Bee Card, contactless and travel passes
The tram’s smart card is the Bee Card — the one most people still call «get me there». What each card and pass is actually good for on Metrolink, and the times they stop being valid.
The card has been renamed, and both names are still in use
Bee Card and «get me there» are the same thing.
If you have been told to get a «get me there» card and cannot find one, nothing has gone wrong: it is the same card, renamed to Bee Card in 2023 when the Bee Network brand was rolled out across Greater Manchester. The operator still runs both web addresses, so guides, posters and even some of its own pages disagree with each other about what to call it. It is one card, one account and one balance.
The Bee Card is the plastic smart card. It is not the same thing as tapping a bank card on the yellow reader — that is contactless pay as you go, and the two are charged in different ways.
Where the card actually meets the tram
On Metrolink you do not touch in at a gate: the yellow validators stand on the platform itself, and it is on you to find one before the tram comes. There is no barrier to stop you forgetting.
What you do there depends on what you are holding. A Bee Card season ticket or travelcard is touched once, to prove it is valid. A contactless bank card is touched at both ends, because the system has to see where you got on and where you got off before it can work out the fare. And a paper ticket from the machine is not touched at all.
Inspectors do check, and «the validator was broken» is only an answer if you used a different one. Most platforms have more than one.
Which one should you be using?
The short version, before the detail.
Touch in and touch out at the yellow reader with the same card or device. Nothing to buy in advance. It cannot hold a season ticket.
The smart card, called «get me there» until 2023. This is what you need for a 7-day, 28-day or annual travelcard, and to link a concessionary pass so the tram is added for the year.
Free on the tram after 09:30 Monday to Friday and all day at weekends and on bank holidays. The «disability plus» pass is valid at any time.
For young people in Greater Manchester. It does not give free tram travel: on Metrolink it gives half-price off-peak one-day and weekend travelcards.
Travel passes on the tram, and the times they are not valid
This is where Metrolink catches people out, because the rules for the tram are not the rules for the bus.
- English National Concessionary Travel Pass issued by TfGM — free travel on Metrolink after 09:30 Monday to Friday, and all day at weekends and on bank holidays. Before 09:30 on a weekday it is not valid and you need a ticket.
- TfGM «disability plus» pass — valid on Metrolink at any time, including before 09:30.
- A pass issued by another local authority — not valid on Metrolink. The national bus concession does not cover the tram, and the tram concession is a Greater Manchester scheme.
- Our Pass, for young people in Greater Manchester — free travel on buses, but not free on the tram. On Metrolink it gets you half-price off-peak one-day and weekend travelcards.
What the Bee Card is for, and what contactless is for
They are not alternatives for the same job.
Contactless — a bank card or a phone — is for paying as you go. You touch in at the yellow reader before you board and touch out at the other end, with the same card or device both times, and your travel is capped daily and weekly. There is nothing to buy in advance and nothing to top up. How the capping works is on the fares page.
The Bee Card is for everything contactless cannot hold: season tickets and travelcards bought in advance — 7-day, 28-day, annual — the concessionary versions of them, and a concessionary pass linked to the account so the tram is added for the year. If you travel the same route every day, that is the card you want; a bank card cannot store a season ticket.
And there is still a third way, which the two names above tend to hide: the ticket machine on the platform. It sells singles, returns and travelcards, it takes cash as well as cards, and it is the one option that does not need a bank card, an account or a smartphone. If you are buying for more than one person, it is also the only one that works — a single contactless card pays a single adult fare, however many of you tap it.
Questions about the card and the passes
Tram times on this page come from the Traveline National Dataset (TransXChange, Open Government Licence v3.0); stop names and coordinates from NaPTAN, the Department for Transport stop register. Card names and pass rules on this page come from the operator’s own ticket pages and from the scheme pages of Our Pass. We publish no prices: the operator’s fare pages are closed to automated access and the third-party guides that do quote figures contradict each other. Manchester Metrolink is an independent guide: it is not run by Metrolink or Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and has no connection with either. Check tfgm.com before you travel.