Overview
- Contactless payment is now live across the network, allowing travel with bank cards, smartphones and smartwatches.
- Passengers must tap in at the start and tap out at the end of journeys, with automatic daily and weekly caps guaranteeing the lowest fare.
- The rollout follows a small user trial and last summer’s MetroCard phase; MetroCards remain valid and ticket offices continue to sell paper and season tickets.
- Roughly £10m has been invested, with early uptake including more than 6,000 sign-ups in the first month and over 53,000 MetroCard journeys recorded in August.
- New gates and validators have been installed at stations such as Moorfields, and leaders frame the move as progress toward unified ticketing; the Combined Authority says Merseyrail fares are frozen until March 2027.