Nexus, which owns, manages and is modernising the Tyne and Wear Metro, has successfully completed work on the installation of new smart ticket machines at all of the Metro stations in North Tyneside.
The new ticket machines are at the heart of a £25m project to update the ticketing system on Metro. Nexus is replacing a total of 225 ticket machines at 60 stations.
Smart ticket machines can accept credit and debit card payment and notes, as well as coins. They are also enabled to accept smartcard payments.
The work forms part of the £385m Metro: all change modernisation programme, which will see the system transformed over the next 11 years, including revamped stations and trains.
The new Metro ticket machines are enabled to handle smartcard transactions for the new Pop cards. Passengers will be able to use the new ticket machines to top up their Pop cards.
Pop is the name of the new travel smartcard which is being rolled out across Tyne and Wear during 2013.
North Shields Metro station has already had its electronic ticket gates installed. Nexus is installing gates at 13 key stations. Nexus aims to have the ticket gates ready for passenger use later this year.
Director of Customer Services for Nexus, Tobyn Hughes, said: “All Metro stations in North Tyneside now have new smart ticket machines installed.
“This new technology is transforming the way people access the Metro system. The machines accept card payments and bank notes, which remove a lot of the hassle of needing the correct change to buy a ticket.
“The machines are also smartcard enabled, so when the new Pop cards go live passengers will be able to top up their Pop cards using the machines.”
North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor, Linda Arkley, said: “It is important for both our residents and visitors to the borough that our public transport is made as accessible as possible for the public to use. These new smartcards will help to do that.
“It’s a welcome addition to the considerable investment already made in the Metro stations across North Tyneside.”