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EasyRider

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The easyrider Citycard, (known formally as EasyRider and locally as RealRider), is a contactless smartcard introduced in 2000 in Nottingham, England, for use on Nottingham City Transport Services. It was originally named 'BusCard'. The name EasyRider was first used by NCT in 1981 for a pre-paid, paper-based system that was carried and used with a photo-identity card. In September 2009 the card was relaunched as 'easyrider Citycard'; it merged easyrider and Citycard into one card. Now it offers library rental, free swimming, and discounts to easyrider holders as well.

Contents

Background

The Easyrider card is a contactless smartcard. Travellers wave the card past the red readers on Nottingham City Transport buses or hand it to conductors on trams.

Cards

There are eight different kinds of easyrider Citycards; easyrider Citycard Adult, easyrider Citycard Anytime Adult, easyrider Citycard Anytime under 18, easyrider Citycard under 18 and 'eXtra' versions. Easyrider farecard still exists as an electronic purse for services 1 and 100 (this does not include any Citycard benefits).

easyrider Citycard Adult

Green card, can be purchased in blocks from 7 days up to 1 year. Activated for all buses and trams in that period of time. The card carries a photograph of the holder.

easyrider Citycard Anytime Adult

Easyrider Citycard Anytime Adult can be purchased for 3, 5, 10, 20 or 100 days. However, it is activated only on the days it is used and so is useful for those who travel regularly but not on consecutive days.

easyrider Farecard

Like an electronic purse, ordinary tickets can be bought at a reduced price using credit stored on it.

easyrider Citycard under 18

Easyrider Citycard Adult equivalent for under 18s.

easyrider Citycard Anytime under 18

Easyrider Citycard Anytime Adult equivalent for 11-18s.

easyrider Citycard Anytime under 11

Easyrider Citycard Anytime Adult equivalent for under 11s.

Citycard Senior

Allows over 60s to travel free within the county.

Citycard Mobility/Mobility+

Allows the disabled to travel free within the county.

Student Cards

Students of the Nottingham Trent University can also use their university ID cards on Nottingham City Transport and NET, activated in the University at Chaucer Building (City Site) or George Eliot Building (Clifton Campus) at discounted rates. They can also be topped up at the NCT Travel Centre in the usual way.

Students of the University of Nottingham are able to use their University Cards for travel. They can top up their cards in the Student's Union travel centre.

Milestones

  • First contactless smartcard in the UK is launched in Nottingham, called BusCard (September 2000)
  • BusCard renamed EasyRider City (March 2004)
  • Tram services commence, and EasyRider City smartcards are accepted, although conductors are unable to validate them (March 2004)
  • EasyRider Child launched (August 2004)
  • EasyRider Anytime launched (September 2004)
  • EasyRider Child renamed EasyRider <16 (September 2005)
  • Tram conductors begin reading cards (September 2005)
  • Trent Barton announce contactless smartcard, called 'ToTo' (February 2006)
  • Citycard Senior/Mobility/Mobility+ revealed (Mid 2007)
  • Trent Barton reveal contactless smartcard, called 'Mango' (Late 2007)
  • EasyRider <16 extended to 18 years of age, now called EasyRider <18 (March 2008)
  • EasyRider Anytime <18 launched (August 2008)
  • easyrider Citycard family launched (September 2009)

    • Competition

    In late 2007, Trent Barton, a neighbouring bus operator in Greater Nottingham, revealed their contactless smartcard system, Mango.

    References

    EasyRider Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA