BUS passengers will soon be able to travel on some services without handing over cash.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive is to pilot a scheme allowing holders of Bolton Council's leisure Smart Card to make journeys on services operated by Arriva Manchester using the card.

More than 12,000 people have Smart Cards, allowing them to take out library books and use the council's gym facilities and pools.

Last summer, the council signed a deal with electronic cash transfer company sQuid, which allowed people to "top up" the card with cash, enabling them to use it to pay for items such as newspapers, food and convenience goods in shops displaying the sQuid logo.

And the card is to be trialled on buses in a bid to extend its use.

Adam Smith, managing director of sQuid, said: "Our philosophy is to make electronic payments a flexible, responsive and cost-effective service for our customers, for merchants and for transport operators.

"This is something none of the banks or credit card networks is able to offer on the same scale as sQuid because our technology is unique and it sits outside the existing banking payment systems."

No details of when the Arriva Manchester pilot scheme will begin have yet been made public.