How council plan to make 'public transport travel easier' with £700K

Transport chiefs are investing more than £700,000 to simplify ticketing on public transport across the West of England.

The West of England Combined Authority (Weca) is eventually aiming to have “Oyster” style smart ticketing which allows people to move across different transport systems easily.

For example, residents may one day be able to buy tickets which work on buses, trains and on cycle schemes.

In the meantime, Weca is working to ensure that residents can hop on board any bus in the region and pay for their trip using contactless bank card technology.

It is investing £418,000 to support smaller bus operators which do not offer this facility to replace old equipment with contactless bank card payment technology.

Some £300,000 is also being poured into phase one of the smart ticketing project.

Weca is chaired by regional mayor Tim Bowles and is made up of three member councils – Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

A schematic of how Bristol's future bus network could look, showing radial and orbital routes linked at passenger interchanges (Copyright Unknown)

North Somerset Council is not part of Weca but sits on the joint committee and gets to comment on issues which affect the North Somerset area such as the smart ticketing project.

A spokesperson for Weca said “significant progress” has already been made to promote smart ticketing in the West of England, including the availability of mobile phone apps and the Travelwest travelcard.

Mr Bowles said: “I want to make travelling on public transport easier and more user-friendly, giving people more sustainable ways to travel and helping to tackle congestion.

'We need to be innovative'

“Simplifying ticketing could mean, for example, that a resident in Keynsham uses the same ticket to take the train into Bristol and then a metrobus towards Cribbs Causeway.

“We need to be innovative to tackle the challenges of congestion and air quality. We will work with partners to look at the best ways of improving ticketing, which will give residents more options for how they travel.”

The smart ticketing project is being led by South Gloucestershire Council on behalf of Weca.

Officials hope the project will be completed by 2025.

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