Major update announced on huge change coming to Merseyrail tickets
Contactless ticketing on the Merseyrail network is set to go live in two weeks time. After years of waiting, a trial began last year across the Liverpool City Region for 50 people to test out a tap and go system that has long been in place in the capital and major cities around the world.
The full programme was rolled out in August, allowing people to tap in and out using a Metro card. The scheme removes the need to queue for tickets and guarantees the lowest fare on all journeys.
Now, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has confirmed the second phase of smart ticketing will be available to passengers on the network by the end of this month following a successful trial period. This will include paying for tickets via smartphone.
As part of the preparation and continuing development of the MetroCard scheme, new gates were installed at Moorfields station to get passengers through quicker and easier. The scheme was originally approved in January 2020 by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) as part of the Metro Mayor’s desire to create a London-style transport network.
More than 6,000 people signed up for the new in its first month under the improved scheme which has cost around £10m to implement. Speaking on a BBC Radio Merseyside phone-in, Mr Rotheram confirmed when the next phase would be available.
He said: “We did say we’d run a pilot scheme for smart ticketing, which we’ve done. That means you can use your watch, your phone, your wearables, anything like that and you can pay for it, your bank card and it’s been really successful.
“We are now going to roll the whole thing out in the next two weeks. On February 25, we’re going to roll that out across the Merseyrail network so people will be able to use all of those things to pay, which is then ticketless and contactless.”
Passengers will need to tap in at the beginning and end of their journey to ensure a lowest price fare promise – capped daily and weekly through the smart system. They will also still be able to buy season tickets, as well as daily and return tickets from rail stations and online via the Metro Portal. There had been hopes the project would have gone live last Autumn.
Mr Rotheram added: “It’s a huge investment though, that’s the thing people don’t understand, ‘why can’t we just do this?’ The back office function, the algorithm that calculates all this, that’s the expensive bit of kit. We’ve put that in.
“What is also will do, is not just allow you to use contactless, but also you will get the cheapest fare. If you used it on a few different journeys in a day, it will calculate what the cheapest fare for all those journeys collectively will be.”