Passenger, a UK public transport app and website provider, has announced a nationwide partnership with payments infrastructure provider Littlepay to improve the contactless passenger experience.
The collaboration is designed to give public transport users total transparency about the fares they pay using contactless bank cards and contactless-enabled devices, and a clear view of fare capping benefits.
The partnership will enable contactless EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) payments and fare capping activity to be introduced by Littlepay into a contactless journeys portal within transport apps and websites provided by Passenger.
This means that operators that have a contactless deployment with Littlepay will now be able to give their customers a real-time overview of all journeys made using a contactless bank card or contactless-enabled smart device as payment.
Rather than having to switch to a different app to view their journeys, fares and where they were capped, customers will be able to see this information within existing Passenger apps and websites. What’s more, push notifications will enable customers to be kept informed about travel events as they happen, such as reaching a fare cap.
Greg Hepworth, head of product at Passenger, said: “Our partnership with Littlepay means operators across the country can significantly boost their customer experience when it comes to contactless payments. For too long, customers have had to jump between platforms to purchase tickets and view journey history – now they can do it all in one place in an easy-to-navigate format.
“Through the portal’s unified and transparent approach, passengers are made to feel more in control of their journeys and travelling via public transport becomes a more convenient and attractive alternative to cars. Overall, the efforts of our partnership with Littlepay will support the objectives of the National Bus Strategy, enhancing trust in public transport services and ultimately, increasing patronage.”
Sheryll Ricketts, solutions consultancy lead at Littlepay, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Passenger to bring operators a powerful way to improve customer experience. Giving passengers real-time access to their travel and payments data demystifies fare capping and highlights the value of using contactless EMV for fare payments.
“It will prove especially valuable where multi-operator fare caps are applied, providing a single place to monitor payments across different operators’ networks. This transparency has a knock-on effect of inspiring passenger loyalty and frequent ridership, a top priority for operators.”
