National Express West Midlands (NXWM) has completed the rollout of its full upgraded Model 2 contactless ticket system.
This is the first time a fully-accredited Model 2 (MTT Mass Transit Model) system has been successfully deployed outside London.
Contactless capped fares are available on all the company’s 1,600 buses, with different caps applying to peak and off-peak travel, and geographical travel zones such as Coventry.
NXWM Development Director Martin Hancock says: “The introduction of contactless payments has allowed NXWM to improve its boarding speeds and reduce the amount of cash carried on its buses.
“It’s an exciting development, giving us the platform to work towards account-based ticketing, which will deliver further benefits to our customers.
“We are currently seeing over 150,000 transactions every week on our buses using contactless cards. That number continues to grow as our passengers discover how simple and convenient it is.”
NXWM has also launched a contactless-only capped low-fare zone on a single route. Rather than capping at the usual daysaver rate, a customer who uses this route only will cap at the lowest fare. This latest development opens up possible innovations such as more sophisticated and granular capping levels – such as capping by area, capping over a week.
The benefits of the system are that the customer can see clearer information on their bank statement. And for the operator, liability for failed payment transactions is transferred to the card issuer and transaction costs are reduced.
