A major milestone has been reached in the use of tap and go Metrolink journeys with the 50 millionth such journey being recorded on Wednesday 19th March. This way of paying has now become by far the most popular way of travelling on the trams – and the milestone came just a few days before the facility is expanded further across the Bee Network to includes buses as well.
Tap and go contactless payments have been available on the trams since 2019, this not only includes bank cards but also phones and watches. In that time the convenience of using tap and go – where the daily cap is automatically calculated – has proven to be popular with passengers. The same benefits are now also available to passengers using Bee Network buses from Sunday 23rd March.
The record-breaking journey was recorded on Wednesday 19th March at 0707 with the journey taken being Navigation Road to Cornbrook.
Now there are an average of 45,000 journeys taken each day using contactless payment methods on Metrolink (16.5 million journeys in total last year). This has seen a 20% increase from the previous year. 64% of these contactless journeys are made using devices such as phones and watches instead of traditional bank cards.
The most contactless tap and go journeys on Metrolink were made on 14th April 2024 (day of the Manchester Marathon), with November 2024 seeing the most journeys in a single month (1.64 million). St Peter’s Square is the most popular stop to start contactless journeys (around 5.7 million) followed by Deansgate-Castlefield (around 2.95 million) and Piccadilly Gardens (around 2.36 million). Outside of Manchester City Centre and the most popular starting points are Chorlton (around 1.47 million) and Altrincham (around 1.45 million).
Vernon Everitt, Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester, said: “There are many benefits to contactless tap and go: it is convenient and easy to use, it removes the need to buy tickets in advance and automatically works out your best value fare over a day or week regardless of how many journeys you make.
“This has gone from strength to strength on Metrolink, with the number of people using it almost doubling in two years.”