Newport appoints Passenger to benefit from integrated platform

Today, we’re delighted to share that long-standing customer Newport Bus has appointed Passenger to bring its online channels together and deliver an integrated app experience for its customers.

At Passenger, we take pride in providing innovative, reliable, and much-loved solutions that help public transport businesses thrive. That’s why we’re excited to share that Newport has chosen to migrate their mobile app to Passenger following a competitive process.

The new app will add journey planning with ticket recommendations for customers, full timetable information and service updates with personalised travel alerts. These new features will be delivered alongside Passenger’s industry-leading mobile ticketing platform.

Passenger already powers the Newport website, which the existing app links to. Responding to customer feedback, the new Newport Bus app will include all key information. The move will streamline features across Newport Bus’ digital touchpoints, ensuring consistently high-quality information however customers choose to access the information.

Newport began working with Passenger on its website in 2021 and has been impressed with its advanced capabilities to manage and efficiently deliver information through its comprehensive customer experience platform. Using standardised transport data, including real-time bus locations and network data, the solution is easy for Newport Bus to maintain and deliver an engaging app for customers.

Passenger’s personalised travel alert capability, using app push notifications on Android and iPhone, was launched in October 2024. With over 1.5 million targeted notifications sent through the platform, it has proved hugely popular with customers, keeping them informed about the changes that matter most to them. With customers far less likely to contact customer service teams, the solution significantly reduces operational costs for operators.

Morgan Stevens, Operations Director at Newport Bus, comments, “We are delighted to bring everything under one roof for our customers by moving our app to Passenger. We’re looking forward to offering customers some new features and helping deliver targeted information about their journeys when it matters most. How ever they choose to access information about our services, via our website or on our app, the information will be readily available to them. As an operator, we’ll be able to manage both systems in one place using Passenger’s user friendly back-end systems. We’re grateful to the team at Passenger, who have worked closely with us over the last four years and provided us with a consistently high level of support. Absolutely what you need in a key supplier.”

The new app will launch in Spring 2025 with a comprehensive active ticket migration strategy, minimising any disruption for customer travel as they adopt the new Newport Bus app.

Helen Connolly, COO at Passenger, comments, “The team has developed a great relationship with Newport over the last four years, and we’re delighted to have the opportunity to deliver our full suite of digital technology for Newport Bus and its customers. Our solution, our specialist knowledge and our passion for client success are second to none. In 2024, we facilitated over 12,850,000 mobile tickets on behalf of our clients — showing just how important digital channels are to the future of bus travel. We’re excited to bring our specialist ecommerce expertise to Newport, supporting the Newport Bus team and their customers into the future”.

Passenger is exhibiting at Transport Ticketing Global 2025, 3-4th March, London, where operators and public transport authorities can explore and engage in the future of public transport ticketing.