A northern Oyster Card is being planned to integrate travel across Manchester. It is currently slated for use on buses and trains, but Ben O’Toole; managing director at Manchester Airport says it’s possible for the card to include planes as well. A passenger could catch a train from one town, get the tram to Manchester Airport, and then catch a plane to Paris or Amsterdam.
With the advances in technology and the increased number of travelers, it is definitely something that is likely to happen sooner rather than later. It will save time as well as help consumers to save money. Germany already has something similar in place where you can buy integrated rail and airfares. According to Mr. O’Toole, they would like to invest in something that appreciates technology and can make things more efficient.
With such integration, it could possibly put Manchester at the forefront of modernization and effective use of technology, helping to encourage other parts of the UK to follow suit. With a more seamless system, it would make travel easier to book, and ease congestion as passengers will be able to seamlessly go from train to plane with little to no interruption.
With their 150 million pound investment into Northern Transports seamless ticketing, it’s quite possible we could see this happening in the near future. They are aggressive with their plans to roll this out as soon as possible, despite having to end their contract with ATOS, due to delays in the process. We look forward to seeing how the seamless ticket for the north evolves.