Thousands of passengers who use the Cardiff & Valleys Lines have downloaded Arriva Trains Wales’ award winning Mobile Multi-flex ticket, the first mobile ticketing system of its kind in the UK rail industry.
Available to purchase through the ATW Tickets app, more than 29,000 customers have made over 355,000 journeys using the ticket since the start of 2015.
Mobile Multi-flex tickets allows customers to make a saving of up to 16% in comparison to the price of selected day return tickets when buying the 12 single journey Multi-flex product.
Tickets can be bought to travel between any two places on the Valleys Lines region (six in each direction), and can be stored on a smartphone for up to three months after the date of purchase.
The new ticketing system is particularly beneficial to part-time and flexitime commuters who use the train intermittently or for any occasional train travel needs such as attending sporting events.
In September the ATW Tickets app was upgraded to allow passengers to buy long distance journey advance mTickets on their smartphones for journeys across Wales and into areas of England and Scotland. Available up to 12 weeks in advance the tickets typically offer the lowest fares for the most popular long distance and city to city journeys.
Lynne Milligan, Customer Services Director for Arriva Trains Wales, said:
“We are always trying to understand the needs of our passengers and with the majority of UK employees (77 per cent) working in organisations that provide some kind of flexible working*, we had a strong desire to reward loyal users of our trains who do not travel on our services regularly enough to benefit from the savings provided by a normal season ticket.”
“With societal change in working patterns and increasing demand for more flexible fare options, we have delivered products which deliver value for money and a more convenient way of purchasing train tickets for our customers. It’s fantastic to see that so many people have benefitted from using our ATW Tickets app.
“The development of this innovative ticket system shows Arriva Trains Wales’ continued desire to be industry leaders in utilising and developing new technology in order to better our customer service offering.”
Economy, Science and Transport Minister, Edwina Hart said:
“This application is a great example of how innovative technologies are being used to enhance customer experiences and it also fits well with one of our priority aims of making public transport in Wales more accessible and affordable. I also welcome the fact it is particularly well suited to the needs of part-time workers as this supports the Welsh Government’s agenda to tackle poverty and deliver a more prosperous Wales”.
The Mobile Multi-flex ticket has been nominated and highly commended for a number of industry awards including the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport’s Awards and UK Rail Industry Awards.
The free ATW Tickets app is available to download for all smartphone platforms, with Multi-flex tickets then available to purchase anytime, anywhere as long as data signal from the mobile phone service or Wi-Fi provider is available. Multi-flex tickets can be stored on your smartphone ready to be activated just prior to travel for up to three months from the date of purchase.
To download the free app text ATW to 86688** or visit app.arrivatrainswales.co.uk. More information about low cost advance journey tickets and Mobile Multi-flex tickets is available on the Arriva Trains Wales website here
