NEW contactless ticket machines are now available across Warrington’s Own Buses fleet, helping speed up boarding times.
Ticketer has worked around the clock to ensure a rapid rollout of 90 EMV contactless ticket machines, with mTicketing, on Warrington’s Own Buses.
Passengers can now use contactless payments across Warrington’s Own Buses’ entire fleet.
With support from Merseytravel, passengers have been issued new ITSO smart cards so they can continue to travel as before, with no interruption to their journey across the Warrington and Liverpool City Region boundaries.
mTicketing will be available via Warrington’s Own Buses app to speed up boarding times and allow passengers to purchase mTickets in advance. These can then be quickly be scanned onboard.
Ben Wakerley, Warrington’s Managing Director, commented: “The new Ticketer machines give us a serious upgrade for our customers and my colleagues. We will have contactless card and mobile phone payments across our entire fleet, which can only be good news.”
Drivers and passengers alike, will also benefit from Ticketer’s Schedule Adherence feature, which generates real time punctuality monitoring on bus. This directly addresses a frustration some passengers have, by preventing the early departures of services and helping the driver stick to the timetable (traffic dependent of course).
Additional operational benefits will include Ticketer’s automated Vehicle Checklist feature which gives real-time visibility of reported vehicle defects electronically, eliminating the need for lengthy admin with paper checklists.
Passenger and Driver safety has been at the forefront of this implementation and drivers are welcoming the addition of Ticketer’s Passenger Counting feature. This will enable them to manage passenger capacity, against thresholds set at Warrington’s Own Buses depot. It also gives passengers confidence to travel safely when combined with the new ‘touch-free’ payment options.
John Clarfelt, CEO, Ticketer said: “As expected, we have seen a significant rise in operators moving towards creating a completely touch-free experience for their passengers in recent months, and Warrington’s Own Buses are no exception. Protecting driver and passenger safety has been a priority for them, and we have enjoyed working in tandem with their terrific team to ensure a swift, smooth transition to our Ticketer ETMs.”
He added: “Touch-free payment acceptance is obviously vital for the new world we live in, but we’re also delighted that Warrington’s Own Buses will be taking advantage of our new Passenger Counting feature to help adapt during these challenging times, working to ensure correct social distancing on board.”
*Founded in 2009, Ticketer is now the UK’s most widely deployed ticketing systems supplier, with Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) on buses across the UK