Almost 90% of West Yorkshire’s bus services now offer Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) bus journeys.
Single, return or operators’ own day tickets could already be purchased on services run by three of county’s bus operators, Arriva, First and Transdev, and now 12 more of West Yorkshire’s bus operators are prepared to accept the new MCard.
The new, white MCard is available for free at bus station travel centres, or at a cost of £2 from Payzone stores. Passengers can then pre-load the card with PAYG travel to save them from needing to carry cash for bus travel.
To use the PAYG MCard, passengers tell the driver the destination and which ticket they would like, before touching the card onto the vehicle’s card-reading machine.
The fare will be deducted from the card and the passenger will receive a paper ticket, which will show the remaining balance on the card.
Participating bus operators now include: Arriva, Burnley & Pendle, First Bus, Fourways Coaches, Harrogate Coach Travel (Connexions buses), Jacksons of Silsden, Ladies Only Travel, Ross Travel, Square Peg, Stagecoach, Station Coaches, Stotts, Stringers Coaches, TLC and Transdev. TJ Walsh and Yorkshire Tiger are expected to join the scheme in the future.
Later this year, PAYG will also be available on children and young people’s PhotoCards in the region, and on concessionary passes for people who want to travel outside concessionary hours. Further plans include ‘capping’ which ensures passengers will not pay more than the price of a day ticket for their day’s journeys.
