Go-Ahead transport service adds 'revolutionary' new ticketing system to North East buses

The North East’s Go-Ahead has added a new tap-free ticket system to its buses.

Public transport operator, The Go-Ahead Group has teamed up with technology experts to produce a system offering customers a new form of contactless ticketing.

The ‘state-of-the-art’ system allows passengers to pay for their bus travel solely using their smartphone.

Customers will have to link a bank account with the HOPSTA app and are automatically charged the lowest fare for their journey, thanks to terminals, iBeacons, which connect to mobile signals on a phone when the customer gets on and off the bus.

Go-Ahead Group’s CIO, Enrique Fernandez-Pino, said: “We are thrilled to roll out this radical new technology to our customers, and allow them to track and pay for their journeys in the easiest possible way.

“Cutting a new path with technology is something we’re proud to do at Go-Ahead, and we hope to roll out this technology on more and more routes in the future.”

Passengers use the app to initiate their journey as the bus arrives and show their activated pass to the driver.

On leaving the bus, the fare is calculated and charged automatically, eliminating the need to bring a wallet or purse.

The fare is calculated on a user’s location in which the app was last able to detect the bus ‘beacon’.

Following a successful trial by students - who were very complimentary about this new technology and ease of use on the University of Southampton’s buses Unilink, operated by Go South Coast - the new system is set to be piloted on a route in the North East.

It marks the latest technological innovation from Go-Ahead, which, in 2017, introduced a pioneering offer for customers to stream movies on its London Midland trains directly through a web browser and was the first train company to roll out smart ticketing outside London.