Tap & Go ticketing comes to Merseyrail this summer and will automatically charge you the cheapest fare for your journey – but how will it know if your journey is a single or return? Tony McDonough explains how it will work

Tap & Go payments will finally arrive on the Merseyrail network this summer.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority are working together on the new system which will see an initial pilot scheme followed by a full rollout this summer. At first it will only be available using Metro cards but by the end of the year it will work with back cards.

London Underground has been using Tap & Go for several years. It has been a source of frustration for many people travelling on Merseyrail that they still have to queue up at stations to buy a ticket, meaning sometimes they miss their train.

It is promised that Merseyrail’s Tap & Go system will be smart enough to work out your type of journey and automatically charge you the cheapest available fare. But how does it know?

So at a basic level the system will register your Metro or bank card when you tap on the machine at the start of your journey and when you tap out at your destination station you will automatically be charged.

But your journey is likely to be a return one so how does it know whether to charge you the price of a single fare or return before it even knows you are coming back on the same day?

This is an important question because of a quirk of the UK rail system which means the price of a single ticket is often almost as expensive as that of a return. This is meant to deter fare evasion where passengers might avoid paying for the return leg.

For example, if you travel on the Merseyrail Wirral line between Bebington and Liverpool city centre the price of a single journey is £4.60, while the price of a return journey is only 20p more at £4.80.

So, if you travel from Bebington to Liverpool using Tap & Go you will be initially charged the single price of £4.60 when you exit at Liverpool. However, if you return later the same day will the system treat that as a separate single journey and charge you £4.60 again?

If that was the case the total journey cost would be £9.20 – a whopping £4.40 more expensive than a normal return ticket. Fortunately, this is where the system gets smart.

If you make the same journey in reverse, from Liverpool to Bebington on the same day, the system will recognise that and simply charge you an extra 20p when you exit at Bebington.

Tap & Go takes into account several factors – the time of day your journey is made (ie before or during off-peak) and the number of journeys made being some of these.

It will automatically check when and how often you have travelled to work out whether a single, return or Day Saver fare is the cheapest.

It also takes into account time of day and the number of journeys made. For example, if you travel and tap after 9.30am Monday to Friday, or anytime on the weekend, the system will automatically check if the single or Day Saver (off peak ticket) fare is cheapest based on where you have travelled.

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Those savings also include weekly tickets. Rather than work out if you’re going to travel enough to make the weekly Merseyrail Only Railpass the best value ticket, Tap & Go will automatically stop charging you for journeys made in a Monday to Sunday week once your fares charged that week reach the price of a weekly Railpass for the area you have travelled in.

Monthly and annual capping isn’t available through Tap & Go. Monthly and annual season tickets will still be available through ticket offices.