First Bus and Suffolk County Council announce new payment technology on fleet

First Bus and Suffolk County Council have jointly announced that Tap On Tap Off (TOTO) payment technology will be live on the operator’s buses throughout the region from Sunday 23 November.

The addition of the enhanced contactless system across the First Bus fleet of 88 vehicles has been possible with funding of £42,050 by the council. This is from an allocation of £300,000 through the Local Authority Bus Grant Capital Funding, to roll this service out across all bus operators in Suffolk.

The TOTO contactless system guarantees customers ultimate flexibility on the fare paid. It charges for the journey made but is capped at the price for a day’s travel, allowing multiple trips to be made with continued discounts for more days travelled during a week.

James McCluskey, Commercial Director of First East of England, said: “This technology will give access to the best-value fares and benefit the hundreds of thousands of people who travel with us across the region every week.”

Cllr Chris Chambers, Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport Strategy, Planning and Waste, said: “The Tap on, Tap-off readers will enable bus companies to better understand the journeys people are making. In the future this will help to shape routes around the exact journeys that customers want to make and allow better value fares based on accurate journey length.

“In the longer term, the technology will also enable fare-capping for people making several bus journeys across the day, or week, which is a key part of our plans to make public transport journeys simpler, cheaper and more viable for Suffolk residents.”

To use TOTO a person uses their contactless card or mobile (including smartwatches) at the ticket machine next to the driver but must ‘tap’ again on a separate new special card reader device when leaving the bus to confirm a record of the trip and distance travelled.

“We’re confident customers will quickly come to love the seamless travel payment it provides. The introduction of TOTO is another important step in simplifying journeys,” said James McCluskey.

Signage inside buses highlighting TOTO and the position of the new card reader is being installed to remind customers of the payment option and help ensure they remember to ‘tap off’ when exiting.

Full details of Tap on, Tap off payment can be found by visiting the First Bus website https://www.firstbus.co.uk/norfolk-suffolk/tickets/tap-tap