Transport for London – Off-Bus Ticketing

London Buses, part of Transport for London, has installed over 1,100 Metric Accent machines at busy bus stops to enable their passengers to purchase tickets before boarding.  It is no longer possible for passengers to pay cash at central London bus stops; they must either have a travel card or buy a ticket from the Metric machine at the bus stop.

 

The Roadside Ticket Machine (RTM) in London are Metric’s Accent “Pay and Display” machines with transport software, producing tickets specific to TfL’s design.

TfL decided to introduce the RTMs in central London to reduce boarding time at their busiest bus stops.  The RTM also allowed TfL to operate their fleet of bendy-buses without having conductors.

 

In additional to supplying the machines to TfL, Metric supplied a complete turnkey solution to all of TfL’s requirements for the RTM system.  Metric have been responsible for the planning, installation and commissioning of all machines. Metric carry out all maintenance, with a response (fix) time of one hour, 24 hours a day, 364 days a year!  Metric are also responsible for cash collection, reconciliation and banking.  The contract even has a “knockdown” clause, where Metric takes responsibility for all actions following any vehicle-strike to the RTMs.

 

In the event of a fault with the machine the RTMs self-diagnose and send the fault details to a server in Metric’s offices, which in turn sends details to the engineers. Passengers are able to report faults too, 24/7, using Metric’s customer helpline.  The helpline operators enter details of the call, which again are sent to Metric’s engineers to enable them to respond within the one hour allowed.

 

The TfL/Metric project has been a great success for both parties, and has proved Metric’s capability to deliver a true turn-key solution.