Huge token travel scheme for North West
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PTAs and bus companies form concession fares consortium
• It was exclusively revealed to CM this week that a consortium of Passenger Transport Authorities and bus companies in the North of England and part of Wales is to launch the biggest scheme ever attempted of payment by metal token for concessionary fare paying passengers. T-day is scheduled for April 1.
The joint token scheme is the outcome of months of planning and negotiation and has involved the minting of 10m 3 new pence token pieces and 2m 2p token pieces. It is being offered primarily as an aid to local authorities throughout an area containing over 15m people, to provide subsidized transport, usually in off-peak periods, for many classes of citizens. The undertakings which have come together in this scheme are North Western Road Car, Ribble, Crosville, Lancashire United Transport, Merseyside PTA, SELNEC PTA and other Midlands and Lancashire bus companies.
The tokens will enable hundreds of local authorities, from Cumberland to Cheshire and into Wales, to simplify the means of establishing concessionary facilities. The token system has necessitated the setting up of the North Western Public Token Transport Organization, with hq in Devonshire Street, Manchester.
Behind the idea has been the desire on the part of PTAs like SELNEC and Merseyside to create a form of token common to all these Authorities and acceptable in areas where several bus companies operate; in such regions use of a voucher system has hitherto been difficult and in many cases inoperable.
After April 1 local authorities will be able to present a cheque, for instance for 0000, and draw that amount of token value in coins. One small local authority has already ordered 100,000 a month. These will be distributed by the authorities themselves, probably from town halls, to passengers entitled to concessionary facilities. Tokens will be accepted on any bus within the area. The consortium hopes that eventually all bus undertakings from Scotland down through the Pennines into Wales will adopt the token system. The new tokens will be made available in bags of 150 new pence comprising either 50 3p pieces or 75 2p pieces.
A spokesman for SELNEC told CM this week that a great deal of planning had gone into the scheme; it had proved a heartening example of what regional planning in road passenger transport could achieve. It had prevented, for instance, the real possibility of every transport authority eventually creating its own system of tokens which would lead to confusion and failure to operate successfully between authorities.
Treasury permission was obtained before an order to mint the 12m tokens could be made. Each token will have on one side the words "North West Public Transport Token" and on the other its face value.