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Contactless Payments On Board Buses

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Andyh82

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It's rather odd them not moving on to Burnley yet - I have 6 Transdev buses an hour past my house, 4 which accept contactless and 2 which don't. Had to change a £20 on a Burnley bus recently as I'd been planning to use contactless.

Replacing ticket machines is a major capital investment which they need to spread over multiple financial periods. Hence Lancashire will probably be done next year.
 
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kevjs

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That, or paying for a ticket (or carnet of tickets) that is is then loaded onto a smartcard.

I don't think any of them offer single-operator daily caps, let alone multiple operator daily caps.

Thanks, so when Nottingham claim to be the first outside of London while they wont be the first to accept contactless payment they are still correct to a certain degree (assuming that no one leapfrogs them, and that they deliver the multi-operator fare capping as promised). The multi-operator Robin Hood card already does it, aside from being needed to be topped up off the bus, so hopefully those promises come to pass.
 

Mikey C

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I've exclusively used Contactless on various Stagecoach and Go Ahead buses over the month or so, I'm sure takeup has been really good, especially with younger people used to using contactless (or apple pay etc) in pubs instead of cash.

What sometimes catches me out, is tapping too soon, before the driver has entered the fare!
 

323235

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Replacing ticket machines is a major capital investment which they need to spread over multiple financial periods. Hence Lancashire will probably be done next year.
Burnley Buses have ticket machines which support contactless , they just haven't setup the infastructure required for it.
 

Bungle965

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Burnley Buses have ticket machines which support contactless , they just haven't setup the infastructure required for it.
I was going to make a similar comment, they have the newest version of the Parkeon Wayfarer machines which are what Lothian should be getting and should have contactless enabled on them from the get go, however for some seemingly unknown reason they are being heavily delayed.
I imagine that it will be got round to sooner than later, as to the passenger it is not great that one part of the business has the ability to take contactless transactions while another can't.
Transdev are even managing to roll it out quicker on Rosso than on Burnley Bus Company, albeit using Ticketer machines rather than Parkeon.
Sam
 

Stan Drews

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It's rather odd them not moving on to Burnley yet - I have 6 Transdev buses an hour past my house, 4 which accept contactless and 2 which don't. Had to change a £20 on a Burnley bus recently as I'd been planning to use contactless.

It’s not really odd, as they use different ticket machines (Parkeon) at the Lancashire depots and, as Lothian have found out, they are pretty useless (and ridiculously expensive) when it comes to adding the contactless option.
Like many operators they have been impressed by the Ticketer machines, which they used to replace the old Parkeon machines at the Yorkshire depots, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they move to them in Lancashire too at some point - although obviously harder to justify the expense, as they only installed the current Parkeon machines in 2016.
 

90019

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It’s not really odd, as they use different ticket machines (Parkeon) at the Lancashire depots and, as Lothian have found out, they are pretty useless (and ridiculously expensive) when it comes to adding the contactless option.
That's a pretty good description of Wayfarers in general.
 

Hophead

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News from West Sussex and around: Stagecoach, naturally, have contactless card payments and Compass Bus have recently started to accept the cards for payment.

This means that, in Brighton, operators with smaller presence are up-to-speed, but the major players are not. Brighton & Hove were apparently looking for a system that was no slower than the Key Cards currently are (doesn't seem much of a challenge, so perhaps they just couldn't get hold of the machines).

Change is on the way though. It seems that contactless will be introduced from January next year and the company is planning for this to be a touch-in & touch-out system with a daily cap which ought to drive demand as passengers will not need to commit to Saver ticket in advance. What is not clear at present is whether other operators will be included in the scheme (Metrobus as part of the same company, as well as Compass and Big Lemon operating services under contract to the City Council charge common fares and issue and accept inter-available tickets). It would be a pity if this sort of co-operation was lessened, but we already see that KeyGo tickets which combine bus and train are only valid on Go-Ahead operations.
 

