Metro awarded £13m upgrade for Smart ticket machines

Aug 26 2009 by Amy Hunt, The Journal

METRO operators Nexus will today be awarded more than £13m to upgrade ticket machines, paving the way for a smart card system on the network.

The £13.4m grant from the Department for Transport will upgrade 225 old ticket machines at all 60 stations so that machines can accept notes and card payments.

Automatic gates will also be installed at 13 of the busiest Metro stations to help reduce fare dodging.

Work should start early next year and is due to be finished by 2012.

The project is part of the Metro: All Change programme, which plans to plough £300m into revamping the 30-year-old rail system in order to attract more passengers and cut congestion on the region’s roads.

Bernard Garner, director general of Metro operator Nexus, said: “We are now in a position to really press ahead with this exciting project.

“The new technology will make travelling on Metro so much easier for our 40 million passengers a year.

“This is the first phase of our Metro: All Change programme, which will see more than £300m invested on sweeping modernisation work on the entire Metro system.

“The new ticket machines will take away the hassle of finding change and passengers will also be able to pay with a credit or a debit card.

“The barriers will give us more scope to clamp down on ticket fraud.