Nottingham City Council has announced the rollout of the first Oyster-style contactless ticketing system in the country outside of London.
The new Nottingham Contactless multi-operator tap-and-go option is available across Nottingham City Transport buses, NET trams and Linkbuses operated by CT4N.
The solution allows people to tap on with contactless bank cards or phones throughout the day and pay one daily charge capped at the best fare for their travel, regardless of which of the three operators they use or however many journeys they make on the day.
The rollout comes after Nottingham City Council successfully bid for £2.7m from the UK Department for Transport’s National Productivity Fund and Transforming Cities Programme to develop the technology.
Since Nottingham Contactless was initially launched for journeys on individual operators, there have been three million taps.
According to the council, the additional multi-operator capping is designed to encourage people to travel more easily and flexibly without worrying how much they will be charged or deciding what ticket they need in advance.
Passengers can still pay contactlessly for single fares or if they make multiple journeys across NCT, NET and Linkbuses, they will be charged £5.60 for the day capped fare.
Councillor Rosemary Healy, portfolio holder for local transport, Nottingham City Council, said: “We have been working toward a multi-operator contactless and capped payment option for a number of years now, to make using our wonderful public transport network as simple and stress-free as possible.
“The new system will always give the best value for passengers, providing an extra reason for even more people to choose our award-winning green public transport services. This in turn helps Nottingham continue to grow sustainably.”
The system has been developed by public transport technology company INIT and signals the first stage of future rollouts across the wider city region and to more operators, including trentbarton and train operating companies.
Jens Mullak, managing director of INIT, said: “We are thrilled to deliver this exciting ticketing solution, which makes public transport more attractive – particularly important as our sector tries to attract people back to our trams and buses.
“From our dedicated Nottingham office in the Lace Market, INIT continues to deliver modern, simple fare solutions that Nottingham’s passengers expect and deserve, and which has been propelled, in part, by their wish to pay using contactless during the pandemic.”
