Welcome

Changes to Easyrider Citycard travel on the tram

As you may be aware there will be a change of operator of Nottingham’s tram system in the coming months, this combined with changes to competition law means that there will be some substantial changes to public transport ticketing in and around the City.

The most noticeable change will be that that existing Easyrider Citycard products will no longer be valid on the tram. Easyrider Citycards will, however, continue to be valid on the Nottingham City Transport bus network. Tram passengers who currently have an Easyrider Citycard valid beyond the changeover date and no longer wish to use it, will be able to claim a refund. Nottingham City Transport will contact customers closer to the time to explain the available options.

Passengers who wish to purchase one ticket for both bus and tram will be pleased to know that over the past few months we’ve been developing a Kangaroo season ticket that can be added to your Citycard and allows travel on all buses, trams and trains within the Kangaroo area.

The exact date of the changeover is yet to be confirmed; however as soon as it’s announced we’ll be releasing more information about where and when you can buy a Kangaroo travel on your Citycard. As always you can keep up to date with the latest Citycard news either on our website or on facebook.

What we’re up to at the moment

Splendour

This year’s splendour was a great success; even the weather read the script and stayed nice. Again this year Citycard holders who are also city residents got a sustainable discount on the cost of their tickets. For this first time this year we worked with an outside ticket agency to allow qualifying card holders to buy their tickets on line. We’re now reviewing how things went with Splendour and learning how we could improve Splendour for Citycard holders in future years. If you’ve got any suggestions about how we can improve the Splendour experience get in touch with us in the normal ways.

Applying for your card online

This is something that we’ve been asked for many times. We’ve actually been working on online sign ups for a while; in fact we’re already testing some components of the system (Senior Card holder can currently apply online), but we need to sure that all elements work smoothly before we roll it out more widely. When you order a new card online several different systems need to work together to ensure that when you order a new or replacement card online all your different leisure, library and travel accounts are updated accordingly. Whilst it’s tempting to say it’ll be ready by X date it’s a very complicated project and in reality it’s difficult to attach a reliable timescale to this type of work. We rather wait an extra month and release a great product then go early and settle for mediocre, so in summary we’ll release it only when it’s ready.

New funding

You may have read that Nottingham City Council recently received nearly £5 million in additional transport funding from the Department for Transport. A substantial amount of this has been allocated for smart ticketing which is great news. We’re currently putting together detailed plans for how we’ll use this money and when these are approved we’ll share them with the community.

Why can't I top my card up online?

One of the most common question we get asked is "why can't I top my pink easyrider Citycard up online?". Without getting over technical it's because of a software limitation on the ticket machines we use. When you buy travel online a message is sent to the on bus ticket machine telling it to top your card up. These messages wait on the ticket machine for you to 'collect' them next time you use your card.

The problem is that's at to moment the ticket machines can only hold a limited number of messages. When you add in messages for other things such as to stop stolen cards and system updates there simply isn't room to fit on the message for the 100's of pink easyrider Citycards which are topped up every day.

We're are currently working together with Nottingham City Transport to make buying travel on your easyrider Citycard easier. Some of this work is resolving the issues around the capacity of the ticket machines but we're also looking at new ways for you to buy and collect your travel at a range of other outlets such as libraries and leisure centres.

We're not at the stage yet where we ready to share our ideas however once they're are more developed we'll be sure to come back to the community and get your thoughts.”

We are currently looking at ways we can improve the facilities for cyclists in the city using Citycard.

We already have some ideas around improving cycle locking facilities and storage lockers for your gear. We are also looking at the possibility of running a cycle hire scheme for commuters.

We’re still finalising our plans for this area so now’s your chance to have your say. Let us know what you ‘d like to see in the usual ways.