Pay After You Ride: New Rail Ticketing Trial Launches in the UK
A government-funded initiative is launching in September to trial a digital ticketing system on selected train routes in Yorkshire and the East Midlands. The pilot will be open to around 4,000 passengers, who will use a dedicated mobile application that applies GPS tracking to monitor rail journeys. Instead of buying a ticket in advance, the system figures out how much you owe after your journey ends, using the route you actually took.
The trial system will apply real-time location technology to determine how far and how long each passenger travels. This new method swaps the usual ticket zones and fare categories for a system that simply looks at where you went and works out the cost from that. Those interested in participating will need to register through official channels set up by East Midlands Railway and Northern. The goal is to see if this setup can actually work for running trains smoothly and still make sense to regular people using it.
The trial will run for nine months and cover the following routes:
- Leicester – Derby – Nottingham
- Harrogate – Leeds
- Sheffield – Doncaster
- Sheffield – Barnsley
Key details include:
- Each route will involve up to 1,000 participants
- East Midlands Railway will begin the first phase in early September
- Northern will start trials on the other routes between autumn and winter
If extended beyond the trial areas, the system could shift how passengers plan regional trips. People who don’t know how the ticket zones work might find it easier if they don’t have to figure out what to buy before getting on the train. Instead, the app figures out the price by looking at how far you went and how long your trip took. If you're taking several trains or don’t ride often, this setup might save you the headache of trying to understand all the fare rules. The long-term effect on travel habits remains a key focus of the evaluation.
These trials mark an important step forward in simplifying rail travel and making the experience as frictionless as possible for our customers. By trialling Pay As You Go technology on some of our routes, we’re helping to shape a future where hopping on a train is as easy as checking in and out.
Beyond pricing, the trial will collect behavioural data such as when passengers check in, how they board, and how they react to post-travel billing. This might give planners a better idea of what to expect on routes where the number of riders goes up and down a lot. The system also allows for testing how anonymised GPS data can be used to improve service schedules. These trials follow earlier contactless rollouts at 53 stations in the South East, and may help shape how digital ticketing expands more widely in the future.