Stagecoach North East has reached the £1million milestone for contactless payments across the north east, less than a year after the state-of-the art technology was launched in the region.
The local bus operator introduced the innovative payment system in December 2016, which allows passengers to pay for their travel using contactless technology, and over £1million has been spent by Stagecoach customers getting around the north east.
Following the launch ten months ago, over 221,000 contactless transactions totalling over £1.1million have been made on Stagecoach buses travelling throughout the region.
Leading the trend for the contactless payments usage are passengers in Newcastle, with over 161,000 journeys and 66 percent of the city’s customers choosing to adopt the new technology to date, followed by almost 25,000 journeys in Teesside and in South Shields, over 15,000 passengers choosing to go contactless in the past eight months.
Growth of contactless payments has steadily improved each month since the payments system went live, with contactless ticket sales in the north east increasing by 90 percent between January and August.
Stagecoach North East customers were amongst the first bus passengers in the country outside London to benefit from the new system, which allows customers to pay with contactless credit or debit cards as well as Apple Pay and Android Pay.