Lothian has 100,000 taps in one day
Lothian has recorded over 100,000 ‘taps’ in one day using its capped contactless payment method, ‘TapTapCap’.
The contactless system, which Lothian introduced in 2019, reached the milestone for the first time on Friday 18 August, 14 days in to the Edinburgh Festival season, which traditionally sees the population of the city increase in size.
The capped contactless system is provided by ticketing technology specialist Flowbird, and allows customers to ‘cap’ their journeys at the cost of a discounted adult day ticket after their third tap of the day, using the same bank card or mobile device.
“Our contactless payment system has been a real success story for Lothian since its introduction” – Sarah Boyd, Managing Director, Lothian
Sarah Boyd, Managing Director, Lothian, said: “I’m thrilled that our TapTapCap system has reached this incredible milestone of over 100 thousand taps in just one day. Our buses continue to be a popular method of public transport for residents and visitors to our city during the festival, and this achievement is testament to the amazing work of our people across the business during the extremely busy month of August.
“Our contactless payment system has been a real success story for Lothian since its introduction and we look forward to breaking even more records in the future.”
“This is ideal for encouraging Edinburgh’s international and domestic visitors to use the bus network” – David Thompson, Managing Director of Flowbird’s transport division in the UK
David Thompson, Managing Director of Flowbird’s transport division in the UK added: “It’s amazing to see that so many people at this year’s festival are taking advantage of the convenience of open payments and the benefits of fare capping. Not only does it remove the need to understand fares and carry cash, visitors have the freedom to explore the city safe in the knowledge that the fare system flexes with them. This is ideal for encouraging Edinburgh’s international and domestic visitors to use the bus network.”
The bus operator’s open payment method averages over 80,000 journey taps per day, and has logged over 5.4 million unique users in over four years of operation. In 2021, Lothian introduced ‘Weekly Capping’ for contactless users, offering unlimited travel during the week once the fare cap had been triggered.