FAQ

Use a contactless Europay, Mastercard or Visa card to tap in at the start of your journey and tap out at your destination. You can also use a smart device like your phone or a smartwatch.

American Express, Maestro and physical Chase cards cannot be used.

You’ll need to use the same card or device to tap in and out.

We’ll calculate your journey and automatically charge you the cheapest possible fare.

Currently, stations on our South Wales Metro network. See where you can travel with pay as you go on this map.

We’re expanding pay as you go to parts of North Wales in 2026.

TfW and CrossCountry services across our South Wales Metro network only. See where you can travel with pay as you go on this map.

It isn’t valid on Great Western Railway services.

Pay as you go cannot be used:

• on Great Western Railway services
• with a Railcard
• to buy Return tickets (you still need to tap in / out on your return journey)
• to buy First Class tickets
• to buy Group tickets
• to buy Family tickets
• to buy Peak or Off-Peak tickets (you can travel at any time)

Pay as you go fares are typically cheaper than other fares. They’re capped at a daily and weekly level to give you the best value.

To see how much you could save, please visit pay as you go fares and capping.

You can either register for a pay as you go account or use our guest portal.

We’d recommend registering. You’ll get your journey and payment history for the past year, downloadable travel receipts and alerts if you forget to tap out.

Our guest portal shows your journey and payment history for the last 7 days of travel only.

To register

• download and open the TfW app
• go to ‘pay as you go’ in the footer
• add your contactless card details
• upload and confirm your card details

To use the guest portal 

• go to the guest portal here
• select ‘view my journey history as a guest’ at the bottom
• follow the instructions to upload your card details

Tap at the ticket barriers, or on the yellow card reader on platforms at smaller stations (or platform 0 at Cardiff Central).

Wait for the ticket barrier to open, or for the platform card reader to beep. Also look out for a green tick to indicate your journey has started. A red cross indicates your tap failed.

Ask one of our colleagues if you’re not sure where to tap.

If the ticket barriers are open, you’ll still need to tap.

If you arrive on platforms 1-8 and need to change to platform 0:

• tap in at your starting station to begin your journey
• tap out at the ticket barriers at Cardiff Central
• tap in at the card reader on platform 0
• tap out at the end of your journey

If you arrive on platform 0 and need to change to platforms 1-8:

• tap in at your starting station to begin your journey
• tap out at the card reader on platform 0
• tap in at the ticket barriers at Cardiff Central
• tap out at the end of your journey

Don’t worry. You’ll only be charged for one journey.

Yes, you need to use the same bank card or payment device to tap in and out to avoid incomplete journey charges.

For example, if you tap in with a physical bank card, you must tap out with the same physical bank card. If you tap in with Apple Pay, you must tap out with Apple Pay.

We’d recommend using the same card or device all week, as this will get you the cheapest possible fare when you hit our daily and weekly price caps.

Tell them you’re using pay as you go. They’ll ask you to tap your payment card or device on their inspection device, confirming you’ve tapped in.

Remember to tap the same card or device you used to tap in during an inspection.

Once you’ve tapped in, you can travel in areas where pay as you go is valid for up to 2.5 hours before you need to tap out.

If you tap out after the 2.5-hour time limit, this will trigger a new journey. This may result in one or more incomplete journey charges.

Unfortunately, you’ll need to buy a ticket before travelling. You can buy one on our website or app, or from a station ticket office or ticket machine.

See where you can use pay as you go on this map.

Yes. You can tap back out at the same station within one hour of tapping in, cancelling your journey and avoiding any charges.
Tapping out after an hour would be classed as two separate incomplete journeys i.e. station to unknown and unknown to station.

You may then have to pay two incomplete journey charges.

Most of our stations have two platform validators. If one validator is out of service, please use the validator on the opposite platform.

If your station only has one platform validator and it’s not working, you won’t be able to use pay as you go to start your journey. Please buy a ticket on our website or app, or from a station ticket office or ticket machine.

If you’re ending your journey and the platform validator isn’t working, please add your missing tap using our app or website the next day. If you don’t, you’ll receive an incomplete journey charge.

Don’t worry, you can still tap in and out and make payments using this service.

Before the event

Please tap in normally before boarding your train. There’ll usually be a queuing system in place at Cardiff Central and one of our colleagues will ask you to tap out on a handheld device.

After the event

If there’s a queuing system in place, our colleagues will be available with handheld devices for you to tap in. Don’t forgot to tap out at your destination station.

We'll request payment from your bank the morning after the day you travelled.

If you have an incomplete journey charge, we’ll delay taking payment for two days so you can add any missing taps.

