As part of the Mayor of Liverpool City Region's commitment to provide the people of Liverpool with a London-style transport system, Steve Rotherham announced that Tap-and-go would be arriving on the Merseyrail network by the autumn.
In a move to make journeys more affordable and quicker, the new system will be able to accept contactless payments, giving customers the best price for their journeys, in a move that has seen £10m being invested in public transport ticketing upgrades across the city of Liverpool.
It is hoped that the new Tap-and-go system will encourage people to make full use of the city's public transport, which consists of buses, trains, and ferries.
This in turn will ensure that Liverpool can become a net Zero Carbon city by 2040, with the city planning to achieve this 10 years before the government's target nationwide.
Travelling on public transport should be simple, especially when it comes to how people pay for their journey.
Yet, the reality is that our current ticketing system is no longer equipped to meet the demands of a growing 21st-century city region like ours.
I understand people's frustrations about the current system and that's why we've been working towards introducing a more simplified ticketing structure, but increasing public demand has meant that we're now accelerating our plans.
By upgrading our current paper ticketing with a new and improved smart system, we can make it easier and quicker for people to get from A to B.
The tap-and-go, contactless system we're introducing will unlock so many benefits for our region, removing the need for unnecessary queues, ensuring that no one spends more than they need to get around our region – and protecting revenue streams for further investment in improvements.
London shows how well it can work – and I want to build a similar system in our area that makes ticketing easier, quicker and cheaper and, most importantly, works in favour of passengers, not profit.”
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region.
Work has already started to ensure that the technology, software and card readers are installed before the launch of the new system, which will be arriving in two stages.
The first phase, launching this autumn, will see the customers of Merseyrail being able to use their Metro card linked to their bank account.
In 2025, the second phase will ensure that bank cards, mobile phones and smart watches will be able to use the tap-and-go system, in a move that will no longer require a MetroCard.
To ensure passengers get the cheapest fares, they must tap in at their starting station and tap out at their destination. There will also be daily and weekly caps to prices to ensure that any additional journeys will become free once the cap is reached.
Daily return and Season tickets will still be available to buy at stations using the machines or via the online Metro Portal.
