READING Buses is set to make bus travel around town easier than ever as it introduces a new option to pay for tickets.
As small contactless card machines have been appearing at the front of buses in recent weeks, Reading Buses has announced it is launching its new Tap On Tap Off service for passengers on Wednesday, November 1.
Customers can simply tap their contactless bank cards or mobile devices on the readers when they get on the bus, and tap again with the same card or device when they alight.
At the end of the day, Reading Buses calculates how many buses were used and charges the customer accordingly, with charges capped at the price of a day ticket.
The system is similar to payment on buses and underground trains in London, where systems such as Oyster cards calculate the cheapest rate for a given customer’s journey throughout the day.
It is only available for adult fares, however, and Boost tickets for students and under 18s will still need to be bought via the driver or app.
The service operates on a daily basis, so those who travel on most days of the week are likely to prefer buying weekly or other long-term tickets to make the best savings.
The service is being rolled out on all routes, including the London Line Route 702, Flightline 702, Thames Valley service 127, 128, and 129 into Reading, but not on football services.
It joins the Reading Buses app, which tracks buses and timetables across Reading and allows customers to buy digital tickets in advance of their journeys.
The company is also making it easier for customers to track their journeys and ticket spending, also available via the app.
Once logged into the app, customers will be able to register their payment method and track spending on it via payment history and download receipts.
There is no need to pre-register cards or payment methods before using them to travel, with contactless Mastercard, Visa cards, and Apple/Google Pay-enabled mobile devices accepted.
Prepaid and American Express cards are not accepted currently.
Chief executive officer Robert Williams said: “By using tap on, tap off customers will never pay more than the day ticket price and don’t need to worry about having the right fare or asking for the right ticket.
“It also means that if a customer ends up making more journeys than they planned they don’t have to buy more tickets as their fare will likely have been capped.
“The capping will also work across all operators in the simplyReading area due to the Reading All-Bus ticket.”
Reading Buses say the tap on, tap off system will only be available for adult tickets and will only cap to the day ticket price at the time of launch.
He explained: “If customers want to buy Boost tickets they should do so on the app and for those travelling regularly, buying a period ticket on the app or smartcard might still be more cost-effective to give better savings.
“The tap on, tap off system will be available on all Reading Buses services, excluding football and school services. It will also be available on Thames Valley Buses services that run into Reading, but will not be applicable on Newbury & District.”
He added: “We think this will be another step change in bus travel along with our app and the original contactless payments project.
“Customers won’t need to worry about their fare any more knowing they will be capped at the day rate within whichever zone they are travelling.”
“Alongside the £2 single fare extension and the Reading All-Bus ticket there’s really never been a better time for customers to take the bus.”
