March has been a record breaking month for contactless payments on Manchester Metrolink with passengers having touched in and out more than one million times through the month. Contactless – first introduced in 2019 – has now become the most poplar way for payments to be made to travel on Metrolink.
In total 1.1 million contactless payments were made during the month and this now means that there have been 19 million contactless journeys made on Manchester Metrolink since 2019.
Danny Vuaghan, TfGM Head of Metrolink, said: “Contactless has been a game-changer for Metrolink, with it steadily becoming the most popular way for our customers to pay for their journeys. Having one million journeys made in a month is a great milestone and reason for optimism as we continue to encourage more people back onto our network. We’re looking forward to a summer full of events across Greater Manchester and I hope even more people will continue to benefit from the convenience of using contactless.”
To pay contactless all passengers have to do is touch their card, phone or other device at the smart reader at the start and end of their journey. It’s a convenient way to pay and also means that no-one will pay more than the daily or weekly cap – as long as they remember to touch in and out on every journey.
Metrolink is now carrying around 85% of pre-pandemic passenger levels (which in 2019 were at 46.5 million). This figure is continuing to grow but still remains under previous levels and Greater Manchester remains in discussion with the government for funding to help it deliver the overall Bee Network which will include Metrolink at its heart alongside a new publicly controlled bus network.