Commuters in London will be able to use their contactless payment cards to pay for their travel fares on Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and National Rail services from today.
The new technology will work the same way as the existing pre-payment Oyster travel card service, by ‘tapping’ the contactless enabled payment card against the yellow reader positioned at station entrances, resulting in a pay-as-you-go fare being charged to the card. Daily and weekly fare caps will still apply when paying with a contactless card, but those using concessionary or season tickets will have to continue using an Oyster card.
“Customers can look forward to having an easier and more convenient way to pay for their travel, freeing them of the need to top up Oyster credit and helping them to get on board without delay,” Shashi Verma, Director of Customer Experience, Transport for London.
However, TfL are reminding commuters to take care when using contactless cards. Holding your wallet up to the card reader – which may contain more than one contactless payment card and/or a topped up Oyster card – could result in payment being taken from the unintended card.
Contactless payments are not new to London commuters. London buses began accepting such payments in December 2012.
This new process is expected to create large savings for TfL through the a reduction in paper ticket issuing and cash handling.
Related articles:
London tube to use contactless payment cards
London buses cashless from 6 July 2014
London buses to stop using cash
Contactless payments on tube early 2014
Source: Transport for London
Image: photo.ua / Shutterstock.com
