A vision for smart travel in the North

Integrated and Smart Travel provides an opportunity to make public transport – and other forms of shared and active mobility – simpler, easier, and more convenient for the passenger. It has a big role to play in improving regional connectivity, encouraging more people to choose sustainable travel options, and ultimately in making travel a better experience.

Our vision is for an attractive, consistent, and familiar travel experience for passengers that empowers them to travel across the North with confidence.

Connected Mobility

As part of our continued commitment to finding ways to improve connectivity across all modes of public transport in the North of England, we have launched work on our Connected Mobility Strategy.

This collaborative project with Local Transport Authorities across the region will build the evidence base needed to deliver the comprehensive digital infrastructure network all passengers expect and deserve.

Smart on Rail

Smart is now the ticket of choice for rail passengers in the North.

As part of Phase One of the IST programme, we worked in partnership with our regional train operating companies to introduce ITSO smartcards and enhance other forms of ticketing on rail.

Launched in 2018, smartcards were initially for weekly monthly and annual season ticket customers. Smartcards were aimed at providing a more durable and convenient option than traditional paper tickets which were still being widely used by rail commuters. We also introduced new ways to pay for and redeem smart tickets – including at ticket vending machines, online, in mobile apps and on board – so passengers can save time and skip station office queues.

The project supported a nation-wide effort to improve the availability of smart technology on rail and was so successful that by March 2020 a majority of eligible customers in our region had made the switch from paper to smart.

In partnership with Northern, in 2020 we also launched the first smart ‘flexi’ ticket on rail in the North – which was a timely intervention ideally suited to meet the needs of passengers whose travel habits have changed due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Phase One of IST also saw the installation of platform validators at over 250 rail stations across the region, which pave the way for contactless, pay-as-you-go-travel and other ticketing innovations in the future.

#TfNTalks Smarter travel

This TfNTalks session brought together voices from across the public transport and mobility industry to understand how we can best collaborate to keep the North’s passengers safe, informed and on the move throughout the easing of lockdown and beyond.