South Yorkshire bus ticket fraud concerns spark payment changes

Passengers will no longer be able to purchase a seven-day advance ticket via contactless payment on buses

From this weekend, bus passengers in South Yorkshire are no longer allowed to buy some tickets using contactless payments.

The ban, which started on Sunday and affects seven-day tickets, was due to concerns over fraud, public transport organisation TravelMaster said.

Apple and Google pay will also no longer be accepted when buying advance seven-day tickets, it said.

TravelMaster said the ban would remain in place indefinitely.

The organisation, which is responsible for South Yorkshire's multi-operator and multi-modal transport tickets, said the fraud took place when customers bought tickets but then payment collection from banks subsequently failed.

The fraud was linked to stolen as well as legitimate debit and credit cards, TravelMaster added.

The organisation said the following tickets would be affected:

• CityBus 7 Day

• CityWide 7 Day

• BConnect 7 Day

• DonConnect 7 Day

• RConnect 7 Day

• SYConnect 7 Day (card payments previously withdrawn January 2023)

A spokesperson for TravelMaster said: "Unfortunately, blocking the tickets on smartcards has been too slow a deterrent to bring down the fraud as it takes time to identify the potentially fraudulent transactions.

"TravelMaster has worked with operators and South Yorkshire Police to crack down on the fraud, forming a task force in late 2022.

"However, due to the nature of the fraud, and the fact that at the point of purchase the transaction looks genuine, we have been left with no option but to take this action."

TravelMaster was unable to confirm how long contactless payment for the tickets would be suspended, but said it was working with operators and suppliers to reinstate it in the future.

Contactless and card payments would continue to be accepted for tickets on Supertram, through the TravelMaster App, at ticket vending machines in transport interchanges, at over 900 Payzone stores and on the TravelMaster website, the organisation said.