TransPennine Express vs KingKabs
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TransPennine Express
Plan your next UK train journey and purchase tickets without any booking or card fees. Save money with advance bookings and store your eTickets or digital railcards directly within the app for easy access.
- Book train tickets with no fees
- Save up to 50% with advance tickets
- Store eTickets and digital railcards
- View live departure and arrival times
- Save common journeys for quick search
- Manage bookings in 'My account'
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No booking or card fees – download the TransPennine Express app to plan your next journey and buy train tickets to any UK railway station. Key Features: - Book in advance and you could save over 50%* with Advance tickets - Store eTickets in our app or save them to your Apple wallet - Buy Digital Railcards, conveniently stored in our app for easy access - Enjoy discounts and promotions on TransPennine Express fares, subject to availability - View live departure and arrival times for all UK Rail services - Make searching quick and easy by saving common journeys - Easily manage your bookings on the go in My account Together, we’re going places. Download now and book your journey. Information to note: Got a question? See our FAQs: https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/help/contact-us/faqs Need to get in touch? Find the best way to here: https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/help/contact-us Follow us on Social Media @TPExpressTrains on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook Learn more about us at https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/ * Full T&Cs for Advance tickets available at https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/special-offers/advance-bookings
KingKabs
Book rides easily with a personalized experience. Track your vehicle, save favorite journeys, and get upfront cost information. Offers a variety of vehicle options, including accessible ones.
- Personalized booking experience
- Vehicle tracking
- Save favorite journeys
- Upfront journey cost
- Wide vehicle selection
- Wheelchair accessible options
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The KingKabs App offers a slick and convenient mobile booking experience, perfect for people on the move. The app ensures efficiency and continuity of service as well as providing a personalised booking experience that can be tailored to individual customer preferences. The app works seamlessly with the new improved KingKabs online web-booker (https://book.kingkabs.taxi/portal) and has numerous features allowing users to track their vehicles, switch between passenger preferences and save favourite journeys. Our Northwest hub process more than 15,000 trips per day in the UK alone, and is owned by Addison Lee Limited, one of the largest ground transport providers in the UK Why choose KingKabs? - A wide selection of vehicles from saloon, MPV, traditional taxi cabs and executive vehicles. - All traditional taxis (Hackney Carriage Vehicles) are wheelchair accessible traditional cabs from TX4, LEVC, FORD and Mercedes Vito - Features of the improved app include vehicle tracking, booking history and the ability to set favourite addresses and journeys - Up front journey cost information - Journey time and distance estimates - Driver and Vehicle details once your booking has been allocated - Book now or up to three months in advance - View your trip history and see how many trips you have left - Select from multiple trip options including wheelchair accessibility - Operational and support infrastructure built over more than 40 years ensuring customer experience is at the forefront - App seamlessly interfaces with the KingKabs’s online web-booker and dedicated contact centre.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: TransPennine Express at none against KingKabs's shown. TransPennine Express also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 months). KingKabs's advantage is review sentiment (54% vs 28%). On price, rating, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for TransPennine Express against 4.5 for KingKabs. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TransPennine Express has 197 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 28% of TransPennine Express's written reviews are positive against 54% of KingKabs's.
TransPennine Express ships an update every 2 weeks, KingKabs every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and August 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TransPennine Express | KingKabs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (197 ratings) | 4.5 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 27.9% of reviews | 54.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 197 — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 83 MB | 78 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TransPennine Express | Vedamain Ltd. |
Customer experience
TransPennine Express
KingKabs
Bugs and requests
TransPennine Express
Reported bugs
3 issues- Tickets disappearing from the app
- Issues with adding tickets to Apple Wallet
- App not working outside the UK
Requested features
5 requests- Add tickets to Apple Wallet
- Remember login details and payment info
- Improve user interface and flow
- Provide better information on tickets and journeys
- Allow booking of open return tickets
KingKabs
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
TransPennine Express
No in-app purchases
KingKabs
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is TransPennine Express free?
Is KingKabs free?
Which has better reviews, TransPennine Express or KingKabs?
Do TransPennine Express or KingKabs have ads?
Which is updated more often, TransPennine Express or KingKabs?
Other comparisons
