Terms and conditions

These terms and conditions apply when you use a contactless payment card or device to ‘pay as you go’ for your journeys with TfW and other rail operators where this is an accepted method of payment.

They set out your rights and obligations when using a contactless payment card and apply in addition to other Conditions of Carriage. Further information about your rights is available in our Passenger’s Charter.

The pay as you go service is currently only available at the following stations:

• Cardiff Central
• Crosskeys
• Ebbw Vale Parkway
• Ebbw Vale Town
• Llanhilleth
• Newbridge
• Newport
• Pontyclun
• Pye Corner
• Risca and Pontymister
• Rogerstone

Additional stations will be added to the pay as you go service throughout 2024.

If you want to travel to or from any other station, you’ll need to purchase a ticket from a ticket office, ticket vending machine or online. 

Other train operating companies’ services can also be used on TfW routes where TfW pay as you go is in operation, simply tap in, travel and tap out as you would when using a TfW service.

Pay as you go journeys are not currently available on GWR services.

The pay as you go travel period is operated from Monday through to Sunday.

Customers choosing to travel with pay as you go will have 2 hours to travel and complete a journey.

If you fail to complete a journey within 2 hours, we’ll be unable to calculate a fare and you may be liable for an incomplete journey charge.

If you realise you’ve not completed a journey after the 2-hour window, we will give you an opportunity to correct a missing tap through the TfW app or pay as you go portal. Do not attempt to complete a journey on a gate or platform validator after the 2-hour window.

Taps processed after the 2-hour window, will be seen as a start of a new journey.

This is a charge applied to a customer that has failed to complete a journey. An incomplete journey could be one of the following:

• Customer has failed to tap at the start or end of their journey.
• Customer has failed to complete a journey within a 2-hour travel window.
• Customer has tapped out 60 minutes after tapping in at the same station.

Pay as you go price caps limits the amount a customer will pay on a daily and weekly level.

Once a daily or weekly price cap has been triggered, customers can take advantage of unlimited travel for the remainder of that specific day or week.

To be eligible for a daily/weekly price cap, a customers must use the same payment method for the day or week of travel (Monday - Sunday).
Switching between contactless cards and mobile devices daily will be seen as individual payment methods and we’ll not be able to apply any price caps.

Example:

Customer travels 1 or more days a week. Customer taps on with their bank card, they should use the same bank card for the rest of the week. If the customer triggers a daily cap on a specific day the remaining days travel will be free. If however, the customer triggers a weekly cap (let’s say day 3 of travelling), their remaining weeks travel will be free.

All caps will be reset at 04:00 every Monday morning.

Pay as you go fares will typically be cheaper than current fares and will be capped at a daily and weekly level to improve value further.

Each tap on and tap off will be classed as a single journey and will be charged a ‘Single Leg Price’.

When a journey is made in our pay as you go network area, we’ll charge the customer the cheapest PAYG fare available for the day and route they travel. We’ll use the taps you’ve made on your journey and the journey length (in distance), to calculate the route you took.

If you take a journey that triggers a zonal cap, the zonal best value fare calculations will be based on the outermost boundary point of the relevant zone(s) of travel. 

For example, zonal fare caps are calculated against each Monday to Sunday travel period, and we’ll continually review your travel to determine if a weekly ticket can be charged instead of multiple daily tickets.

Example for illustration purposes only.

Pay as you go fares and caps are cheaper than standard fares, however these are subject to change.

At the end of each day, all your journeys will be assessed to calculate how much you need to pay. 

We’ll make a payment request to your associated payment card the day after you’ve travelled.

The payment amount will be calculated based on the tap-in and tap-out information received.

We’ll use the tap-in and tap-out information to calculate the best journey combinations and charge you based on the fares included in the scheme. Please see the fares section for further information about the fares included in this scheme.

If we can’t collect the journey fee the following day, your card will be placed on a denial travel list for pay as you go and will remain on this list until such a time, we can collect the payment.

We will attempt to collect the outstanding fare 3 times over a 7-day period, after which you’ll need to pay manually through the TfW app or speak with our Customer Service team.

Once we’ve received all outstanding fares, we will remove your payment method from the denial list, and you’ll be able to start using pay as you go. This usually takes around 15 minutes after payment has been received.

Note: the denial list does not preclude you from purchasing a physical ticket or tickets online (through our TfW or other supporting apps)

Customers wishing to use pay as you go, must complete their first journey by using their physical bank card to activate first time use on TfW gates and/or validators.

Access to daily and weekly capping is only available when using a single physical card or a single device, switching payment devices will affect weekly capping.

Once you have completed your initial weeks travel (Monday - Sunday), you can then choose whether you want to continue using your physical contactless bank card or move to using a smart device (phone or watch).

It’s your responsibility to make sure you tap in and tap out correctly by placing your credit/debit card or smart device on the reader located at the ticket gate or platform validators** at the railway stations where you start and finish your journey.

Always ensure you use the same payment card or smart device for starting and ending your journey. If you don’t, you may be liable for 2 incomplete journey charges as we’ll be unable to tell where you have travelled ‘to and from’.

Always ensure you use the same method of payment for a week’s travel period (Monday - Sunday) for pay as you go. If you don’t, you won’t be able to take advantage of the daily and weekly caps as each payment method will be seen individually.

**Newport and Cardiff will be a gated barrier, Pontyclun and stations up to Ebbw Vale will have a yellow Platform Validator.

Failure to complete a journey could result with you receiving an incomplete journey charge which would mean you end up paying more. This is because no fare can be calculated.

Customers that have missing journey taps will have an opportunity to complete their journey up to and including the ‘Wednesday’ following the previous weeks travel period (Monday-Sunday).

• If you’ve registered for pay as you go notifications through the TfW app, we’ll contact you by email asking that you complete your journey using your account.
• We’ll be unable to send notifications to customers who’ve not registered as we’ll not hold any contact information.

This does not however, preclude you from correcting missing taps. A customer who doesn’t register for an account, can check their journeys and payment history through our pay as you go guest web portal, however you can only do this for the past 7 days of travel.

Customers can correct missing taps up to a maximum of three times in a 28-day period after which time you’ll need to contact our Customer Service team.

For customers that have registered for pay as you go and there is a clear journey pattern, we’ll use the auto-complete function to complete a journey where a customer has failed to tap.

Note;  each auto-complete will count towards your allowance to correct incomplete journeys of three times in a 28-day period that the missing ‘taps’ action can be taken.

You’ll be notified of an auto-complete activity by email the day after your journey.

Where an auto-complete isn’t possible, you’ll have until the Wednesday following the Monday to Sunday travel period (within which your incomplete journey was taken) to amend the incomplete journey in your account. After this time, your journey can no longer be amended, and an incomplete journey charge will be applied and taken from the payment card associated with your account.

If you decide not to travel, for example due to disruption or cancelled trains, after you’ve tapped in at a station, you’ll need to tap out again at the same station within 60 minutes (creating a ‘same station exit’).

If you tap out after the 60-minute window, you may be liable for 2 incomplete journey charges as we will not know where you have travelled to or from.

If you chose not to travel and don’t tap out, you may be liable for an incomplete journey charge as we’ll not be able to calculate a journey fare.

If you believe you’ve been charged the wrong fare for your journeys, please contact our Customer Service team.

You’ll have until Wednesday following a Monday to Sunday travel period (within which your journey(s) was taken) to request any changes, after which changes will not be possible.

If we find that you were charged the wrong fare, we’ll adjust your account balance accordingly.

All refunds will be processed back to the original payment method. We cannot refund to other payment methods.

Delay/Repay is available for customers through our standard Delay Repay process.

We’ve developed a pay as you go function within the TfW app. This function will provide customers with the following features:

• Dedicated pay as you go dashboard
• Add contactless card
• Remove contactless card
• Card customisation within the app - nickname and set card colour
• View all associated devices - smartphone, smartwatch and contactless card
• Journey and payment history 
• Export payment/journey history
• Last tapped information by device (date, time and location)
• Correct missing taps
• Unblock contactless bank card (make outstanding payment)
• Set up push notifications

Download the TfW app.

The following exclusions apply when using pay as you go, however these are subject to change. 

• Pay as you go journeys are not currently available on GWR services.
• No return journeys. Pay as you go operates a single adult journey only.  
• No group tickets. For group tickets, you’ll need to purchase from a ticket office. 
• Not permitted for first class travel. 
• No peak and off-peak times. 
• No child tickets, please visit tfw.wales/kids-go-free for affordable family travel 
• Pay as you go does not support the use of concessionary cards.

Our maximum liability to you under these terms and conditions will be to refund the balance, if any, on the date our dispute with you is settled.