ZoneCard is a travel card issued by the

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) is a regional transport partnership for the Strathclyde area of western Scotland. It is responsible for planning and coordinating regional transport, especially the public transport system in the ar ...

, formerly

Strathclyde Passenger Transport Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) is a regional transport partnership for the Strathclyde area of western Scotland. It is responsible for planning and coordinating regional transport, especially the public transport system in the are ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Usage

The scheme divides the SPT area into 9 regions distinguished by a letter :D for Dumbarton :S for Strathkelvin :G for Glasgow :Y for Inverclyde (In case there is confusion between the letter 'I' and the number '1') :R for Renfrew :K for Kilmarnock :A for Ayr :H for Hamilton :L for Lanark These are further subdivided into zones dividing the main towns of the area for example

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

Prestwick Prestwick ( gd, Preastabhaig) is a town in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland about southwest of Glasgow. It adjoins the larger town of Ayr to the south on the Firth of Clyde coast, the centre of which is about south, an ...

and

Troon Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Troon has a port with freight services and a yacht marina. Up until January 2016, P&O ope ...

are in A1, A2 and A3 respectively; there are 77 zones in total. A traveller with a ticket for either G1 or G2 is also able to travel within the shaded city centre area, but travel into an outer Glasgow zone (G3 to G8) requiems a minimum of three zones. Tickets with three Glasgow zones are valid for travel in all Glasgow zones (G1 to G8). The city centre is served by both inner Glasgow zones, and purchasing one of these entitles the user to use the subway system in both areas. A child's zonecard with 6 zones or an adult zonecard with 13 zones, entitles the user to travel throughout all zones. A ZoneCard consists of a photocard and a paper counterpart which displays the validity period and is used for operating the barriers on Glasgow's

Subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Intercontin ...

. Previously, passengers who have validated their tickets for the Subway needed to have their tickets manually checked at the

ticket barriers In rail transport, the paid area is a dedicated "inner" zone in a railway station or metro station, accessible via turnstiles or other barriers, to get into which, visitors or passengers require a valid ticket, checked smartcard or a pass. A sys ...

Glasgow Queen Street station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Queen Street railway station (geograph 6687389).jpg , caption = Main entrance in 2020 , borough = Glasgow , country = Scotland , coordinates = , grid_name = Grid reference , grid_pos ...

because the barriers accept only standard-sized Subway tickets. In 2004, the Glasgow Queen Street barriers were updated so that ZoneCards did not need validation to operate them. The card can be purchased in durations of 1 week, 4 weeks, 10 weeks, and 1 year. The ZoneCard can be used with any participating transport provider within the zones that the holder has purchased. With a total of approximately 70 transport providers—across

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

, and

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...

services—in the scheme, there are very few companies who do not accept ZoneCards. The only TOC which doesn't accept ZoneCards is

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

. Operators criticise the complexity of the zone system, which consists of 77 zones. By comparison, Transport for London's scheme consists of 9 zones despite containing 90 more underground stations than the SPT does rail stations. However, the TfL system only covers , an area slightly smaller than

South Lanarkshire gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms_slanarkshire.jpg , image_blank_emblem = Slanarks.jpg , blank_emblem_type = Council logo , image_map ...

. In addition, the SPT bus network is far larger due to the greater size of its zone system.

Revenue

The revenue from the scheme is split between the participating operators (the administration costs are absorbed by SPT) based on a number of factors, such as the number of routes operated by a provider, an annual user survey, and passenger counts by SPT officials. Some operators (notably

Abellio ScotRail Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, was the national train operating company of Scotland. A subsidiary of Abellio, it operated the ScotRail franchise from 1 April 2015, taking over from predecessor First ScotRail. ...

) are guaranteed a certain percentage of the revenue regardless of these factors but more recently

Avanti West Coast Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership franchise. During November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the Inter ...

, LNER and

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT ...

also receive revenue from ZoneCards as their trains provide services between Glasgow and Motherwell and vice versa. Aside from the previously mentioned administration costs, the scheme is designed to be self-supporting, unlike some other tickets which are subsidised with public money to help the significant percentage of households in the region that do not have access to a car.

References

#{{note, spt1}
SPT News

External links

SPT's ZoneCard websiteMap of the ZoneCard area
Transport in Scotland Transport in Glasgow