New Smartcard for West Midlands rail users
The West Midlands’ answer to London’s Oyster card has been extended to thousands of additional commuters.
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), the transport arm of the West Midlands Combined Authority, has started to switch all 9,000 customers on its nTrain direct debit ticket scheme from traditional paper tickets to a new smartcard.
It means 12,000 customers will now use the Swift card for rail journeys in addition to the 130,000 who already use the cards on the region’s bus and tram networks.
The nTrain direct debit Swift cards are accepted by London Midland trains which operates local rail services in the area covered by TfWM.
They can also be used within the region on Virgin Trains, Chiltern Railways, Arriva Trains Wales and Cross Country trains.
The cards, which can be read by train staff with hand-held equipment, will also activate ticket barriers at New Street, Snow Hill, Moor Street, University, Five Ways, Birmingham International and Coventry stations.
Cllr Roger Lawrence, WMCA lead for transport, said: “Customers no longer have to worry about getting a ticket each month, or getting stuck at a rail gate, and they will also see the cost of their monthly ticket reduced by moving over to Swift.”
As well as launching the new product, TfWM has also unveiled a new look for Swift with a fresh purple design replacing the old blue livery.
Matt Lewis, head of Swift for TfWM, said: “This is an exciting further chapter in the continued rollout of Swift smart ticketing throughout the West Midlands.
“With further new tickets and functions being introduced in the coming months we have taken the opportunity to update and refresh the brand design to ensure that, in keeping with the new tickets that we continue to rollout, it remains at the cutting edge.”
More than three million journeys are made using Swift every month and the 9,000 train travellers being switched over are in addition to 3,000 rail passengers on the nNetwork direct debit scheme who were moved over to the smartcard last September.
