Tap On Tap Off

We are continuing to invest in reducing fare prices for people travelling within the Greater Reading area in collaboration with local bus operators with funding from the Department of Transport.

To complement the existing Reading All Bus ticket, we are now introducing a new easier and quicker way to pay for your journey called “tap on tap off”.

With tap on tap off, you no longer need to worry about choosing the best adult fare for your journey; this will automatically be done for you as you travel.

Tap on tap off will be available across all local bus operators, Reading Buses, Thames Travel, Arriva and Thames Valley Buses, and will be particularly beneficial in areas such as Caversham where three bus companies provide services, enabling bus users to always be able to use the next bus that arrives.

How does it work?

When you get on, simply tap your contactless bank card or mobile device on the reader. You won’t need to ask the driver for a ticket or say where you are heading – but you can always say hello!

There’s no ticket to take, so just find yourself a seat and enjoy the journey.

When you get to your stop, simply tap off with the same card or mobile device you used when getting on using the reader located by the front door, or by the centre doors on two-door buses.

At the end of the day the ticketing system will automatically work out how many buses you have travelled on that day and charge you accordingly – always capping the price at the day ticket rate.

It’s important to remember to always tap on and tap off otherwise you may find yourself charged more for your journey.

Avoiding card clash

If you are paying with a physical card, you should always make sure you take it out of your wallet or purse to avoid ‘card clash’ – where the system is trying to read more than one card at a time. If you don’t take your card out, the system may charge the wrong card resulting in you paying more or will simply not work delaying your journey.

What is the most I’ll pay?

If you only travel on one bus within Reading Buses simplyReading zone, it’ll just charge you £2 for the first journey. If you then travel on another bus also within the simplyReading zone it will cap your total for the day at £3.40 – which is the price for a Reading All-Bus day ticket.

Any additional journeys within the simplyReading zone for the day won’t be charged as they are all included in your £3.40 day ticket.

Zone	Daily cap
simplyReading	£3.40 (£3 until 31 December 2023)

As a special offer to celebrate the launch of tap on tap off, our Reading All-Bus ticket will be just £3 when using tap on tap off until 31 December 2023, offering you even better value when trying out our new payment method.

Exclusions

This offer is only available within the simplyReading zone. Any journeys outside of this zone will be charged at the usual operator rates.

Tap on tap off is for adult on the day fares only.

As a special offer to celebrate the launch of tap on tap off, our Reading All-Bus ticket will be just £3 when using tap on tap off until 31 December 2023, and revert to the Standard fare of £3.40 thereafter.

This offer does not include football services.

It’s important to remember to always tap on and tap off otherwise you may find yourself charged more for your journey.

All journeys will be required to use the same payment method in order for the daily cap to apply.

Using multiple payment methods will result in you being charged more for your journey(s).

There are other bulk purchase cheaper-per-journey options which can be purchased direct from bus operators websites.