Touchless ticketing trial

Touchless ticketing is being trialled by bus passengers in West Yorkshire. Everyone who takes part in the test will get half price travel on The Shuttle 662 route, which runs between Keighley and Bradford every ten minutes. West Yorkshire Combined Authority and The Keighley Bus Company (part of Transdev) has chosen The Shuttle route for the trial between 1 February and 26 March 2017. Using an app and technology at bus stops, volunteers taking part in the trial will be able to use their smartphone as a travel pass. The mobile app calculates the length of route taken and will cap at the best value price over the course of the day or week. It involves no interaction with the ticket machine and is expected to mean faster boarding times for passengers. The technology to enable this is provided by Becotix.

Chief Executive at Transdev, Alex Hornby, said, ‘We are proud to be delivering another exciting and innovative project in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and that our customers will be amongst the first in the UK to experience this next generation mobile ticketing technology. It has the power to remove some of the perceived barriers to bus travel for new users and make travelling even more convenient for our current customers. This intelligent app will mean that our customers will no longer need to find change or understand the best value fare or tickets. Furthermore, this pioneering technology has great potential to speed up boarding times and journeys, which will only improve our punctuality further on this busy route.’

West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Transport Committee Chair, Cllr Keith Wakefield, said, ‘We have already taken huge strides to simplify ticketing with the MCard smartcard, which is the country’s largest travel smartcard scheme outside London, and with this trial we will take it a step further. Most people carry smart devices, and rely on them for everyday life, from banking to tracking their friends and playing games. This trial turns their smartphone into their bus ticket or pass, and helps them obtain the best value-for-money, based on the journeys they actually make. And as a thank you for helping the Combined Authority and its partners, The Keighley Bus Company and ticketing company Becotix who developed this technology, passengers will get half-price travel. We welcome their feedback after the trial as well.’

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