The Pop Pay As You Go card is now free to obtain for travel on the Tyne and Wear Metro and bus routes across North East England.
Using a Pop Pay As You Go smart card saves passengers money on every trip they make on Metro, and the card can also be used to buy tickets on all local buses in North East England.
The purple Pay As You Go card, which was launched in 2015, originally cost a one-off fee of £5, but has now been made available for free.
Customers can get a card for free online at popcard.org.uk, from any Nexus TravelShop in Tyne and Wear and selected Payzone stores across North East England.
Customers who get a PAYG Pop card will have to top it up with at least £10 of credit to start using it.
They can then save money on the cost of journeys on Metro – as well as benefiting from the convenience of touching in and out at stations without using ticket machines. They can also pay for travel on hundreds of bus routes and the Shields Ferry with the same card.
Huw Lewis, Director of Customer Services at Nexus, said: “More than 15,000 people have already discovered the benefit of travel with a Pop Pay As You Go smart card, and we want to see that number grow.
“Pop offers an easier, better value way to travel, and by lifting the initial £5 cost of a card we hope more people will discover the value of Pay As You Go, and so use bus and Metro more.
“I would encourage people who regularly buy single and or DaySaver tickets on Metro to try out Pop PAYG – not only will it save you time at ticket machines, it will also save you money.”
A single Metro ticket is 20p cheaper with a Pop Pay As You Go card, while all-day travel is 30p less, with the smart system automatically working out the best deal for the customer.
Pop PAYG is the easy way to travel. Customers load a balance on to their PAYG card and travel as and when they like, paying for journeys by touching their card on the validator or station gate as they enter or leave a Metro station. Customers can register their card at the online Pop Shop to top up their balance, avoiding queueing at stations.
Pop PAYG also has a ‘one last trip’ benefit on Metro, which allows customers who have some balance on their card but not enough for their full journey to make one last trip to get to where they need to be. To use the card again, customers will have to top up their balance.
The cards can also be used to buy tickets on all bus services in North East England, including services in the Tees Valley, Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland, as well as on the Shields Ferry.
For more information on Pop Pay As You Go, visit www.nexus.org.uk/pop/payg
For regular travel updates regarding Tyne and Wear Metro follow @My_Metro on Twitter, find Metro on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mymetrotw or visit Nexus.org.uk/metro or call Nexus on 0191 20 20 747.