Nottingham City Council has successfully rolled out the first Oyster-style contactless ticketing system in the country outside of London.

The new Nottingham Contactless multi-operator Tap & Go option – available across Nottingham City Transport buses, NET trams and Linkbuses operated by CT4N – allows people to tap on with contactless bank cards or phones throughout the day and pay one daily charge capped at the best fare for their travel.

Multi-operator capping is designed to encourage people to travel more easily and flexibly without worrying how much they will be charged or deciding what ticket they need in advance.

‘We have been working towards a multi-operator contactless and capped payment option for a number of years now, to make using our wonderful public transport network as simple and stress-free as possible. It’s something we may have experienced in other great cities and I’m really pleased we are now offering it to people visiting, living and working in Nottingham,’ said the city council’s portfolio holder for local transport, Cllr Rosemary Healy

‘The new system will always give the best value for passengers, providing an extra reason for even more people to choose our award-winning green public transport services. This in turn helps Nottingham continue to grow sustainably.’

The city council successfully bid for £2.7m from the Department for Transport’s National Productivity Fund and Transforming Cities Programme to develop the technology.

The system has been developed by public transport technology specialists INIT, which has a UK office in Nottingham.

Jens Mullak, managing director of INIT, said: ‘We are thrilled to deliver this exciting ticketing solution, which makes public transport more attractive – particularly important as our sector tries to attract people back to our trams and buses.

‘From our dedicated Nottingham office in the Lace Market, INIT continues to deliver modern, simple fare solutions that Nottingham’s passengers expect and deserve, and which has been propelled, in part, by their wish to pay using contactless during the pandemic.’