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 smartphone 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.
Arriva
Arriva is a large bus operator in the North East, 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 Arriva tickets, including information on how to buy tickets via your smartphone, follow the links below.
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.
Train Tickets
Finding good value train tickets is easier than ever, with a number of great online tools available! Darlington station has ticket machines as well as a staffed ticket office, making purchasing train tickets in person really simple. Alternatively, the LNER or the Trainline app gives you the ability to purchase digital tickets to store on your smartphone, as well as giving you live journey information.
Booking train travel in advance is an easy way to get cheaper tickets, with the number of cheap advance fares available doubling in the last few years! Advance tickets are available to buy as far as 12 weeks before your date of travel and can usually be purchased up until 6pm the day before.
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 following the link below.
Further Discounts
If you regularly commute to work by bus it could be worth checking whether your employer facilitates workplace bus ticket discounting.
Arriva and Nexus (POP Card) both have discount schemes in place which employers can sign up to, giving employees significant cost savings. Find out more by clicking the links 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.