New card machines installed at the Tamar Bridge have significantly reduced the time it takes to make contactless card payments at the toll booths, helping to reduce both congestion and journey times.
The crossing’s operators say that, although the installation of contactless card readers in 2020 had made it easier and quicker for drivers paying by card at the toll booths, research showed that it was still taking an average of 17 seconds per card transaction. Following the installation of the new readers this has now reduced to an average of 6.5 seconds per transaction – with the fastest payments being made in just two seconds.
“This is very good news for everyone crossing the Tamar Bridge” said Joint Chairs Martin Worth and Jon Dingle. “Not only does it make the transaction quicker for those people who are paying by card but, by reducing the time they spend at the toll booth, it also speeds up journey times for everyone else as well”.
During the past year staff from Tamar Crossings have been working with card payment processing providers to optimise the ‘back office’ transaction times. More recently they have worked closely with Cornwall Council and the toll system and processing providers to gain authorisation to use new faster hardware that could work in compliance with the Council’s financial systems.
The operators say having identified the system, and secured the necessary authorisations from the provider, the new faster card readers were installed at the toll booths at the beginning of September.
Following a successful trial carried out in one booth to iron out any potential network problems, the system has now gone live in all six booths – resulting in an average of over 10 seconds reduction in card payment times.
“This has been a challenging project which has involved liaising with a number of different organisations to find the right solution for the Bridge“ said General Manager David List. “As well as installing the new card readers, we also needed to work with the toll system providers to upgrade their systems. With over 5,000 card transactions a day, these time savings add up and are very significant.
“The faster card readers have already reduced congestion at the toll booths and we are now seeing reduced journey times. We hope that these increased payment speeds will also contribute towards reduced congestion in Saltash, and help with traffic flow during the upcoming National Highways tunnel upgrade project.”
(Picture – Yay Images)
