To celebrate the final rollout of the Bee Network on Sunday 5th January 2025, we recently featured in Passenger Transport to discuss our innovative partnership with TfGM and how we’re looking ahead to support other franchising regions.
You can read the full feature below, alternatively visit Passenger Transport to read their 10th January 2025 issue.
Establishing a successful bus franchising solution involves multiple components, but the cornerstone of its success undoubtedly lies in developing close working partnerships and a robust technological foundation. This foundation must facilitate close collaboration between the local authority and its participating operators and drivers, whilst enabling seamless passenger journeys. Enter Ticketer.
A trusted partner to the UK bus and coach industry since 2009, Ticketer’s longstanding expertise and innovative spirit were invaluable in delivering the Bee Network’s franchising framework across multiple operating companies. Passenger Transport discusses with Kelly Hanna, Ticketer CEO, and Jason Mann, Director of Product, their critical contribution to creating the franchising solution blueprint for other regions.
An Agile Approach for Complex Change
Originally starting in 2018, Ticketer’s relationship with TfGM has been a journey of continuous innovation and collaboration.
“Our journey with TfGM began five years prior to Bee Network rollout,” says Jason. “We were their ticketing solution partner for their smaller operators and supplied the ticketing technology in their travel shops. We continually enhanced our solution to meet TfGM’s specific needs, but innovating with them really started when we won their integrated ticketing and AVL solution contract.”
By working closely with TfGM from the start of their franchising journey, Ticketer could ensure their offering was not only technically robust but also aligned with its users’ specialised needs.
Kelly explains: “We worked collaboratively from the start. TfGM identified many changes to the solution regarding how they wanted to define and manage their services and operators, which wasn’t a problem because ultimately, we wanted the solution to work for them. We facilitated conversations and made adjustments along the way to deliver the outcome they needed.”
Further showcasing their agile approach, Ticketer had to accelerate its efforts when deployment was brought forward to the 1st of September 2023 for TfGM’s school services.
“We’d been working to the publicised franchise start date when we were asked to meet a new, shorter timeline to have the school services ready for the start of the academic year,” says Jason. “We pivoted by focusing on the elements needed to deploy a franchise solution for the two school service operators in the shortened timeframe.”
Following school rollout, tranche one of the Bee Network officially went live on 24th September 2023 and included the first full deployment of Ticketer’s latest ETM, the Ticketer Next Generation ETM, Smart Gateways and the management framework for franchised services – the franchising extension of the Ticketer solution.
The Extended Ticketer Solution
When considering the needs of TfGM, their participating operators and the complexities of implementing franchising, Ticketer took a pragmatic approach to innovation; rather than reinvent the wheel, they chose to build upon their existing trusted infrastructure.
Ticketer developed a franchising extension to their existing Ticketer solution, introducing a hierarchical structure with new roles, views and functionalities which would provide a control centre for TfGM and an intuitive interface for existing Ticketer users.
Jason explains: “We introduced new “Franchise Owner” and “Franchise Operator” roles, so TfGM as the Franchise Owner can maintain a holistic view of everything happening on their network and take a controlling role in activities such as defining services, tickets and fares. That information then automatically flows downstream into individual Franchise Operator portals, each of which essentially offers an isolated view of the services the different operators are responsible for.”
“For existing Ticketer operators, it is largely business as usual with a few subtle differences to cater for the new way of working. For example, operators are still expected to define their own drivers and vehicles but not services or tickets because this responsibility now sits with the Franchise Owner. In all other ways, we kept it as familiar as possible to help the transition.”
Jason continues: “I think there was a degree of comfort for the operators and drivers that there wasn’t a new system to learn and worry about. Minimising change by avoiding a new system was a big design consideration for the franchise extension and this could equally apply for franchising in other regions.”
Stagecoach was the only participating operator not an existing Ticketer customer. Jason explains their diligent onboarding approach: “We visited Manchester and trained their back-office colleagues through the solution and their drivers on the Ticketer Next Generation ETMs. We pride ourselves on our system being easy to learn and use and they did both very quickly.”
