Payments can be complex, but Elavon made them easy for Translink

Translink – the integrated transport provider for Northern Ireland – serves 1.5 million passengers each day, operating a total of 1,400 buses, coaches and trains, which began contactless payment acceptance in 2018.

“Cash can be problematic. Boarding times are slower, impacting service delivery; there’s a security risk; and there is a cost of handling cash. We face the normal operating challenges of handling cash, no different to other retailers,” said John Keys, Translink’s Group Treasury Manager.

While it is unlikely that Translink will ever be completely cashless – as it is a public service – under its Future Ticketing System project, its goal is to provide more cashless options to improve passenger convenience and encourage its passengers to make the transition. Providing credit and debit card acceptability, beyond its own pre-paid travel card, is crucial to this.

“We want to provide innovative travel products, ensuring that they meet changing customer needs, transform our passenger journey experience and attract more people on board our bus and rail services,” said Keys.

He added: “Offering our customers flexible ticketing is just one of our objectives. It will play a key part in Northern Ireland’s economic recovery post-pandemic and provide greener transport, which will positively impact the climate emergency and air quality, particularly as we adapt to new customer travel patterns.

“Payments solutions can be complicated. Financial services can be complicated.

“There needed to be a real focus on the relationship, and on providing high quality services that Translink needed. We wanted access to the right people – the experts – who can get us answers quickly to things and guide how we do things.

“We have a huge reliance on our key payments partners – we can’t do this ourselves – and Elavon is a key part of that,” Keys concluded.

Find out more about how Elavon supported Translink in keeping the people of Northern Ireland moving by reading the full article:

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE