Stagecoach rolls out mobile ticketing across UK

• Britain’s biggest bus operator rolls out mobile ticketing across UK
• Stagecoach Bus app offers day and weekly tickets, journey planning, next-stop information and live bus tracking
• Thousands of downloads of the app since its launch
• Tough action needed on congestion to help passengers fully benefit from bus networks

PERTH, Scotland, 2017-May-11 — /Travel PR News/ — Millions of bus passengers across the UK can now use their smartphone to travel after Stagecoach, Britain’s biggest bus operator, rolled out a range of mobile tickets for its customers across the country.

Customers across England, Scotland and Wales can instantly buy and download Dayrider and Weekly megarider tickets straight to their smartphone through the company’s Stagecoach Bus app. Payments via the app can be made by PayPal or via debit or credit card.

The app – which was launched last year – has already been saving passengers time by providing journey planning, next-stop information and live bus tracking. This latest development means customers using mobile ticketing have a new, secure way of paying which means they no longer need paper tickets and don’t have to worry about finding cash for their journey.

Thousands of people have so far downloaded the app to their smartphones. Feedback shows customers are particularly happy with the ability to get live service updates and being able to buy and download tickets straight to their phone.

Stagecoach, which runs nearly one in four of the 32,000-plus buses in the UK outside London, has made a multi-million-pound investment in making bus travel easier.

But the company warned that urgent action is needed on worsening road congestion if the country’s bus passengers are to get the full benefit of the new technology.

The Stagecoach Bus App is available free of charge for Apple and Android mobile phones.

As well as mobile ticketing, the app offers a simple journey planning tool which uses interactive maps and the smartphone GPS system to help customers identify their nearest bus stop and the most suitable bus service for their journey requirements. They can also find out information on journey length and available fare options.

Passengers can also access live running times via their smartphone to check the status of their journey before catching the bus and it allows customers to pinpoint their location during their journey, helping them determine where they are on the route at any one time, how far they are from their destination and when to get off the bus.

Stagecoach UK Bus Managing Director for England and Wales, Mark Threapleton, said: “The introduction of mobile tickets across the UK demonstrates further our commitment to giving our customers even more payment options to suit their individual needs. From cash payments, smart ticketing, mobile ticketing and contactless payments, we are working on delivering ways to make bus travel even easier.

“Our smartphone app also helps make give people more time to focus on the other important things in their lives by providing real-time journey information.

“Bus travel is changing rapidly and we are working hard to improve the areas of bus service delivery that we can control. But we desperately need local authorities to play their part and take urgent action on traffic congestion, because faster and more reliable bus journeys, fewer cars, and less pollution is better for everyone in our communities.”

The Stagecoach Bus app is part of a major investment by the company in its digital strategy which is transforming the journey experience for customers.

Smart ticketing is available at all Stagecoach regional companies – the company has more than two million StagecoachSmart cards in circulation and processes more than 330million smart transactions every year. Along with the UK’s other major operators, Stagecoach has helped deliver multi-operator smart ticketing in all of England’s city regions, benefitting around 15million people. Work is also underway on a similar scheme in Scotland, with smart, multi-operator ticketing launched in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Dundee.

Stagecoach has also launched contactless payments in Oxfordshire, Manchester and the north east of England, with the technology to be available at all Stagecoach bus companies by 2018. The company has also joined with the UK’s major bus operators to work on an ambitious scheme that could see contactless travel introduced on every one of the UK’s 32,000-plus buses outside London by 2022.

Stagecoach has spent more than £1billion on new buses and coaches for the UK in the last 11 years.

Further information on the new Stagecoach Bus App visit https://www.stagecoachbus.com/app

NOTES TO EDITORS

Stagecoach Group

• Stagecoach Group is an international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, the United States and Canada. The Group employs around 40,000 people, and operates around 13,000 buses, coaches, trains and trams.
• Stagecoach is one of the UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 8,500 buses and coaches on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates a network of inter-city services across the UK.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast rail franchise.  It also has a 90% shareholding in Virgin Trains East Coast, which operates the East Coast rail franchise.
• Stagecoach operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,300 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. megabus.com links around 130 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter, transit, contracted, charter, airport shuttle and sightseeing services.

Contact:
Stagecoach Group Communications
01738 442111
email: media@stagecoachgroup.com

Source: Stagecoach

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