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Pay As You Go extended to almost 100 train stations

26 Nov 2024 2 minute read
TfW PAYG Cardiff Central. Image: TfW

Rail passengers travelling across the South Wales Metro can now access easier ways to pay and great value fares with a new Pay As You Go system.

Transport for Wales is the first train operator outside of London and the South East of England to introduce this paying system.

The tap in, tap out technology is available at 95 Transport for Wales (TfW) stations throughout South Wales, including all Valleys lines and on routes to Bridgend, Maesteg, the Vale of Glamorgan, Abergavenny and Chepstow.

Tap in with bank card

Pay As You Go can be used for single journeys with fares starting at just £2.60, and with automatic daily and weekly capping they offer a significant saving against standard Anytime singles and 7-day season tickets.

There’s no need to purchase a physical or digital ticket, passengers can simply tap in and out using their bank card.

Conductors now carry a card reader which validates if a passenger has tapped in at the start of their journey.

Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, Ken Skates added: “I am delighted that we’re now able to offer passengers a simpler and fairer way to travel through the new Pay as You Go system.

“This is another significant milestone towards our ambition to transform our railways and build a world-class metro service which enables us to deliver high-quality ‘turn up and go’ services for passengers.”

“Simple and cost-effective”

Alexia Course, Chief Commercial Officer at Transport for Wales said: “Since launching Pay As You Go as a trial at the beginning of the year we’ve already seen more than 65,000 people choosing this simple and cost-effective way to pay for their travel.

“We’ve made a significant investment in new gatelines for our stations and our team has worked quickly to get the new technology installed, tested and ready for passengers by the end of the year.

“This is another important step in the South Wales Metro project and is the first Pay As You Go scheme, where passengers can simply use their bank card, outside of London and the South East of England.”


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Ernie The Smallholder
Ernie The Smallholder
15 days ago

How do railcard holders obtain their discounted fares ?

Does the system allow for the cheap day return fares ?

Ann
Ann
14 days ago

I was wondering about Railcards too! It does say it is capped though so that will probably deal with the variable pricing issues. Last time we went to Cardiff we bought an Anytime return as we weren’t sure what time we would come back, but in fact we could have got the cheaper fare as we didn’t stay for long!

Bob McIntyre
Bob McIntyre
14 days ago

According to TfW’s Web site “Pay as you go does NOT support the use of concessionary cards” and “NO return journeys: pay as you go operates a single adult journey only”. Whilst PAYG also works on CrossCountry trains, it isn’t available on GWR, and how long will it be before the cries start: we didn’t know… This further compounds the problems faced from mid-December by users of the Heart of Wales line who’ve been to Cardiff and want to get back on the same day (or possibly the same century…). You now have to leave Cardiff at 16:09 to travel… Read more »

Bert
Bert
14 days ago
Reply to  Bob McIntyre

This one says it does not “currently” support railcards which hints that this may change in the future.

https://tfw.wales/ways-to-travel/rail/ticket-types/pay-as-you-go/fares-and-capping

hdavies15
hdavies15
14 days ago
Reply to  Bert

Your comment sort of touches on the same issue as that which occurs to me – You can have “Pay as you go” but will the train “go to where you need to be” ?

Welsh Patriot
Welsh Patriot
14 days ago

No it doesn’t do a lot of discounted fares, so be very careful using tap in and tap out.

Bob McIntyre
Bob McIntyre
14 days ago

And who is paying for this with poorer services and higher fares?

Howie
Howie
14 days ago

Which company has the contract to run this service for TfW?

Garycymru
Garycymru
14 days ago

Nice to see some common sense approach. Using the tube in London this way is so much quicker and easier.

Bert
Bert
14 days ago

Do inspectors have devices yet to check you’ve tapped in?

Welsh Patriot
Welsh Patriot
14 days ago
Reply to  Bert

Yes, it a Near field reader that checks you credit card.
Your credit card stores information on the last 5 or 10 entries for just such purposes.
So the train inspector can see you spending habits, which is not great!

Bert
Bert
12 days ago
Reply to  Welsh Patriot

Does that mean you could “lose” your tap-in by buying lots of snacks at the contactless vending machine and end up being fined?

Welsh Patriot
Welsh Patriot
14 days ago

I see TfW put the price of unregulated fares up by 5% earlier this month, this after a 4.9% increase on all fares, both regulated and unregulated.
Do they think we are made of money?

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