Product news

Effortless fare control: Introducing scheduled ticket changes

Young woman is standing on the bus using the phone and smiling.

We’re excited to announce the introduction of another highly requested feature. Designed to improve the efficiency of managing public transport operations, admins can now schedule changes to mobile tickets in advance.

This important release means that updates for all key information datasets managed in Passenger Cloud can be scheduled. Until now, handling ticket product updates has required an operator admin to make changes at the point of wanting them to take effect.

Scheduling fare changes in Passenger Cloud
Scheduling fare changes in Passenger Cloud

The new ticket product scheduling joins Passenger’s existing customer experience scheduling capabilities for fare (NeTEx) data, network (TransXChange) data, and CMS page content. This means that major fare updates and ticket campaigns, such as England’s government-backed bus fare cap, can be scheduled in advance without manual intervention on the day. This update eliminates out-of-hours work by allowing operator staff with appropriate permissions to schedule fare updates and changes to availability ahead of time.

On January 1, 2025, the government-backed fare cap will increase from £2 to £3. This change occurs on a bank holiday during the Christmas period, which presents a unique challenge for many UK operators. Ensuring appropriate tickets are available at the correct price without requiring staff to work over the holiday period is critical.

This new capability enables operators to schedule updates to tickets already available for sale. Excitingly, it also means that new ticket products can be launched at a specific time along with any associated marketing content. This will support many use cases, from school term ticketing to promotional campaigns such as Black Friday or Green Friday.

Ticket products can be sunset, too, as the new scheduling tools allow for removing existing tickets from sale at a specific time in the future. These new additions eliminate the risk of tickets being incorrectly priced or available before or after an intended date — ensuring that customers always have the right options at the right time.

This release provides operators with even more ways to streamline workflows and plan changes efficiently. It reduces errors and enables operators to deliver a high-quality experience for new and existing customers alike.

If you’d like to learn more about Passenger’s powerful suite of customer experience scheduling tools, contact us.