Touchless ticketing trial on The Shuttle 662

Bus passengers in the Keighley, Bingley, and Bradford areas are being invited to help pioneer touchless ticketing.

As well as being at the cutting edge of travel technology in West Yorkshire, everyone who takes part in the trial will get half-price travel on The Shuttle 662 route which runs between Keighley and Bradford every 10 minutes.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority and The Keighley Bus Company have chosen The Shuttle route for the trial between Wednesday 1 February and Sunday 26 March 2017.

Best value

Thanks to a special App and technology at bus stops, volunteers taking part in the trial will be able to use their smartphone phone as a travel pass. The mobile app calculates the length of route taken and will 'cap' at the best value price over the course of the day or week, and involves no interaction with the ticket machine meaning faster boarding times for passengers.

To take part in the trial, customers, who must be over 18, need to visit 662pay.becotix.co.uk(opens in new tab), where they can sign-up. They will then receive email instructions on how to download and use the app.

Huge strides

Cllr Keith Wakefield, West Yorkshire Combined Authority�s Transport Committee Chair said: �We have already taken huge strides to simplify ticketing with the MCard smartcard, which is the country�s largest travel smartcard scheme outside London, and with this trial we will take it a step further.

�Most people carry smart devices, and rely on them for everyday life, from banking to tracking their friends and playing games. This trial turns their smartphone into their bus ticket or pass, and helps them obtain the best value-for-money, based on the journeys they actually make.

"And as a thank you for helping the Combined Authority and its partners, The Keighley Bus Company and ticketing company Becotix who developed this technology, passengers will get half-price travel. We welcome their feedback after the trial as well.�

Innovative project

Alex Hornby, Chief Executive at Transdev, owners of The Keighley Bus Company, said: �We are proud to be delivering another exciting and innovative project in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and that our customers will be amongst the first in the UK to experience this next-generation mobile ticketing technology.

"It has the power to remove some of the perceived barriers to bus travel for new users and make travelling even more convenient for our current customers. This intelligent app will mean that our customers will no longer need to find change or understand the best value fare or tickets. Furthermore, this pioneering technology has great potential to speed up boarding times and journeys, which will only make improve our punctuality further on this busy route.

�We look forward this trial being a success and encourage people to register at�662pay.becotix.co.uk(opens in new tab),�and take part, as well as sharing their views with us."