After plenty of delays, passengers can finally tap on and tap off when commuting within the Liverpool City Region on Merseyrail using their MetroCard. The new service is meant to help eliminate having to queue for tickets, providing travellers with the ability to directly tap on and off.
The Tap and Go scheme was originally approved in 2020by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA), mimicking London’s transport system. Travellers need to tap on before boarding the Merseyrail network, and then off again when they disembark, to avoid getting charged for the most expensive fare.
The fare system also offers the cheapest ticketing option, with both daily and weekly price caps. Commuters are also able to purchase season tickets to help save more money, as well as daily and return tickets from rail stations and online, logged into the Metro Portal.
The Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “Relief, it’s taken an awful long time. I don’t expect that many people will understand the complexities of what we’ve had to get through so that you have a system that actually does work and that it doesn’t, for instance, take too much out of somebody’s bank account because that could be the worst scenario of all, but it has been tested, we’ve had a couple of months on it, the feedback’s been very, very good. 96% of people have said that it’s something that’s good or very good, so we can move forward now to the next phase.”
“You can tap in, which is fine, they have to remember to tap out otherwise, we’re going to get loads of complaints that the cost is enormous because you’ll be charged the maximum fare on a rail journey on Merseyrail if you don’t tap out. If you tap in and then tap out, it’s the same cost.”
Neil Grabham, Merseyrail managing director, said: “The introduction of Tap and Go across the Merseyrail network represents a significant advancement in our efforts to make rail travel simpler, faster and accessible for all. We’re proud to support this forward-thinking initiative, which prioritises customer experience by eliminating barriers to travel and ensuring the best value fares are always available.
“This marks another important step in our ongoing commitment to delivering a modern, customer-centric railway that remains deeply connected to the communities we serve.”