Nexus, which owns, manages and is modernising the Tyne and Wear Metro, has installed automatic ticket gates at Chichester Metro station in South Tyneside.
The new ticket gates have been installed over the last two weeks and will be switched on in February.
It will mean that the station will be staffed more often and fare evasion will be tougher to get away with.
Nexus has installed automatic ticket gates and smartcard validators on the Metro system as part of £389m Metro: all change modernisation programme.
A total of 13 key Metro stations are now fitted with automatic ticket gates.
Managing Director for Transport Operations, Tobyn Hughes, said: “The new ticket gates will allow us to lower ticket fraud and have more staff on duty at Chichester, which improves security and customer service.
“Metro has undergone the largest scale implementation of a smartcard system using gatelines in the UK outside of London. The system has undergone a phased introduction over the last year and passengers are getting used to the new technology.”
The Metro ticket gates were switched on in phases from November 2013 to give customers time to get used to them.
It is believed to be the largest scale implementation of a smartcard system using gatelines in the UK outside of London, and has paved the way for new ticket products and new ways to buy tickets to be introduced.
Over 100,000 regular Metro customers already have a ‘smart’ season ticket loaded onto a Pop card, existing smart bus passes and university ID cards. Passengers can apply for a Pop card at nexus.org.uk/pop.
Smartcard customers have to ‘touch in’ and ‘touch out’ as they start and finish their journey. The ticket gates have an orange reader on them, and smartcard customers should always touch their smartcard on them as they pass through.
Full list of Metro stations fitted with electronic gates: Airport, Central, Gateshead, Haymarket, Heworth, Jesmond, Manors, Monument, North Shields, South Shields, Chichester, St James, Byker.