A new payment system will go on trial in Liverpool for a year from next April that will allow commuters Stagecoachto pay with a bank card. The MasterCard Paypass and Maestro Paypass trial is being run by Stagecoach on 200 buses in Merseyside, in partnership with MasterCard and Royal Bank of Scotland. Passengers pay for individual bus journeys by tapping their bank cards on a dedicated reader. Transport for London has also been conducting trials with Barclaycard and O 2 to allow commuters to use alternatives to the Oyster card to pay for transport.

Amanda Vermeulen