Passengers on the Tyne and Wear Metro can now enjoy the convenience and value of Pay As You Go smart travel using the Pop card.
Transport Minister Andrew Jones and Cllr Nick Forbes, lead member for transport on the North East Combined Authority, met at Haymarket Metro station in Newcastle on Monday, 2 November to launch the distinctive new purple Pop card, the first outside London to offer a daily price cap.
Customers can top up their cards in advance avoiding the need to pay every time they travel.
Pop Pay As You Go provides a discount compared to normal single fares on Metro – while a best price guarantee means people will pay less than the price of a DaySaver for the zones they use, no matter how many journeys they make.
And Pay As You Go customers can also use their cards to travel on a growing number of bus routes across the North East on which the smart technology is now being tested with passenger groups.
Investment by local councils, Government and bus operators has made the North East the first region outside London to offer a single multi-operator smart card.
Cllr Nick Forbes, lead member for transport on the North East Combined Authority, said: “The north east is at the forefront of smart travel and I am delighted that the new Pay As You Go Pop card is going to make life much simpler for travellers across the region’s Metro and bus networks.
“The Pay as You Go System makes paying for journeys easier and cheaper. I have already signed up for mine and I am sure this is going to be just as popular as London’s Oyster Card.
“Nowhere other than London and the North East currently have this system and many are watching with interest. I hope that before too long we can create a wider network of joined up journeys and ticketing as part of our Transport for the North plans.”
The Pop Pay As You Go information leaflet can be downloaded by clicking here.
Transport Minister, Andrew Jones, said: "The Pop Pay as you go card is a great initiative that will ensure passengers across the North East can enjoy seamless journeys and save money on their local bus and Metro services.
"The government is fully committed to improving the ticketing experience for all passengers. That is why we’re investing £2.2 million in smart ticketing technology in the North East as part of our £12 million Smart Cities Partnership scheme.
“Congratulations to the Nexus team for launching the first capped pay as you go ticketing outside London.”
The new Pop Pay As You Go card goes on sale today at Travelshops and from later this month will also be on sale at selected shops in the PayZone network across the region.
The card allows users to store a cash value topped up online, at PayZone agents or station ticket machines. Pop Pay As You Go customers on Metro also benefit from a ‘last journey’ guarantee – allowing them to travel even if the journey takes them into a negative balance, provided that they top up to a positive balance before they next use the card.
Customers touching in and out at Metro validators and gates will see the best fare for them calculated automatically.
Single journeys made with Pop Pay As You Go cost 10p less than the standard fare, and all day travel will cost 20p less than the equivalent DaySaver price for the zones used. The smart system keeps track of journeys made, and stops charging once a guaranteed daily price cap has been reached for the zones used.
The launch of the purple Pop Pay As You Go card is the latest phase in the roll-out of smart travel in Metro by Nexus, which owns and operates the system.
More than 80,000 Metrosaver season ticket, student and Gold Card passengers already use smart cards for travel. Metrosaver and student customers can ‘click and collect’ online, loading their new ticket onto their card as they pass through a station the next day.
The fast growth of smart travel has helped increase Metro passenger numbers to their highest in five years, with more than 39 million people using the system in the last year.
On bus routes Pop Pay As You Go can be used to pay or single and return fares purchased from the driver, instead of passengers having to search for notes and change.
The North East Smart Ticketing Initiative, a partnership of local authorities, transport operators and Nexus has delivered a single multi-operator smart technology from the Tees Valley to the Scottish border.
The card can already be used in this way on Arriva services in Northumberland and those services operating ‘North of the Tyne’, with some Go North East and Stanley Travel services accepting the card in County Durham and some Stagecoach services in the Tees Valley. The number of routes will continue to grow as bus companies introduce Pop Pay As You Go alongside their own smart products.
Download the Pop Pay As You Go leaflet below.