A NEW ‘simpler’ way of travelling on the railway is set to be trialled later this year - with contactless ticketing set to come into force.
Government bosses behind the scheme say the trials will use GPS based technology.
This will track your location on your train journey, ensuring you pay the best fare for the journey you take.
For ticket inspections and to go through ticket barriers, a unique bar code will pop up in the app to be scanned.
The government is kickstarting the procurement process to find the suppliers who will run the technology for trials across Yorkshire.
The successful bidder will work alongside Northern to deliver the trial.
Alex Hornby, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “Historically, ticketing across the rail industry has been far too complicated and so anything that makes the customer experience simpler has my vote.
“We’ve already seen a huge swing away from physical tickets to digital alternatives, which now make up over 80 per cent of journeys on our network.
“The option to ‘pay as you go’ is a development of that trend which we’re looking forward to introducing on selected routes very soon.”
