Multi-operator tap on, tap off contactless ticketing with fare capping in Leicester has saved bus users in the city £53,000 in over the past six months. It was launched by the Leicester Buses Partnership in March and over 24,000 journeys have been made under the scheme so far.
Tap on, tap off is available across all Arriva Midlands, Centrebus and First Leicester services in the city. The appropriate best value fare is calculated automatically based on taps. Regardless of the number of those operators’ services a customer uses in the Leicester Flexi Zone, they will pay no more than £5 per day or £19.50 per week.
The project is one of the first to be rolled out by the Leicester Buses Partnership. Others either delivered or in hand include zero-emission vehicles and service improvements as part of what Partnership member First Bus says will be “a transformative change in bus travel.” Leicester City Council is also a key member of the Partnership.
Technology behind the multi-operator approach to tap on, tap off is from payment provider Littlepay and ticketing specialist Ticketer. The latter provides on-vehicle equipment that captures taps, and it then calculates and delivers the journey value to Littlepay.
That supplier’s back-office platform then aggregates taps, applies caps set by individual operators, and delivers a broker service to manage multi-operator capping layered over each the Arriva Midlands, Centrebus and First Leicester fare structures.
