Posted on: August 14, 2014
News from Cardiff Bus: Cardiff Bus has announced a new partnership with PayPoint and Applied Cards Technology (ACT) to launch its new generation of electronic bus ticketing, while at the same time making it much easier for customers to top up their travel cards.
Cardiff Bus carries 100,000 passengers on 3,000 journeys covering 27,000 miles every day, and the company’s current ITSO-compliant iff contactless smartcard allows customers to travel on its buses using prepaid cards, which can only be loaded online or at the bus station.
ACT developed its Cloud Ticketing services to extend transport operators’ traditional ticket sales channels with a wider, more accessible retail network, giving passengers an easy way to buy and download tickets online, in-store or using an NFC-enabled mobile device. All the communications, transaction processing and payments are managed in the ACT Cloud so retailers don’t need to invest in additional hardware.
With over 180 PayPoint retailers in the Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan area, the new service makes it much easier for customers to top up their iff cards. Having a smartcard from Cardiff Bus means that customers have a range of ticket and value options each time they top up at PayPoint. PayPoint’s entire retail network is already configured to automatically read the contactless smartcards.
Announcing the partnership, Peter Heath, Operations and Commercial Director of Cardiff Bus, said, “The emphasis with the iff smartcard product range has always been on customer convenience and great value for money, but they also help to speed up bus boarding times, making overall journey times faster for everyone.
“Most PayPoint facilities are situated in local newsagents and convenience stores near households so now customers can easily top up their smartcard when buying daily groceries or the newspaper. Customers should just look out for the PayPoint sign, tell staff in the shop how much they want to load and the smartcard will be instantly topped up.
“Our partnership with PayPoint and ACT makes travelling with a smartcard even more attractive and customer-friendly, and we hope many more people will take advantage of this facility to travel around our network by bus.”
Lewis Alcraft, Client Director at PayPoint, added, “We are delighted to be partnering with Cardiff Bus so that its customers will able to further ease their bus travel by topping up their smartcards in advance at more convenient times and locations, as most PayPoint outlets are open long hours, seven days a week.
“We expect to be expanding our smart ticketing capabilities across different parts of the country during this year and next.”
Gary Watts, CEO of ACT, said, “This agreement with Cardiff Bus offers greater choice for travellers in the Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan area to buy and top up their travel cards. Providing a broader, convenient retail network gives passengers the ticket buying options they need to make travelling on public transport simple and convenient.”