Stagecoach selects Littlepay as payments partner

The UK’s largest bus and coach operator has chosen Littlepay to provide contactless payments infrastructure for its fleet of more than 8,300 vehicles.

Stagecoach Group has chosen Littlepay as its payment service provider following a competitive procurement. Littlepay now supports the four largest commercial bus groups in the UK – Stagecoach, Arriva, Go-Ahead and First – which have a combined fleet of over 24,000 vehicles.

Teresa Byrne, Chief Revenue Officer at Littlepay, said:

“Being selected by Stagecoach is a milestone moment for Littlepay. Supporting all of the UK’s major bus groups is a powerful endorsement of our scalable payments infrastructure.

“We’re looking forward to building a strong partnership with Stagecoach, and maximising our platform’s capabilities to benefit operations and passengers.”

Stagecoach is coordinating the migration to Littlepay’s payments infrastructure at the same time as introducing new Ticketer Electronic Ticket Machines (ETMs). Carrying out this work in tandem is intended to minimise disruption to day-to-day operations. 

The deployment of the new system across Stagecoach’s fleet began in Oxford at the end of last month. Later phases will see the technology rolled out across Stagecoach’s entire estate in England, Scotland and Wales.

Modernising payments across the Stagecoach network

Stagecoach’s new modular payments infrastructure brings together complementary technology. Ticketer will manage ticketing and fare configuration, and Littlepay will handle contactless EMV payment processing, reporting and reconciliation, fraud management and debt recovery. 

Sam Greer, CEO of Stagecoach, commented:

“Providing a simple and seamless experience for our customers is at the heart of everything we do. As more people choose contactless as their preferred way to pay, it’s important that we have modern, reliable systems in place across our network.

“Our partnership with Littlepay, alongside the rollout of new Ticketer ticket machines, will help us modernise our payments infrastructure while giving us the flexibility to evolve as customer expectations and technology continue to change.

“This investment supports millions of customer journeys every year and is another important step in ensuring bus travel remains convenient, accessible and easy to use across our network.”

Built for transit payments

Payment processing is only part of managing payments across a network the size of Stagecoach. Built specifically for public transport, Littlepay’s platform goes beyond transaction processing. It provides operators with the tools needed to monitor payment performance, manage fraud, recover unpaid fares and protect fare revenue. Its open architecture provides the ability to support new payment and mobility models as networks evolve.

The platform also gives Stagecoach a foundation to participate in multi-operator and integrated mobility initiatives Littlepay is already actively involved in, as the UK transport market evolves.

Sarah McLaughlin, Senior Business Development Manager, Littlepay, said:

“We’re looking forward to delivering reliable, secure payments for Stagecoach across hundreds of millions of passenger journeys each year. Our platform gives them capability to adapt systems and build capability going forwards.” 

Littlepay’s service delivery team is already working alongside Stagecoach and Ticketer as the programme moves into implementation. The work marks the beginning of Littlepay’s payments partnership with the UK’s largest bus and coach operator.

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