Bus passengers with electronic ‘smart’ tickets will be able to use them on more than one bus company in Brighton & Hove from next week.
At present, smartcard tickets, known as The Key, used on Brighton & Hove Bus Company services, could not be accepted by other firms, meaning anyone who needed to make a journey involving more than one company had to buy tickets from different sources.
From August 3, the new multi operator ticketing scheme will be available on vehicles run by The Big Lemon and on all Compass Buses operating on the Brighton & Hove network.
To buy tickets online, click here: or at Brighton & Hove Buses’ North Street shop.
M-Tickets bought and displayed on mobile phones via an app will also be accepted across the three companies.
For more information, click here:
Transport bosses say it will make cross-city bus travel easier and cheaper.
The move was made possible by a £71,000 grant the council won from the Department for Transport, plus resources from Brighton & Hove Buses and their parent company Go Ahead, and the project has funded computing changes to integrate the services, plus installation of card-readers on buses run by Compass Travel and the Big Lemon.
The companies provide supported bus services, subsidised by the council, which would otherwise not be commercially viable. The three-year pilot scheme will cover Compass Travel services 37, 37B, 47 56, 57, 16 and 66, plus service 52 operated by The Big Lemon.
As well as winning the grant and facilitating the project, the city council is also contributing £27,000 towards set-up costs, with bus companies meeting the running costs.
Smartcards can be topped up online or at Brighton & Hove Buses’ North Street shop, providing tickets ranging from single journeys to one-year seasons.
If successful the council’s multi-operator scheme could be extended to all operators of bus services in the city.
Cllr Gill Mitchell, Chair of the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “This makes cross-city bus travel much more practical. It could increase travel on routes which have to be subsidised and make them increasingly viable.
“This has been a very positive exercise, with the council assisting co-operation between our different bus companies for the benefit of the travelling public.”
Supported services mainly run to outlying areas east of the city as far as Saltdean and to Hangleton, Knoll and Portslade in the west. They cover routes or times that are socially important but not commercially viable.