The 2026 Transport Ticketing Awards have selected Transport for Wales as a finalist for its Pay As You Go ticketing system, which is supported by Unicard’s Ticketing Hub technology.

The PAYG system is one of six schemes shortlisted in the category for Best Smart Ticketing Programme - Single Operator or Authority (Fewer than 500k Daily Journeys), competing with international schemes such as Rail MaaS in Malaysia and account-based fares in Canada.

This is the second year running that Transport for Wales (TfW) has been nominated in the category.

In November last year, TfW announced that the number of rail journeys made using its PAYG system had topped two million – only one year after the system was launched.

PAYG has become TfW’s fastest-growing ticketing product since its launch in November 2024. TfW was the first UK train operator outside of London and the South East of England to introduce the innovative payment solution. The system is currently available across stations in the South East Wales Metro region, but TfW is working to extend PAYG to North Wales.

Unicard supplied TfW with our Ticketing Hub to enable contactless EMV (cEMV) services, which means travellers do not have to pre-purchase a paper or digital ticket for their journey. Instead, they can use a payment card or mobile device to tap in and out on ticket barriers at the start and end of every train journey. Ticketing Hub receives and processes these taps, and the price of each trip is calculated based on each customer’s travel patterns and behaviour. Unicard then ensure that an accurate and secure payment is made based on their overall journey.

Importantly, unlike other cEMV solutions, Ticketing Hub is agnostic to the card reader used, so scheme administrators can mix equipment within a single deployment. The Unicard solution is also multi-modal and multi-operator, creating a future-proofed ticketing environment for developing more-integrated transport networks.

The annual Transport Ticketing Awards celebrate the achievements of the smart ticketing and mobility industry. The winners will be announced on March 17 during an awards gala event being held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London.

For more details on this year’s awards, visit Transport Ticketing Awards - 2026 Finalists.