National Express West Midlands hits 132 million mobile journeys milestone

Today, National Express West Midlands has announced that over 132 million bus trips have been made with mobile tickets (mTickets) using Masabi’s Justride platform.  

We have also worked with Masabi and INIT to introduce the UK’s largest on-bus QR code scanning system to read and validate mTickets. The new technology provides a quicker, safer and simpler way to travel around the region by speeding up bus boarding times and reducing wait times by providing an efficient contactless experience. 

It is now live across our West Midlands’ fleet of 1,600 buses throughout Birmingham and the Black Country, Solihull and Coventry with 21 million scans having taken place since it was rolled out towards the end of 2022.

Daljit Kalirai, Sales and Partnerships Director at National Express West Midlands, said:

“Around 25% of our customer journeys are made using mTickets and we've seen over 21 million scans using the new QR code scanning system. It couldn’t be easier - customers simply activate their mTicket in our app, get onboard and scan the QR code using our onboard card reader. 

“We’re committed to making bus travel affordable for all, which is why we recently extended our £2 adult single ticket offer until the end of June. Our day saver also still costs £4 - the same as it did in 2014 - regardless of how many buses our customers catch.

“The new mTicket QR scanning technology has been a really exciting project for us. Working collaboratively with our partners Masabi and INIT, we’ve been able to make several improvements to our scanners and mobile app, so our customers get the best experience possible. 

“It will also help us crackdown on fraud so we can continue maintaining our low fares while making it even quicker and easier for our new and existing customers to travel by bus.”

Customers can purchase and store mTickets in seconds within the National Express West Midlands mTicket app with its handy wallet feature. Most ticket types are available including singles, day savers, group tickets, and one and four week tickets.

Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi, said: 

“The success of this initiative with National Express West Midlands is the result of the close partnership we have developed over recent years, helping to roll-out upgrades and improvements that continue to make everyday life easier for bus customers. 

“The use of our barcode key schema to accelerate mobile ticketing adoption illustrates our ethos of the power of partnerships and open ecosystems to benefit local communities and the wider transport industry.”

Jens Mullak, Managing Director of INIT Ltd, said:

“INIT has enjoyed a strong partnership with National Express West Midlands for many years and we recognise that passengers now demand greater choice when it comes to paying for their travel.

“Within six weeks our engineers retrofitted the ticket validators across National Express West Midlands’ entire fleet with new barcode scanners. This new payment method speeds up boarding times because passengers activate their ticket before they board and then simply scan the stored QR code on our validators as they enter the bus.

“National Express also benefits because they have visibility of their passengers’ movements when they scan their barcodes.”

Today’s announcement marks more milestones in the long-standing partnership between National Express West Midlands and Masabi, delivering continuous upgrades and improvements to make it even easier for customers to ditch the car and switch to travel by bus.

We began working with Masabi in 2016 with the launch of the award-winning NX Bus mTicket app. In 2018, a smart ticketing scheme was introduced, allowing students to order discounted or fully-funded student travel passes through the app. In 2021, we also launched cash digitisation, allowing passengers to buy their tickets using cash at more than 1,300 retail locations across the West Midlands. Testing of the new mTicket QR code scanning technology began last year, before rolling it out more widely from November 2022.

For more information on mTickets please visit our website here.