Agenda item - Public Transport Contactless Payment Delivery Strategy

Agenda item

Public Transport Contactless Payment Delivery Strategy

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Transport and HR

Minutes:

The Board considered a report of the Portfolio Holder for Transport and HR regarding the development of contactless payment on public transport in the City.  The Council has been awarded £2.4m from the Department of Transport National Productivity Fund and the report was seeking approval for phase 1 of the contactless payment approach and approval to award grant funding to Nottingham City Transport, Nottingham Express Transit and trentbarton.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  agree the phase 1 contactless payment approach which will deliver multi-operator fares with capping will on Nottingham City Transport, Nottingham Express Transit and CT4N services initially, with other operators joining in phase 2 of the programme once the Midland Connect Regional Brokerage system or a locally developed solution has been implemented; and

 

(2)  delegate authority to the Corporate Director for Development and Growth to approve grant funding to Nottingham City Transport as the lead contractor for the required back office system, with Nottingham Express Transit, Nottingham City Transport and trentbarton also grant funded to purchase the required contactless payment reader hardware, subject to appropriate governance and contract arrangements which protect the Council being established.

 

Reasons for the decision

The Council has been working with local transport operators via the Robin Hood partnership (the existing smart ticketing governance and development partnership) to establish the technological solution that will be taken forward to deliver the move to account based ticketing and contactless payment for public transport in Nottingham.  Nottingham City Transport and Nottingham Express Transit have selected INIT as their preferred ticketing supplier with trentbarton currently undecided on the supplier they would like to commission for their delivery of contactless payment.  Other local operators have not expressed an interest to participate in the rollout of contactless payment as part of this project and therefore are not included in phase 1.

 

Midlands Connect, the new sub-national transport body for the West and East Midlands is developing a regional brokerage system that will support the local approach to smart ticketing that Nottingham’s operators, through the Robin Hood partnership, would like to take forward.  The regional brokerage system being developed by Midlands Connect will be able to process payments between different ticketing technology suppliers, which fits ambitions locally for multi-operator integration and meets the needs of our local operators in terms of them being able to make individual decisions on individual ticketing suppliers.

 

The implementation of phases 1 and 2 of Nottingham’s contactless payment approach will incrementally deliver full multi-operator fares across Nottingham and eventually lead to integration with public transport operators across the Midlands region.

 

Phase 1 will see Nottingham City Transport, Nottingham Express Transit and Nottingham City Council supported bus services currently operated by CT4N grant funded in order to achieve the delivery of contactless payment for multi-operator fares and individual operator fares across the local network.  Trentbarton will also receive funding to support the delivering of contactless payment for their individual operator fares during this phase on the proviso that as part of phase 2 of the project they can demonstrate that their chosen ticketing supplier will be able to work in tandem with the INIT system chosen by Nottingham City Transport and Nottingham Express Transit.  Trentbarton integration into the Nottingham contactless multi-operator fare structure is expected to be achieved via the Midlands Connect backed regional brokerage system or a locally developed solution has been implemented.  An additional fall back option is full integration of other ticketing systems with the INIT system to create a full Nottingham contactless system if the regional brokerage system is delayed or not funded by central government.

 

In the interim and in lieu of the delivery of the Midland Connect regional brokerage system multi-operator fares on contactless will be delivered on Nottingham City Transport, Nottingham Express Transit and our own contracted bus services.  This represents approximately 85% of the local public transport market.  This strategy will further enhance the integration of public transport locally.  Whilst also facilitating the payment of single operator fares through contactless, a development which will be welcomed positively by regular, casual and new public transport users.

 

The existing Robin Hood Scheme will be retained for both season ticket and Pay As You Go passengers, providing an option for those passengers who do not have access to contactless payment, or those who wish to continue to benefit from multi-operator fares across Nottingham City Transport, Nottingham Express Transit, trentbarton and CT4N bus and tram services.  Cash fares will also be retained.

 

Other options considered

Postpone the delivery of phase 1 of the contactless payment project and wait until the Midlands Connect Regional Brokerage System has been implemented so that full multi-operator contactless payment can be delivered across different ticketing systems.  This has been rejected as timescales for the delivery of the Regional Brokerage System have not been finalised and are outside the scope of the National Productivity Investment Fund funding award.

 

Supporting documents: