A flagship city bus route has become the first in Tyne and Wear to accept passengers with a Pop card, in a major boost for integration between bus and Metro services.
Metro customers can now use their Pop cards to travel on the QuayLink bus, which connects the major attractions on the Newcastle-Gateshead Quays.
This added benefit for Pop card holders was introduced from Sunday, 12 October.
The QuayLink buses, services Q1 and Q2 which are operated by Go North East, are fitted with smartcard readers that will accept Pop cards loaded with a MetroSaver, a student MetroSaver, a 16-18 MetroSaver and corporate MetroSavers.
All passengers need to do when they board the QuayLink bus is touch their Pop card on to the smartcard reader.
They do not need to show it to the bus driver.
Director of Finance and Resources for Nexus, John Fenwick, said: “This is a significant development for users of public transport and it shows that recent investment in smart technology is proving beneficial.”
The roll out of Pop cards on QuayLink forms part of the investment in smart travel across the region led by NESTI, the North East Smart Ticketing Initiative. NESTI is a partnership of 12 local authorities, the North East Combined Authority and Nexus.
The move comes as the use of smartcards on the Metro system increases, with more than 100,000 Pop cards and other smartcards in circulation.
The QuayLink bus service has been enabled for smartcard acceptance since 2011.
The buses are already capable of accepting national concessionary travel passes (the pensioners’ free bus pass) and Go North East’s own smartcard product, the key card.
QuayLink is a secured bus service which is funded by Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council and Nexus.
It is operated under contract by Go North East. QuayLink will run up to every ten minutes during the daytimes and gives the best links to all of the attractions that NewcastleGateshead offers.
Service Q1 runs between Gateshead, The Sage, Gateshead College, Baltic, the Quayside and Newcastle Service Q2 runs between Newcastle, the Quayside, Ouseburn and St Peter’s Basin.