The Anonymous Widower

Manchester’s Ticketing In Disarray

According to this article on Global Rail News, Manchester’s plans for smart ticketing have gone down the pan.

Could the failure of this system be caused, by not using the same successful system as London?

After all the minimum requirements of any smart electronic ticketing must include :-

• A Smart card like Oyster
• The ability to use contactless bank cards from all over the world.
• The ability to use ApplePay and the future AndroidPay.

London isn’t quite there yet, but when AndroidPay arrives and they can accept any contactless bank card, they will have set the global standard, to which all transport ticketing systems must aspire.

Any city or region, that doesn’t have a system that matches London, will lose out on the independent visitors.

The biggest benefits of contactless ticketing on buses, trams and trains are.

• Cash money and its associated costs and problems are taken out of the system.
• Attacks on staff are reduced.
• Boarding is quicker, so services are faster.
• Ridership increases.
• I have a feeling that by analysing the enormous amounts of joirney data generated, prediction of where new and improved services should go is very much better.
• The book is open on fare evasion, but I think it has dropped.

So come on Manchester, join the twenty-first century!

August 8, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Contactless Ticketing, Manchester, Manchester Metrolink