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Railways: Barnsley and Sheffield

Asked by Mr Richard HoldenConservativeDepartment for TransportTabled Answered 12 January 2026UIN 101836

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the GPS based pay as you go trial between Sheffield and Barnsley has commenced.

Answered by Keir Mather

Three Digital Pay As You Go (DPAYG) trials have successfully launched across the North and Midlands. The final trial, originally due to go live in November 2025, has been delayed. During rigorous pre-launch testing, issues were identified that would have prevented the DPAYG application from functioning as intended for participants.

To ensure the trial delivers the best possible passenger experience and provides robust data for evaluation, the decision was taken to postpone the launch until these issues were resolved.

We continue to work closely with Northern and the supplier to address the problems and launch as soon as possible. Northern will provide an update to participants in the respective trial in due course.

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