Continual Innovation
Following tranche one deployment, Ticketer has delivered numerous features and enhancements to optimise the Bee Network’s services and enhance the passenger experience.
A recent key enhancement is support for “Headway Management” and the measurement and management of “Excess Waiting Time (EWT)” for frequently operated services. This allows TfGM to monitor and manage bus arrivals, helping to spread out arrival times and reduce bottlenecks caused by prior buses running late.
Another new feature is “Corridor Management”, enabling TfGM to monitor multiple bus services following the same sequence of stops in a single, consolidated view.
“Corridor Management lets TfGM flexibly define a corridor – specific stops served by different services or operators – and manage those trips within a single view,” explains Jason. “This removes the need to toggle between different operator views of the same stretch of road, making it easier to ensure operational efficiency.”
Central to managing the franchise operation, Ticketer also provided TfGM with tailored reporting tools, new operational metrics and a customised version of the Ticketer Insights Hub, giving them greater visibility and insights on overall service and network performance.
Outside of the control and management platform, the first deployment of Ticketer’s new Revenue Inspection Devices (RIDs) went live in 2024 on TfGM’s tram network.
“TfGM and Metrolink are really pleased with how the RIDs work and the data they provide,” Jason shares. “The inspectors are using them to ensure everyone using a contactless card has been charged accordingly, helping minimise revenue loss. TfGM will be expanding the use of RIDs to include QR codes and ITSO cards on trams and on-bus shortly after tranche three goes live.”
As ever with Ticketer, features within the franchising solution were designed with a broader vision in mind. New functionality within the franchising extension can be used by any customer who may benefit from their enablement, including those not in a franchise.
Jason says: “This was another key reason for extending the Ticketer solution rather than creating a new one. These new enhancements can be enabled for other Ticketer customers, allowing us to deliver industry-wide benefits as part of the rollout.
Teamwork in Tech
Reflecting on the journey to final tranche three deployment, for Kelly, Ticketer’s true strength lies in the powerful combination of its solutions and the partnership they offer.
“The real value lies in our teamwork as well as our solutions and their ability to simplify franchising’s complexity. From day one we worked as a united team with TfGM and were on hand wherever we could be. If you think about the scale of setting up franchising, Ticketer was a small but critical cog in a very complex change process. Alongside technology deployment there are buses to acquire, depot leasing to arrange, EV charging stations, branding to rollout; it’s a mammoth list that goes on. Anything we could therefore do to help TfGM on this incredibly complex journey, we did.”
Jason Mann, Director of Product, and Tom Wilsher, Head of Product Management, during rollout
This ‘roll-your-sleeves-up’ approach extended beyond Ticketer’s own solutions and responsibilities, lending itself to helping TfGM resolve the complexities associated with managing multiple technology partners.
“Any authority delivering franchising will have numerous partners and challenges to deal with. One thing we were certain on during rollout, whether it was a partner we integrated with or not, is that we supported them in whatever way we could,” says Kelly.
BeyOnd the Bee Network
Other regions closely watching the Bee Network for learnings can benefit from Ticketer’s consultative approach. Kelly says the company is on hand to demystify franchising and share insights gained from their partnership with TfGM.
“It’s unchartered territory for future franchising areas so we’re here to guide, share lessons learned and tailor insights from Manchester to others’ needs. No two regions will have the same requirements, but we’ve developed a tried-and-tested solution that we can adapt accordingly and know what it takes to make rollout successful.”
For those moving to franchising, Kelly reassures: “We’re here to help on all aspects. I’m personally just an email or call away for anyone who would like a chat, as are my team.”
Further highlighting Ticketer’s open-door policy, Kelly explains Ticketer are hosting authority-specific events in future; providing a forum to discuss and overcome the complexities of franchising, enhanced partnerships or any other model under consideration.
Ultimately, for authorities and operators the message is clear: with the right partners and technology, implementing franchising can be more than just feasible. As ever, Ticketer is ready to support the industry, lending expertise plus driving innovation and collaboration to shape the future of public transport.
To understand more about Ticketer’s franchise solution as an operator or a local authority, email info@ticketer.co.uk.