Nexus have revealed that a third of all single and day journeys on the Tyne and Wear Metro are now being made by passengers using Pop Pay As You Go. This news comes after the start of an offer in January which sees single journeys capped at £2 when using Pop with more people than ever now taking advantage. The offer remains in place until March.
The proportion of journeys made by Pop has risen by 12% compared to this time last year with 33% of all single and day journeys made in the last full week of January being recorded.
Huw Lewis, Customer Services Director at Nexus, said: “Moving to Pop Pay As You Go in Google Pay, or getting a free Pop card from nexus.org.uk means you can save money on Metro travel with our £2 maximum fare offer running until March. We have seen almost 2,000 new customers switch to Pop since the start of January, and if they all travel just twice a week then up to two million journeys on Metro just got cheaper. We hope, of course, that by making it easier and cheaper to travel with smart tickets we encourage customers to make more journeys by sustainable public transport.”
Although the proportion of journeys is dropping below 20% at weekends, Nexus is encouraging people to consider getting a Pop card or Pop on Google Pay regardless of how often they travel on the network.
Mr Lewis added: “Pop is the best product to travel on Metro. We recommend that customers make the switch even if they travel only once a week or less – either by getting a free Pop card by applying for one online from the Nexus website or through Google Pay if you have an Android smartphone. When the current £2 maximum fare offer ends in March Pop prices will return to the same level they have been frozen at since 2021, between £1.65 and £3.25, so customers can still save more than £1 a day compared to getting a ticket from a machine.”
- Full details on how to use Pop Pay As You Go is available at https://www.nexus.org.uk/save