We understand technical problems do happen and people sometimes forget to tap out.

You can add a missing tap for an incomplete journey the day after you’ve travelled. We’ll then charge you the correct fare.

You’ll have until the end of Wednesday the week after you’ve travelled to add the missing tap. A week is classed as Monday-Sunday, so you'd have 3 days to add any missing taps if you travelled on Sunday.

Once you’ve amended your journey, it will recalculate overnight and we'll refund any applicable charges within 10 days.

Please note you cannot add a missing tap to get a penalty charge refunded (if you didn’t tap in).

You may have received:

An penalty charge

You were found to have not tapped in during an onboard ticket inspection. This cannot be refunded by adding a missing tap on your pay as you go account.

An incomplete journey charge

You didn’t tap in or out during a recent pay as you go journey or used different devices to tap in and out.

Incomplete journey and penalty charges won’t count towards your daily / weekly fare cap.

If you couldn’t tap in or out for a reason, or think you received a charge by mistake, please let us know by Wednesday the week after you travelled. We’ll then review the charge. If you don’t contact us by then, we’ll be unable to correct your journey.

Example

If you travelled on Tuesday 20 January, you’ll have until Wednesday 28 January to let us know. After this, we won’t be able to make changes - you’ll have paid £10 for that journey.

If you travelled on Sunday 25 January, you’ll have until Wednesday 28 January to let us know. After this, we won’t be able to make changes - you’ll have paid £10 for that journey.

Yes, you can claim Delay Repay when using pay as you go. Claim if your train was delayed or cancelled and you arrived at your destination station more than 15 minutes later than scheduled.

To claim, you'll need to register your contactless payment card on your account using our app or website.

If you’re not registered already, please follow these steps:

• open the TfW app
• go to pay as you go at the bottom
• add your contactless card details
• upload and confirm your card details

Once you've registered, please select "contactless" as your ticket type when completing your Delay Repay claim.

This may be because:

• your account has insufficient funds
• your card has been reported lost or stolen
• your card has been blocked because we’ve been unable to take payment
• you tried to use an American Express or Maestro card
• you haven’t activated a new card yet

If your card has been blocked for pay as you go travel, you’ll need to clear any outstanding debt before it can be unblocked. Please follow these steps.

1. Make sure your account has funds to cover:

• the outstanding balance
• the cost of at least one future journey

For example, if your blocked journey cost £5, you’ll need at least £10 available in your account.

2. Tap your blocked card on the yellow platform validator / ticket barriers

Please wait 15 minutes. Once we’ve confirmed funds are available, your card will be unblocked and you’ll be able to use pay as you go again.

If you didn’t have enough funds to travel, we may run a temporary check with your bank to confirm funds are now available. This isn’t a payment request - no additional money is taken from your account.

These checks help us confirm if your card can be used again for travel. The amount shown can vary. It could be up to £10 or the cost of the journey that caused the issue. If there still aren’t enough funds, we’ll repeat the checks until the outstanding balance is cleared.

In some cases, you might notice what look like duplicate amounts being taken from your bank account. These aren’t extra charges - they’re part of our verification process. They’ll stop once your account has funds to cover your original fare plus a small buffer for a new journey.

Please don’t use a physical Chase card for pay as you go. The card’s security will prevent you from accessing your journey history or adding missing taps online. We won’t have visibility of your journeys, preventing us from providing online support.

You can still use your Chase card through a digital wallet like Apple Pay or Google Wallet.

To provide you with the best support specific to your pay as you go activity, we need you to register for an account.

When you register, we can access your journey and payment history. This helps us resolve your queries quickly and provide tailored support.

By registering for an account, you’ll unlock benefits through the TfW app, including:

• Your full journey and payment history in one convenient place.
• Travel receipts you can download quickly and easily.
• Alerts if you forget to tap out, helping you avoid extra charges.
• Smart features like frequent journey memory, allowing the app to autocomplete your journeys based on your travel patterns.

1. Download and open the TfW app.
2. Select "Pay as you go" at the bottom.
3. Enter your contactless card details.
4. Upload and confirm your card info.

You can call us on 03333 211 202. Select your language preference, then listen for the pay as you go option.

We’ll guide you through a secure portal where you can enter your card details. We’ll then be able to see journeys linked to that payment method while you’re on the call.

If you don’t want to call us

You can access your journey and payment history for the last seven days of travel through our guest portal. Incomplete journeys can be corrected up to and including the Wednesday following your travel week.

Registering will give the best pay as you go experience. It allows us to quickly access your journey and payment history and provide you with tailored support.