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Title: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: Red Squirrel on July 04, 2023, 10:41:24 Perhaps this isn't quite the right board for this, but it will have to do:
Quote 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Source: gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/53-train-stations-to-benefit-from-tap-in-tap-out-rollout)Passengers across the South East of England will benefit from 'Pay As You Go' technology by the end of December 2023. From: Department for Transport and Huw Merriman MP Published 4 July 2023 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/image_data/file/188825/s300_960-pay-as-you-go.png)
Passengers across the South East from Shepperton to Shoeburyness will benefit from simpler, more flexible and better value train travel as the next 53 stations set to introduce tap-in tap-out ticketing by the end of the year are confirmed. Thanks to £20 million funding from the government, the use of bank cards or smart device to tap-in to travel will be made available for tens of thousands of passengers across the South East. Customers will no longer have to worry about planning ahead to get the best prices or fumbling on their phones and wallets to find the right ticket – instead they can use their bank card or smart device to just tap-in on the reader knowing they will automatically be guaranteed the best price available on the day of travelling. Pay As You Go is already available at over 350 stations across London and the South East stretching from Reading and Gatwick Airport all the way to Shenfield and Welwyn Garden City. Today’s (4 July 2023) announcement, in partnership with Transport for London (TfL), C2C, Southeastern, South Western Railway, London Northwestern, and Chiltern, will see the total number of tap-in-tap-out stations in England jump to over 400 by the end of the year. This follows the Transport Secretary’s commitment in his George Bradshaw address to reform and overhaul fares and ticketing across Britain’s railways, making them simpler and more flexible across the network. In just the last few months the government has been getting on with this reform, such as announcing the headquarters of Great British Railways (GBR) and extended single-leg pricing across all of LNER’s network. By encouraging more people to use our railways through simpler and more convenient ticketing, the government is helping to not only bring our railways into the 21st Century but enable more people to travel for work and pleasure, in turn helping to deliver on our priority to grow the economy. Rail Minister Huw Merriman said: One of the best ways to get more people using our railways is to make journeys as simple, flexible and convenient as possible and the government’s programme for rail reform prioritises exactly that. By removing the stress of finding the best deal in advance or having the right ticket ready to go at the barriers, the extension of tap-in tap-out ticketing is the next step of our plan for rail reform and we’re working towards Pay As You Go being rolled out beyond the South East through the Midlands and up to the North. Pay As You Go is widely used across London and the surrounding area with TfL data showing that more than 75% of all Tube and rail Pay As You Go journeys regularly made using contactless payment cards or mobile devices, compared to 25% in 2016. Following on from this rise in popularity, the department is continuing its work with the GBR transition team to extend Pay As You Go in the Midlands and the North, as part of Trailblazer devolution deals announced earlier this year with Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Transport for Greater Manchester just last week announced further details about a pilot scheme to be agreed by the end of this year, subject to final government agreement and funding, for Manchester’s first contactless payment system on its rail network. Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at TfL said: The popularity of convenient travel via a Pay As You Go system has seen it expand and become increasingly popular across London and the surrounding areas in recent years. We are delighted to be delivering this expansion of Pay As You Go with contactless to a further 53 stations across the South East for the Department for Transport, helping to share our experience in smartcard ticketing with the wider rail industry. This will help those traveling by rail outside London do so more flexibly and conveniently, and support the wider UK economic recovery through easier access to rail travel. Jacqueline Starr, Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said: We have long called for fares to be made easier and more flexible for our customers – our extensive fare consultation in collaboration with the independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus in 2019 overwhelmingly demonstrated the need for modernising rail fares. The introduction of contactless, Pay As You Go payments is a significant step in the right direction. It eliminates the need to queue at ticket machines or pre-book paper tickets, allowing passengers to simply tap their contactless cards or devices to pay for their journey. We believe that embracing contactless technology will enhance the overall passenger experience and contribute to a more seamless journey on our network. Pay As You Go ticketing will be available at all of these stations by the end of December 2023 with individual openings dependent on the amount of existing technology at the stations. Further information on when each station will be introducing this will be available at each station. Full list of stations that will have Pay As You Go technology by the end of this year: Apsley Ashford (Surrey) Basildon Bat & Ball Beaconsfield Benfleet Berkhamsted Bletchley Bricket Wood Chalkwell Cheddington Datchet Denham Denham Golf Club Dunton Green East Tilbury Egham Eynsford Garston Gerrards Cross Hemel Hempstead High Wycombe How Wood Kempton Park Kings Langley Laindon Leigh-on-Sea Leighton Buzzard Otford Park Street Pitsea Seer Green & Jordans Sevenoaks Shepperton Shoeburyness Shoreham (Kent) Southend Central Southend East St Albans Abbey Staines Stanford-le-Hope Sunbury Sunnymeads Thorpe Bay Tilbury Town Tring Upper Halliford Virginia Water Watford North West Horndon Westcliff Windsor & Eton Riverside Wraysbury Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: TaplowGreen on July 04, 2023, 13:38:14 Very good news for customers. Hopefully part of a wider rollout.
Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: ChrisB on July 04, 2023, 16:09:10 Very good news for customers. Hopefully part of a wider rollout. Quote £20 million of government funding marks the first phase of the government’s commitment to extend Pay As You Go to a further 200 stations in the South East Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: eightonedee on July 04, 2023, 16:57:14 Quote By removing the stress of finding the best deal in advance or having the right ticket ready to go at the barriers, the extension of tap-in tap-out ticketing is the next step of our plan for rail reform and we’re working towards Pay As You Go being rolled out beyond the South East through the Midlands and up to the North. Instead they will have the additional stress of fumbling for their bank cards, and if they have more than one, remembering which one they used when they tapped in at the end of their journey, or if they use their phone finding it, then finding the ticket on their phone and hoping they remembered to charge it (or did not run it down when browsing the internet during their journey). (and do we trust them to sell us the best deal? - I assume that it will not look at split ticketing savings, but will it charge you for the time you tap-in at the barrier even if you arrive early intending to take the next train after peak time? - Why can't they be honest and simply say this is a cost saving exercise, that many will find no more convenient that current arrangements?) Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: Ralph Ayres on July 04, 2023, 17:17:59 A map with the announcement would have been easier to take in! They've definitely gone for the easy bits first, for instance stopping short of Milton Keynes and not going as far as Reading by the SWR route, or Reading-Gatwick, to avoid journeys where there is currently a choice of fare depending on whose services you use, whereas all the way to Shoeburyness is no problem. Rationalising operator or route-specific fares will involve much hand-wringing at the DfT as it might mean less income for some journeys unless the higher fare is charged which would result in negative PR for the government; London-Gatwick does have it, but rather clunkily and it gives anomalies. Interesting to recall that Chiltern nearly did PAYG all the way to Bicester around 5 years ago but this list still only gets out as far as High Wycombe.
I'm guessing the linking of Railcard and other discounts has been kicked into the long grass with the data privacy/security/fraud aspects proving too complex, and I see there's no mention of the swathe of forthcoming ticket office closures, probably in the forlorn hope that they can sneak that out a bit later. Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: Ralph Ayres on July 04, 2023, 17:31:57 Instead they will have the additional stress of fumbling for their bank cards, and if they have more than one, remembering which one they used when they tapped in at the end of their journey, or if they use their phone finding it, then finding the ticket on their phone and hoping they remembered to charge it (or did not run it down when browsing the internet during their journey). (and do we trust them to sell us the best deal? - I assume that it will not look at split ticketing savings, but will it charge you for the time you tap-in at the barrier even if you arrive early intending to take the next train after peak time? - Why can't they be honest and simply say this is a cost saving exercise, that many will find no more convenient that current arrangements?) I'd say it IS broadly more convenient and flexible, and most people will have no more trouble getting out their bank card or phone than a paper ticket, though I fully agree that for some there will be little or no benefit. There will be some cost savings though the infrastructure doesn't come cheap! So far as tapping in is concerned, I was involved in the GWR branches work and we spent a lot of time trying to get a fair compromise as to when off-peak taps started. This does have the advantage that if the last peak train is running late you can catch it at an off-peak fare whereas with most paper tickets you can't. Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: ChrisB on July 04, 2023, 17:49:29 Interesting to recall that Chiltern nearly did PAYG all the way to Bicester around 5 years ago but this list still only gets out as far as High Wycombe. That is as far as Chiltern got in installing ticket barriers. Quote I'm guessing the linking of Railcard and other discounts has been kicked into the long grass with the data privacy/security/fraud aspects proving too complex One wonders what those with railcards will do - online purchase only? They'll need to amend their T&Cs..... Also, bang goes the cheap day return. 2 x singles a la TfL model, with maybe a cap? Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: TaplowGreen on July 04, 2023, 18:00:53 Quote By removing the stress of finding the best deal in advance or having the right ticket ready to go at the barriers, the extension of tap-in tap-out ticketing is the next step of our plan for rail reform and we’re working towards Pay As You Go being rolled out beyond the South East through the Midlands and up to the North. Instead they will have the additional stress of fumbling for their bank cards, and if they have more than one, remembering which one they used when they tapped in at the end of their journey, or if they use their phone finding it, then finding the ticket on their phone and hoping they remembered to charge it (or did not run it down when browsing the internet during their journey). (and do we trust them to sell us the best deal? - I assume that it will not look at split ticketing savings, but will it charge you for the time you tap-in at the barrier even if you arrive early intending to take the next train after peak time? - Why can't they be honest and simply say this is a cost saving exercise, that many will find no more convenient that current arrangements?) It'll be great when everyone arrives in 2023 ;) As someone who now uses an Elizabeth Line station (formerly GWR) and taps in/out I am happy to confirm that there's no additional stress or fumbling involved. There's no need to allow additional time to queue up to buy a ticket at a ticket office or machine, and in the new world of hybrid working no need for a season ticket when you're only travelling in one or two days a week. I'm struggling to come up with a scenario where it's less convenient. Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: eightonedee on July 04, 2023, 18:20:03 Quote It'll be great when everyone arrives in 2023 Wink That's fine, but what about the 1.3m who don't have a bank account (OK that was a figure from 2017, but it was greater than a 1m estimate in 2010)? Inclusiveness? Mind you - looks like the risk of finding yourself sat next to Nigel Farage might be removed...... ;D Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: TaplowGreen on July 04, 2023, 18:25:10 Quote It'll be great when everyone arrives in 2023 Wink That's fine, but what about the 1.3m who don't have a bank account (OK that was a figure from 2017, but it was greater than a 1m estimate in 2010)? Inclusiveness? Mind you - looks like the risk of finding yourself sat next to Nigel Farage might be removed...... ;D Accirding to the latest statistics (2021) 99.8% of the population have a bank account. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1370573/access-to-financial-services-in-uk/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20three%2Dyear,nearly%20zero%20percent%20by%202021. Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: stuving on July 04, 2023, 18:40:33 A map with the announcement would have been easier to take in! There is one, but on Twitter. I can't see that, so here's a copy that was put on railforums (where it's been criticised for lots of errors). (https://www.railforums.co.uk/attachments/img_3714-jpeg.138538/) Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: ChrisB on July 04, 2023, 18:41:39 Quote It'll be great when everyone arrives in 2023 Wink That's fine, but what about the 1.3m who don't have a bank account (OK that was a figure from 2017, but it was greater than a 1m estimate in 2010)? Inclusiveness? According to the latest statistics (2021) 99.8% of the population have a bank account. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1370573/access-to-financial-services-in-uk/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20three%2Dyear,nearly%20zero%20percent%20by%202021. Indeed, that statistic from 2017 is now so far out of date since the advent of the "basic bank account", anyone who wants one of those can get one Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: ChrisB on July 04, 2023, 18:43:43 A map with the announcement would have been easier to take in! There is one, but on Twitter. I can't see that, so here's a copy that was put on railforums (where it's been criticised for lots of errors). (https://www.railforums.co.uk/attachments/img_3714-jpeg.138538/) Anyone see this? It isn't in the post above ? Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: grahame on July 04, 2023, 19:14:49 Anyone see this? It isn't in the post above ? I don't think the source site likes you hot linking. Here's a copy: (http://www.wellho.net/pix/sta53.jpg) Title: Re: 53 train stations to benefit from tap-in tap-out rollout Post by: ChrisB on July 04, 2023, 19:27:13 (where it's been criticised for lots of errors). Yep - many errors.....I can only see Gerrards Cross, Beaconsfield & High Wycombe from that Chiltern Line in the list, so why include the others beyond West Ruislip - just for example? This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. 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