Integrated and Smart Travel

Integrated and Smart Travel (IST) has the potential to transform travel for passengers now and in the future, making public transport easier and more attractive to use, and bringing the North closer together.

A vision for smart travel in the North

Integrated and Smart Travel provides an opportunity to make public transport – and other forms of shared and active mobility – simpler, easier, and more convenient for the passenger. It has a big role to play in improving regional connectivity, encouraging more people to choose sustainable travel options, and ultimately in making travel a better experience.

Our vision is for an attractive, consistent, and familiar travel experience for passengers that empowers them to travel across the North with confidence.

male checking his mobile while waiting at bus stop
Stat 87 OWN SMART PHONE 48 USE

Did you know?

87% of public transport passengers own a smart phone but currently fewer than half (48%) are used to accessing tickets via them?

Integrated & Smart Ticketing – Baseline Survey Report (2019)

Smart technology has the potential to enhance all aspects of door-to-door travel, from planning a journey, to buying tickets, making connections, and staying up to date while on the move. We believe contactless payments, flexible ticketing, and personalised, digital travel information are what passengers in the 21st century want and expect from their local transport systems.

Woman on bus looks at phone

Whether travelling by bus, tram or train in Leeds, Carlisle or Hartlepool passengers deserve to benefit from the technological innovations that are becoming common place around the world.

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Smart Travel is a powerful solution

At Transport for the North, we firmly believe Integrated and Smart Travel is a powerful solution to meeting the challenges of better connecting our region’s many different travel networks, improving social inclusion, and supporting economic growth and decarbonisation.

56% of passengers agree they would use public transport more if there was one ticket that could be used across all modes of public transport

Integrated & Smart Ticketing
Baseline Survey Report (2019)

Connected Mobility

As part of our continued commitment to finding ways to improve connectivity across all modes of public transport in the North of England, we have launched work on our Connected Mobility Strategy.

This collaborative project with Local Transport Authorities across the region will build the evidence base needed to deliver the comprehensive digital infrastructure network all passengers expect and deserve.

Connected Mobility
Buses and train station York

The Integrated and Smart Travel programme (2016-2021)

Our dedicated Integrated and Smart Travel (IST) programme worked in partnership with public transport operators, local authorities, and digital innovators to deliver initiatives that contributed to our vision for travel in the North.

The ambitious IST programme was delivered over four years. In January 2021, Transport for the North received a funding letter from the Department for Transport which stated no ongoing funding would be available for the IST programme for 2021/22.

In February 2021, the TfN Board reluctantly agreed to wind down the programme, and that process will run into 2021/22

Click the corresponding squares in the timeline to find out more about each milestone

Phases of IST
Nov 2018

Smart on Rail launched

Delivered in partnership with Northern and TransPennine Express, the first phase of IST introduced ITSO smartcards for rail season ticket holders – helping passengers across the north make the switch from paper tickets to smart and providing new digital ways to pay for rail travel.
IST smartcard

Smart on Rail

Smart is now the ticket of choice for rail passengers in the North.

As part of Phase One of the IST programme, we worked in partnership with our regional train operating companies to introduce ITSO smartcards and enhance other forms of ticketing on rail.

Launched in 2018, smartcards were initially for weekly monthly and annual season ticket customers. Smartcards were aimed at providing a more durable and convenient option than traditional paper tickets which were still being widely used by rail commuters. We also introduced new ways to pay for and redeem smart tickets – including at ticket vending machines, online, in mobile apps and on board – so passengers can save time and skip station office queues.

The project supported a nation-wide effort to improve the availability of smart technology on rail and was so successful that by March 2020 a majority of eligible customers in our region had made the switch from paper to smart.

In partnership with Northern, in 2020 we also launched the first smart ‘flexi’ ticket on rail in the North – which was a timely intervention ideally suited to meet the needs of passengers whose travel habits have changed due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Phase One of IST also saw the installation of platform validators at over 250 rail stations across the region, which pave the way for contactless, pay-as-you-go-travel and other ticketing innovations in the future.

IST rail masked male at station
IST computer bank

Open Data Hub

Transport for the North’s Open Data Hub is live.

As part of Phase Two of the IST programme, we developed the Hub to provide definitive, open-source travel information for journey-planning app providers and other open data innovators to deliver to passengers.

For passengers, it will help make journey planning an easier and more accessible experience, encouraging modal shift away from private cars.

Find out more about the Open Data Hub and what data is currently available across the North.

Open Data Hub

What next?

Transport for the North’s remains committed to our vision for Integrated and Smart Travel.

A new role, funded from Transport for the North’s core budget, focused on smart travel and linked to digital fares strategy will be created called Connected Mobility to enable Transport for the North to help shape and link into national initiatives and to support building business cases for future funding requests.

The Department for Transport has indicated they see national rail reform as the vehicle to deliver smart ticketing on rail and the platform to link into other modes.

As a result this new post, retaining a limited but important smart travel capability, will be created within our Strategic Rail team.

Connected Mobility

#TfNTalks Smarter travel

This TfNTalks session brought together voices from across the public transport and mobility industry to understand how we can best collaborate to keep the North’s passengers safe, informed and on the move throughout the easing of lockdown and beyond.

Integrated and Smart Travel newsletters