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Smart Ticketing Takes The Next Step
Get me there gets ready
PASSENGERS could be hopping on trams using their existing concessionary passes by next spring, according to Transport for Greater Manchester. This should be available to all customers by the autumn.
Over half a million commuters already have a get me there-ready smart card in their pocket or purse in the shape of an over-60s bus pass or an under-16s igo pass.
Councillor Andrew Fender, Chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, explained: “We’ll be rolling out the scheme in different phases during 2014, making sure that different customer groups get used to it. Travelling with Get Me There will feel a bit different to start with but we’re confident passengers will quickly recognise it’s a much easier and hassle-free way of using public transport.”
Smart readers are currently being fitted at Metrolink stops so passengers will be able to touch in and touch out again at the end of each journey.
Over half a million commuters already have a Get Me There - ready smart card in their pocket or purse in the shape of an over-60s bus pass or an under-16s igo pass. It’s these pensioner passengers who will be first to try out this new technology, followed by season ticket holders when the new Get Me There smart cards are available.
People will be able to buy new travelcards and travel credit – a ‘smart’ pot of money to use for individual journeys – online at the get me there website as well as managing their account. They will also be able to buy credit and travelcards at Metrolink ticket machines which will be upgraded in the new year.
Once the get me there scheme is up and running across Metrolink, it is hoped to expand and introduce get me there on the buses once agreements are in place with the operators. Eight out of ten journeys by public transport are by bus, so it makes sense to include bus routes in the smart ticketing developments.
If you want to register your interest in Get Me There, and find out when it is up and running, click here.
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That's a rubbish name!
It is the king of rubbish names.
It should have something on the lines of the Manchester coat of arms on it or the insustrious busy bee.
But the trams run in Salford, Trafford, Rochdale, Tameside, too. The Combined Authority of Greater Manchester hasn't got round to a Coat of Arms or a symbol yet.
Those places are all Manchester now really
Add me to the list of those thinking the name is crap. When I first heard it a while back, I was hoping they might have a rethink, but sadly not.
Even the name Metrolink is bobbins. Metro would be just fine
More talk of the dreadful name. It's been done to death - they aren't changing it - they don't care. Like most problems people have with the network.
Get me there. What started as a bold phrase is slowly turning into a desperate plea from the thousands stranded on a near daily basis.
It's a terrible name. It's a terrible design. However, it's a much needed scheme. So, fingers crossed it gets rolled out quickly and smoothly. I like the Metrolink (when it works).
i wonder how the ticket inspectors check the contactless cards?
With a card reader. Its easy. Have you been to London ever?
What a load of rubbish, have we just started this scheme? Its been running in other cities for years!
Oh, lets not bother then eh?
Woohoo we are finally arriving in the 20th century...
I guess that these smart readers are the black boxes appearing on the ticket machines across the network. I hope that's not going to be it - I dread to think of the chaos getting off at rush hour at St Peter's Square with 100s of commuters trying to use three readers!
If it means an end to those marauding gangs of chavvy ticket inspectors patronsing innocent folks going to work then it's alright with me
.....better than some of the chavvy menacing non-fair paying passengers.........
Hate the term 'chav'.
Can't think of a much more inappropriate name for anything connected with Metrolink.
It might work on the Trams but I doubt if Stagecoach and First will abandon there own weekly and day tickets as they prepare for a bus war in South Manchester. Finglands takeover by First has already been sent to the Competition Commission. But surely all ManConned readers never take public transport.
Why oh why oh why didn't they call it 'The bee line'? :(
Beeline is a sim card, and b line is another travel card in Derbyshire apparently. I would have loved something bee themed though.
Mango would have been the obvious best name. clearly - but obviously some marketing team diluted and diluted, then probably councillors got involved...
That would have been an awesome name! Google tells me it's already being used by Trent Barton though, pity :-(