insideKENT Magazine Issue 79 - October 2018 | Page 72

VISITKENT
HERE’S HOW TO SAVE MONEY
ON BUS TRAVEL
PASSENGERS TRAVELLING ON STAGECOACH BUSES IN KENT AND EAST
SUSSEX CAN SAVE UP TO 40 PER CENT ON THEIR BUS TICKET BY USING
THE FIRM’S SMARTPHONE APP. THE BUS COMPANY IS OFFERING CHEAPER
DAY, EVENING AND WEEK TICKETS IN THE HOPE IT WILL ENCOURAGE MORE
PASSENGERS TO SWITCH TO MOBILE TICKETING, WHICH IT SAYS HELPS SPEED
UP THE OVERALL JOURNEY TIME FOR ITS CUSTOMERS.
“Eight out of ten people in the UK
use a Smartphone and more and
more of our customers favour the
ease and control that buying tickets
on our app gives them,” says
Matthew Arnold, Stagecoach
commercial director for the South
East. “We know that at busy times
when people are queuing at the bus
stop, it’s much quicker to hop on
board with a mobile ticket to show
the driver, and we hope that by
offering mobile tickets at a reduced
price, more people will choose to
use them.”
The app offers bus users a digital
solution for buying and using bus
tickets alongside existing
contactless and cash payments on
the bus. Day and week tickets can
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be purchased on the app in advance
of travel, which saves time when
boarding the bus. Stagecoach say
that no internet or data connection
is required to show the ticket, which
can be activated at any time up to
three months after the initial
purchase. Showing the ticket to the
bus driver takes just a few seconds,
something the bus firm maintain
helps keep buses running
punctually at busy times.
The Stagecoach Bus App, available
for free on Apple and Android
mobile phones, was launched in
2016 and offers journey planning
and live bus tracking as well as
mobile tickets. Payments via the
app can be made by PayPal, Apple
Pay or Google Pay, or by debit or
credit card.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT STAGECOACH:
• Stagecoach is one of the biggest bus operators in the UK,
running around 7,000 vehicles in nearly 100 towns and
cities in the UK.
• Stagecoach Group’s headquarters are in Perth, Scotland,
where it began operating in 1980 with just two buses. The
company floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1993
and now has an annual turnover of around £1.3 billion.
• Stagecoach South East is one of 18 locally managed
companies within Stagecoach Group.
• Stagecoach South East headquarters are in Canterbury and
the company currently runs 459 buses and coaches, employs
1,298 staff and carries over 43 million passengers per annum.