Tyne and Wear ticket provider Network One has extended its offering to include integrated bus and Metro ticketing in County Durham and Northumberland.
The new ticket offering is called ‘All Zones Plus’ and can be bought on any mobile app of the region’s main bus companies – which include Go North East, Stagecoach and Arriva for bus and Metro services. It also includes the Shields Ferry.
It means people living outside of Tyne and Wear who travel in to use bus services or the Tyne and Wear Metro will be able to buy one ticket, valid throughout their whole journey. It has been made possible by partnership working between the North East Joint Transport Committee and the local bus operators.
The existing Tyne and Wear Network One ‘All Zones’ tickets can also now be purchased on a smartcard. That allows users to travel across the region’s services, regardless of the operator, with just one card.
“It has long been an aspiration for us to extend these tickets into County Durham and Northumberland,” says Chair of Network One Ticketing and Managing Director at Stagecoach North East Steve Walker. “The travel work area has grown across the region, and I am pleased that this is now a reality making it easier for people to travel around the region.”
Adds Martijn Gilbert, Chair of North East bus operators’ association NEbus and Managing Director at Go North East: “Partnership working has never been stronger in the region, with everyone working to an even more integrated and sustainable public transport network, which is crucial as the regional economy recovers from the pandemic.
“Improving ticketing and information through technology with mobile apps and smartcards are tools that have been in place at individual operators for many years.
“It is great that these tools have come together across all bus operators and Metro to make things even easier and simpler for customers.
“Our work does not stop here though as we will be continuing to work with Stakeholders, Nexus and the Metro, to further modernise and expand ticketing offers into the future, with contactless bank card ticketing now available on all of the region’s main bus operators, and concepts such as ‘tap-on, tap-off’ bank card ticketing now in trial operation on three local bus routes, with more to come.”
