£27m to give First fares lead

摘要

Firstgroup is investing £27million in a revolutionary new ticketing system in England outside London that will see passengers able to use contactless debit and credit cards to pay for single bus fares. It will start installing the system, using Almex Optima BL machines, this autumn and envisages a phased rollout of card readers that will see passengers touch in and touch out with bankcards as they board and alight without needing to interact with drivers. Although similar to the London OysterCard, there are fundamental differences. With Oyster, passengers need to buy, register and top up their cards to pay in advance for travel. And because the London bus system has a flat fare and many passengers make relatively short journeys, they only touch in to record the transaction as they board.