Swift, Transport for West Midland’s (TfWM) ITSO smartcard, has received a brand refresh, alongside a new website.
The brand has changed from a complex logo, with a predominantly blue/cyan colour theme, to a more simplified logo with deep purple as the dominant colour.
Head of Swift card, Matt Lewis, said: “This is an exciting time in the continued rollout of Swift smart ticketing throughout the West Midlands.
“With further great new tickets and functions being introduced, we have taken the opportunity to update and refresh the brand design to ensure that, in keeping with the new solutions that we continue to rollout, it remains at the cutting edge.”
In addition to the rebrand, TfWM has recently added more products and features to its smart ticketing. As well as offering the retail of cards and top-ups via Travel Shops, a network of Payzone agents, and the Swift website, the Swift Kiosk, in partnership with Cammax, was launched at Wolverhampton Bus Station in April. It is part of a six-month pilot project to test customer demand for a self-service retail point.
Cammax is a UK provider of bespoke self-service kiosks and smart touchscreen systems. Its Kiosk retails Swift Pay-as-you-Go, Swift season tickets for bus and tram, e-Daysavers and bus multi-day tickets
The products can either be topped-up to an existing card or issued on a brand new card. The Kiosk can also act as a Swift collector, allowing customers to load any product and credit purchased online to their cards. This functionality can also be carried out by the Swift App and a network of over 100 Click & Collect sites.
TfWM said the Swift Kiosk is the first ITSO ticket vending machine in the country with a photo-capture feature. A photo can be taken and printed on a pre-encoded photocard in just over a minute. The pilot is expected to run until autumn.
Other projects expected this year include an end-to-end smart child ticketing solution, enhancements to self-service online accounts and an updated Swift app.
Customer take-up has continued to grow, with just under 3.5 million usages each month and more than 170,000 unique cards used across the network in the last 12 months. In total, one in every three public transport journeys in the West Midlands is now being made using a smartcard – either Swift or an English National Concessionary Travel card.
