Manchester gears up to start playing its smartcards right

Transport for Greater Manchester is probably only 18 months or so away from introducing a transport smartcard ticketing system broadly similar to the Oystercard scheme in use in London since 2003. But, as TfGM’s David Hytch explains, Manchester is not London and needs its own smartcard to support its own transport strategy

by Rik Thomas

28 September 2012

Greater Manchester’s tram network is due to introduce smartcard ticketing in the spring of 2014

Smartphone apps are set to play a major role in transmitting useful information to travellers in Manchester

David Hytch says that only now can the business case for introducing smartcards be made to stack up

Bus and rail travel using smartcards will be added when the private operators have all been brought on board

Transport for Greater Manchester’s plan to introduce smartcard ticketing on its public transport network is by no means the only ‘hi-tech’ project that the organisation is working on at the moment but David Hytch, as information systems director (technology initiatives), concedes that: “This is probably, as far as the public is concerned, the single biggest thing that we are doing.”

When asked why Manchester is only now ‘getting into’ smartcard...