Bungle965

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Strange experience this morning, boarded Diamond bus, with the driver setting up the payment for contactless it first declined my first card (Mastercard) printing off a receipt showing it was declined.
I tried another card this time being Visa and it simply then said, try another card. I have used the Visa card before on a Ticketer machine and it worked fine, so I am wondering if it is simply a problem at Diamond's end rather than mine.
Sam
 

Bletchleyite

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Strange experience this morning, boarded Diamond bus, with the driver setting up the payment for contactless it first declined my first card (Mastercard) printing off a receipt showing it was declined.

Possibly a connectivity issue? Paying the driver for a paper ticket doesn't, AIUI, count as transit mode, therefore an authorisation is mandatory, and for some silly reason terminals just report "declined" even if the reason is due to poor/no mobile signal rather than reporting that connectivity failure is the reason and so you should try again.
 

Bungle965

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Possibly a connectivity issue? Paying the driver for a paper ticket doesn't, AIUI, count as transit mode, therefore an authorisation is mandatory, and for some silly reason terminals just report "declined" even if the reason is due to poor/no mobile signal rather than reporting that connectivity failure is the reason and so you should try again.
Indeed the fact that it said declined completely threw me off, in the end the driver gave up and just told me to sit down.
Sam
 

Bungle965

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It must have been a fault on their end as I used the card on NX West Midlands and it went through perfectly fine. Granted it's not the Ticketer system that they use on their buses(I'm not actually sure which system they use, I've not seen it anywhere else) but it went through fine and seemed to complete the transaction quicker, this may have been due to the fact that you don't get a receipt if you pay by contactless with them.
Sam
 

ag51ruk

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It must have been a fault on their end as I used the card on NX West Midlands and it went through perfectly fine. Granted it's not the Ticketer system that they use on their buses(I'm not actually sure which system they use, I've not seen it anywhere else) but it went through fine and seemed to complete the transaction quicker, this may have been due to the fact that you don't get a receipt if you pay by contactless with them.
Sam

NX WM use a system from Init, who also supply Trent Barton, Nottingham City Transport and NET (although not currently using contactless)
 

Eyersey468

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EYMS are meant to be getting Ticketer machines next month so will be able to take contactless payments then
 

Bungle965

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If anything Lothian would be going for the Wayfarer contactless version rather than Ticketer.
I really need to read more carefully, I read that as the Wayfarer machines. o_O
It would make sense as they are part of the Go Ahead group now, who have pretty much all gone down the road of getting Ticketer machines.
Sam
 

Mag_seven

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I had to use Arriva in Stafford this morning - went to pay the driver with card - "sorry we don't accept cards".
Then went to pay with a fiver - "sorry we don't give change".

No wonder people prefer to drive rather than take the bus.
 

GaryMcEwan

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I really need to read more carefully, I read that as the Wayfarer machines. o_O
It would make sense as they are part of the Go Ahead group now, who have pretty much all gone down the road of getting Ticketer machines.
Sam

Since when did Lothian become part of the Go Ahead Group? Do you know something the rest of us don't?
 

bussnapperwm

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I had to use Arriva in Stafford this morning - went to pay the driver with card - "sorry we don't accept cards".
Then went to pay with a fiver - "sorry we don't give change".

No wonder people prefer to drive rather than take the bus.

Stafford services are run mainly out of Cannock with one from Telford.

They should be giving change (unless they have vaults on them) but I don't think they accept contactless.
 

ACBest

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Delaine Buses are going contactless this week, also using Ticketer machines as I understand it.
 

skifans

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Boarded a Stagecoach Cumbria North Lancashire service last weekend and very pleased to be offered the choice of cash or card by the driver. It's be promised "soon" for well over a year and also made an appearance of "arriving this summer" in their lakes timetable booklet. The driver I had said all their vehicles where now enabled.

However, I noted none of the traditional publicity around it. No posters, no stickers. In Sheffield where it was introduced a while ago they still have contactless accepted onboard instead of out of service on their vehicles. The driver said they didn't know if any was coming but have been told by managers to ask cash or card to get the message across. I can't give an exact date but I wasn't asked when I was up in Lancaster again 2 weeks ago. It also doesn't appear as a region on Stagecoach's website: https://www.stagecoachbus.com/help-and-contact/national/is-contactless-available-in-my-area
 
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