The Tyne and Wear Metro has seen a rise in student travel, new figures reveal.
Nexus, which owns and manages Metro, say there has been a 48% increase in the sale of student MetroSaver tickets in the year to March 2015.
In the last financial year Nexus sold 23,000 student MetroSavers, compared to 15,000 the previous year.
The news comes just a week after Department for Transport (DfT) figures showed Metro has the fastest growing passenger numbers in the UK outside of London, with 38.1 million journeys a year on the system.
The rapid growth in student Metro travel is due to the popularity of the Pop card – which makes travelling on Metro simple and easy for students who are at universities in Newcastle and Sunderland.
Cllr John Harrison, the North East Combined Authority’s Tyne and Wear Transport Sub-Committee Chairman, said: “Metro provides a vital transport service for students and it is great news that the passengers numbers are on the up. The introduction of smart cards has made Metro travel easier and more flexible for people in full time education.”
Director of Finance and Resources for Nexus, John Fenwick, said: “Student travel on Metro has rocketed over the last year as passenger numbers continue to grow.
“The student MetroSaver offers great value for money and we have made it much easier for students to get access to travel products using a smart card.
“The growth of smart travel on Metro has undoubtedly been a factor in encouraging more students to use the Metro system. Metro passengers have made more than 2.5 million journeys using smart cards since the start of April.”
A University of Sunderland Spokesperson said: “The Tyne and Wear Metro provides a fantastic link for our students to travel around the region. We are supporters of the service as shown by our Get There Scholarship, which provides free travel for 12 months on the Metro from a student’s home in the North East through to Sunderland. The increase in student MetroSaver sales shows just how vital the service is to North East students.”
A student MetroSaver gives a 30% discount off the price of the standard adult MetroSaver and is available to all full time students with a valid student ID.
All Metro season tickets and student tickets can now be loaded on to Pop cards, the public transport smart card for North East England.
Newcastle University students can also load travel products directly onto their campus smart cards.
Nexus has invested in new smart ticket machines and validators at all 60 Metro stations, along with gate lines at some key stations to help reduce fraud.
Click here to apply for a Pop card.
Once this is done students can buy or renew their student MetroSaver at any Metro ticket machine, any Nexus Travel Shop or any store with a Payzone point.