Northern Rail will be giving passengers travelling from Liverpool Lime Street station a 25% discount on their ticket if they bike or scoot to the station with Voi as part of a new partnership.
Liverpool is the first base in the North of England for the European e-bike and e-scooter company, and its partnership with Northern is designed to encourage greener travel around the city centre. Anyone using a Voi e-bike or e-scooter to travel to the station will be eligible for a 25% discount on an Advance Purchase ticket to anywhere on the Northern network.
In return, customers arriving at Liverpool Lime Street on a Northern service will be entitled to 25% off the cost of a Voi ‘Day Pass'. Any Northern customers that are new to Voi will receive fifteen minutes free hire once they sign up to the app.
The news comes at the end of English Tourism Week 2023 (17-26 March) – an annual event that seeks to highlight the importance, value and contribution of tourism to the UK economy – and ahead of Liverpool's hosting of The Eurovision Song Contest from 9-13 May.
To hire a Voi e-scooter or e-bike, customers need to download the Voi app, provide their contact details and upload a copy of their driving licence as well as read and confirm safety instructions. All riders must be aged 18 or over and wearing a helmet is recommended.
In December 2022, Northern banned all e-scooters, e-skateboards and hoverboards on-board its services. Electric wheelchairs and e-bikes were exempt from the ban – as were mobility scooters for those with access needs.
The train operator runs a Mobility Scooter Permit Scheme to assess electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters by a range of criteria to ensure they are safe to use on-board. Voi has operated the shared e-scooter scheme in Liverpool since October 2020 and also operates shared e-scooters in Bristol, Bath, Northamptonshire, Southampton, Portsmouth, Oxford and Cambridge.
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Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “We're delighted to partner with Voi on this scheme. Anything that encourages people out of their cars and onto greener methods of transport should be encouraged.
“Whilst we cannot allow e-scooters on-board our trains for health and safety reasons, using them to explore the city centre or to travel to the station to connect onto one of our trains is a great way to take traffic off the roads, which we fully support.”
Emma Hughes, Voi's UK and Ireland partnerships manager: “We're really pleased to be helping people make their money go further by offering this discount scheme with Northern.
“Using one of our e-scooters or e-bikes is a perfect way to travel to and from rail stations in Liverpool. It certainly beats sitting in traffic jams and, with zero emissions, it helps cut pollution and improve air quality in Liverpool.”
Chris Brown, director of Marketing Liverpool, said: “We applaud this initiative and partnership between Voi and Northern. Not only is this a great example of sustainability in action but using Voi is a great way of experiencing Liverpool – and Northern a great way of arriving and departing our city, which we would recommend ahead of using your car.”
Are the people running this scheme going to inform any participants that they cannot use these e scooters on Lime Street Station concourse and other Merseyrail station precincts.
I am prepared to bet that some people WILL attempt to get on trains with them and use them on stations.