and/or Arriva, are confusing 'pay contactless' with using the bank card as the ticket. Using the bank card as the ticket would require 'touch in' and 'touch out' in rural/ regional areas due to the graduated fare system, which is a different story.

Apart from Trent Barton's Mango, is any other UK bus company doing touch out with either Smart or contactless cards?

 

[Megafuss]

Apart from Trent Barton's Mango, is any other UK bus company doing touch out with either Smart or contactless cards?

No, but Go North East were looking at an app based fare system, not sure if it's in testing

https://www.intelligenttransport.com/transport-news/65268/go-ahead-tap-free-bus-ticket-system/

 

[Pigalle]

Apart from Trent Barton's Mango, is any other UK bus company doing touch out with either Smart or contactless cards?

What about Yourbus’s Genie? It seems to have a Pay-As-You-Go element to it.

 

[Warwick]

Our buses here in Penzance have a touchy-feely pad so punters can pay with their debit cards. Some seem to have a thingy to do it on their cellphones. Seems rather popular amongst young folk. Doesn't affect me because I've got a senile citizen's pass.

 

[Busaholic]

Cornwall Council recently announced they were the first county where every bus passenger was able to pay by contactless card: whether the smaller operators were helped financially to provide the necessary equipment I don't know.

 

[ag51ruk]

What about Yourbus’s Genie? It seems to have a Pay-As-You-Go element to it.

I don't use Yourbus often, but don't recall a touch off pad - nothing on their website so possibly it's just used as a payment card and the driver still issues a ticket? (like the Cheshire Travelcard)

 

[busken]

You can use contactless on Reading Buses

 

[PeterC]

I would expect to use contactless on any of the major operators if I forget my ENCTS card or travel before 9:30. I have certainly done so on First in Bristol, COMS (GoAhead) and in London.

My one complaint isn't on the bus but at the Park and Ride in Oxford where the ticket machines (you can buy combined park and bus or parking only) all require PINs but are set very low and usually have the full sun on the screen.

For the independents around here (Bucks), where often all passengers have passes, I can't see the expense of the kit being worth while.

 

[class387]

Arrivals say not possible in Herts as fare stages are too complicated.

Uno (Arriva's main competitor in the St Albans/Hatfield/WGC area) has just introduced contactless, so if they can do it Arriva can too.

 

[higthomas]

Apart from Trent Barton's Mango, is any other UK bus company doing touch out with either Smart or contactless cards?

Safeguard Guildford seem to do the same, although only with registered cards.

https://www.guildfordbus.co.uk/contactless-payment-faqs/

 

[Mag_seven]

Here in Swindon you can use contactless but only to buy tickets i.e. the system is nor smart enough to apply capping at the £4 "dayrider" fare after so many journeys The rest of the country really does seem to lag behind London in this respect.

 

[PeterC]

Uno (Arriva's main competitor in the St Albans/Hatfield/WGC area) has just introduced contactless, so if they can do it Arriva can too.

Do you mean ticket free contactless payment (touch in and out) or just using contactless to buy a ticket? According to the ads on the sides of many buses Arriva already does the latter in Herts.

 

[PeterC]

Here in Swindon you can use contactless but only to buy tickets i.e. the system is nor smart enough to apply capping at the £4 "dayrider" fare after so many journeys The rest of the country really does seem to lag behind London in this respect.

Does any bus company have the same scale of use as TfL? Remember that TfL have a huge economy of scale by covering both a massive bus network and one of the world's top metro systems as well as suburban railways.

 

[Mag_seven]

Does any bus company have the same scale of use as TfL? Remember that TfL have a huge economy of scale by covering both a massive bus network and one of the world's top metro systems as well as suburban railways.

Surely the technology is the same regardless of the size of the operation?

 

[InspectorBloke]

First's operations in the UK offer contactless payment except for Manchester, which I gather is coming very soon. I think tap in/out with a contactless card is unique to London.

 

[SwindonBert]

Surely the technology is the same regardless of the size of the operation?

The cost of installing a system like Oyster is enormous for a company like Thamesdown, they could not afford contactless until sold to the private sector- I did challenge this with a director

 

[SwindonBert]

Here in Swindon you can use contactless but only to buy tickets i.e. the system is nor smart enough to apply capping at the £4 "dayrider" fare after so many journeys The rest of the country really does seem to lag behind London in this respect.

Do stagecoach in Swindon have contactless, or is it just Thamesdown? My nearest stop is on a Thamesdown route

 

[Mag_seven]

Do stagecoach in Swindon have contactless

Yes they do.

 

[class387]

Do you mean ticket free contactless payment (touch in and out) or just using contactless to buy a ticket? According to the ads on the sides of many buses Arriva already does the latter in Herts.

Seems to be just for payment - it would be very difficult for tap in and out on buses that don't have a flat-fare system. However Uno do offer mobile ticketing where you can just tap in. Not sure about Arriva.

 

[ag51ruk]

Safeguard Guildford seem to do the same, although only with registered cards.

https://www.guildfordbus.co.uk/contactless-payment-faqs/

That's Interesting, thanks. The company behind it did a trial with Kinch Buses (part of the Wellglade group, along with Trent) which ended last year and nothing further seemed to have come of it.

http://mymultipass.co.uk

I guess they could offer it at fairly low cost to even small companies, in the same way that Ticketer has enabled contactless payment for some quite small operators by providing it as a service.

 

[bussnapperwm]

National Express's West Midlands Buses branded services do a flat contactless fare with a daily cap at the same price as a National Express West Midlands Day ticket.

Rotala's West Midlands Buses services (plus the rest of the routes that are run by Diamond Bus Limited outside the TfWM boundary) use contactless the same way as cash fares so the onus is on the passenger to specify a day ticket or other period.

No other West Midlands Buses operators accept contactless.

(WMB is a brand created by TfWM (Totally Frivolously Wasting Money) as part of their "network integration", aka needing to spend some surplus budget)

 

[Andy Pacer]

Arriva use Contactless on the Luton & Dunstable Busway routes A,Z,F70 & F77 and there are more buses fitted than the PVR, so the remaining ‘contactless buses’ feature on other routes and the contactless capability is available.
Presumably should one of these fill in on a 321 (into Herts) then contactless should be available.

 

[Mwanesh]

Whats the point of a daily cap .Why not just have a day rider instead.

 

[WelshBluebird]

First take contactless in Bristol / Bath, but only for buying an actual ticket, as opposed to an Osyter style system. Seems to need the driver to actually select an option for the card payment too once they see you have a card rather than cash. They also have a "smartcard" that you have to top up and then use the balance on that to buy actual tickets too, which seems a bit pointless unless you are someone who doesn't have a contactless bank card.

Whats the point of a daily cap .Why not just have a day rider instead.

Because you may not know you'll need a day rider at first?
The benefit of the cap is that you just carry on as you would, and if you happen to hit a point where a day rider is cheaper than multiple singles, then you just pay the price of the day rider.