More than 500,000 people across Greater Manchester will be able to get on board with smart ticketing from today as a part of the phased rollout of get me there.
Around 3,500 people have been routinely using the system since July as part of a pilot run by Transport for Greater Manchester, touching in and out on the get me there smart readers at the start and end of their journeys.
From today, everybody holding a Greater Manchester concessionary pass for older or disabled people is being asked to start doing the same whenever they travel on Metrolink for free.
They will also be able to register their passes online and see details of their travel history.
This latest phase of the rollout extends get me there to more than half a million people, enabling the development team to gather further customer feedback and ensure the system can deal with high volumes of regular users.
Metrolink’s paying customers will be then be invited on board in stages during spring and summer 2015.
Chair of the TfGM Committee, Councillor Andrew Fender said: “We have successfully begun the introduction of get me there and this latest step marks a significant milestone in creating an easy and seamless way of paying for and using public transport across Greater Manchester.
“The initial pilot stage allowed us to test the system with a small number of people and now we’re confident that it can handle the significant number of concessionary pass customers we have across Greater Manchester.”
Testing of the new system will continue into the new year before the system can start rolling out to fare-paying passengers from the spring.
