East Midlands Trains is expanding its smartcard scheme.
The scheme allows monthly and annual East Midlands Trains season tickets to be stored electronically on a StagecoachSmart travel card, instead of on a paper ticket.
The train company – part of transport operator Stagecoach Group – has installed smartcard readers at 26 stations across its network and initially introduced the scheme to existing season ticket holders, allowing them to exchange their paper ticket for a StagecoachSmart travel card.
Now East Midlands Trains is moving on to the next stage of the scheme by opening it up to even more passengers.
From now on, customers who phone the Customer Service Centre on 0845 810 1010 to purchase or renew a monthly or annual East Midlands Trains season ticket will be offered the chance to receive their ticket on a StagecoachSmart travel card instead of a paper ticket, provided they are travelling on the following routes:
- Sheffield – London St Pancras
- Nottingham – London St Pancras
- Nottingham – Mansfield Woodhouse
Alternatively, customers can visit www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/smart and register for a blank smartcard to be posted out to them.
Once a customer has received their StagecoachSmart travel card, it can be used again and again to store their future tickets which can be loaded on to it by phoning the Customer Service Centre or by using ticket machines at stations.
To use the smartcard, when arriving or leaving a station, passengers simply hold their card over the ITSO smartcard reader on the ticket gates or platform validators to verify their journey.
Launching the new scheme, East Midlands Trains Managing Director David Horne said:
“We are delighted to be launching this scheme – we believe that the introduction of StagecoachSmart travel cards will make travelling with East Midlands Trains even easier.
“We want to make travel even smarter and more convenient for our customers and we will continue to expand the scheme to include more tickets for even more passengers in the future.
“By embracing new technology and continuing to offer good value, high-quality services, we look forward to attracting even more people on to our trains.”
More than 200,000 smartcard transactions are already made on Stagecoach’s bus and rail services each day as the Perth-based company continues to lead the way in working towards Transport Minister Norman Baker’s vision to have all public transport covered by smartcard technology by 2020.
In 2008, Stagecoach launched the UK’s first national rail smartcard pilot on its South West Trains franchise.
Having successfully completed the trial, South West Trains now has live ITSO smart ticketing at around 100 stations on the network.
Stagecoach has also introduced StagecoachSmart travel cards at its bus companies in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Manchester and East Kent & East Sussex after becoming the first major UK bus operator to install smartcard-enabled technology on its entire 7,000 fleet of buses outside London.
In London, all 1,400 Stagecoach buses accept Transport for London’s Oyster Card.
The technology as we have seen hardly ever delivers ..many of the customers want a friendly face offering good customer service / good value and choice of ticket.!