How does Pay As You Go travel work out the cost?

When you tap on and off, we automatically calculate the cost of the journey you’ve taken. You only ever pay for the travel you’ve used.

You’ll never pay more than the price of a day or weekly ticket. How? We keep track of all your journeys and use a daily cap.

This daily cap works when you tap off at the end of every journey. We then add these journeys up at the end of each day. You’ll pay whichever is less (the cost of the single trips combined or the daily cap).

There’s also a weekly cap. We work this out by adding up what you’ve paid at the end of each day across a single week (Monday to Sunday). Once you’ve reached the cap, the rest of your journeys that week will be free.

Let’s use Charlie as an example:

Charlie catches the bus regularly but some days they make more journeys than others. When they use Pay As You Go, they're confident they're paying for what they've used and getting the best price for them.

Charlie’s journey costs are worked out like this: Single trip £3.50, PAYG Day Cap £4.50, PAYG Week Cap £15.00.

Monday

Charlie makes three single trips (3 x £3.50).

Charlie pays £4.50 (PAYG daily cap).

Rolling weekly cost = £4.50.

Tuesday

Charlie makes two single trips (2 x £3.50).

Charlie pays £4.50 (PAYG daily cap).

Rolling weekly cost = £9.00.

Wednesday

Charlie doesn’t travel.

Charlie pays £0.00.

Rolling weekly cost = £9.00.

Thursday

Charlie makes one trip (£3.50).

Charlie pays £3.50.

Rolling weekly cost = £12.50.

Friday

Charlie makes three single trips (3 x £3.50)

Charlie hits the PAYG weekly cap so only pays £2.50.

Rolling weekly cost = £15.00.

Saturday

Charlie makes three single trips (3 x £3.50).

Charlie pays £0.00.

Rolling weekly cost = £15.00 (PAYG weekly cap).

Sunday

Charlie makes one single trip (£3.50)

Charlie pays £0.00.

Rolling weekly cost = £15.00 (PAYG weekly cap).

If Charlie had made these journeys with day and single tickets bought on the bus, they would’ve paid £25. With PAYG, Charlie hits the £4.50 PAYG daily cap on both Monday and Tuesday, and by Friday they've hit the £15 PAYG weekly cap

That means their journeys on Saturday and Sunday are completely free, saving them £10. If Charlie does this every week of the year, they’ll save £520.