Paying for a journey by public transport is now easier than ever! With a number of season tickets available in the area, contactless payments accepted on most services and even the option of purchasing and storing tickets on your smart phone you’ll find it super easy to find a payment method that suits you!
If you are a regular public transport user, make sure that you have spent some time exploring ways you could save some money. Paying on the day may be a quick and flexible option, but you could make some serious savings by buying a monthly or annual pass, or by booking your travel in advance.
POP Card
If your regular journey includes more than one bus operator, or is combined with a journey by rail or Metro, a POP Card may be a great option. The POP Card is a smart card, administered by Nexus, that makes travelling on Metro, bus and train across the North East really simple and saves you money!
For more information on POP Card and to find out if it could be useful for you, follow the links below.
Stagecoach Ticketing
Lots of the local bus services are operated by Stagecoach, who offer a range of ticketing options aimed at making your journeys as cheap as possible. They also now accept contactless payments on all of their services, which is ideal if you plan on paying for your bus journey on the day of your travel.
For further details on Stagecoach tickets, including information on how to buy tickets via your smart phone, follow the link below.
Go North East Ticketing
Go North East are another key provider of bus services in the local area. As well as offering a number of season ticket options, they also accept cashless payments on all services, making paying for your tickets easy and convenient, as well as cheap!
For further details on Go North East tickets, including how to buy tickets via your smartphone, follow the links below.
Train Tickets
Finding good value train tickets is easier than ever, with a number of great online tools available! Sunderland train station has a ticket machine making purchasing train tickets in person really simple. Alternatively, the Trainline or Northern Rail apps gives you the ability to purchase digital tickets to store on your smartphone, as well as giving you live journey information.
Season Tickets
If you’re making the same train journey three days per week or more, perhaps on your journey to work, then getting a regular season ticket could save you a considerable amount of money! Most season tickets of 7-days or longer can only be used by a specific person and will require a Photocard to validate them.
If you’re travelling between 2-3 days per week and need a little extra flexibility, new Flexi Season Tickets allow you to travel 8 days in 28 between specified stations, working out at 2.5 days of travel per week. The Flexi Season ticket will offer a minimum of 20% discount on an equivalent Monthly Season ticket, so definitely worth looking into if you know you’re going to be splitting your time between home and the office.
Use National Rail’s handy tool to calculate the cost of different season tickets by follow the link below.
Further Discounts
If you regularly commute to work by bus it could worth checking whether your employer facilitates workplace bus ticket discounting.
Stagecoach has a discount scheme in place which employers can sign up to, giving employees significant cost savings. Find out more by clicking the link below.
If you regularly travel by train it’s worth checking if you’re eligible for a Railcard. You could be saving 1/3 on all of your train travel!
There are a number of different concessions for seniors wishing to travel locally and nationally in England, across all types of public transport. For more information about eligibility and the concessions available check out Age UK’s guide by following the link below.
The Stagecoach Flexi 5 ticket bundle allows you to purchase 5 DayRider tickets with a 20% discount, meaning you get 5 tickets for the price of 4! Ideal if you ride regularly, but not every day, the tickets can be bought through the app and will be available to use any day within a month of purchase. For more information, click on the link below.