Cubic Transportation Systems and TfL (Transport for London) are celebrating a win after TfL’s contactless payment system was awarded Best Bank-Card Ticketing Scheme at the 2015 Transport Ticketing Awards on Jan. 27.
The contactless scheme was first introduced on London buses in 2012, and was extended in September 2014 to cover all modes of travel on the world’s largest contactless pay as you go network – covering bus, rail, Tube and tram.
“Bringing contactless bank card payment to London’s entire transit network required innovation at a global scale and a readiness to engage with the mobile payments ecosystem to create and implement a transit transaction model, solving the principles of using contactless bank cards on transport,” says John Hill, managing director, Cubic Transportation Systems Europe. “This was a fantastic partnership endeavor and throughout the payments industry, it is clear the knock-on ‘halo effect’ produced by London’s success has led to a boost in the wider acceptance of contactless across the board.”
Cubic’s legacy Oyster smart card helped set the stage for London to become the first major city in the world to accept contactless bank cards for payment. Since contactless was introduced, the uptake has steadily increased each week. Currently around 500,000 contactless journeys are made every weekday, representing ten percent of all pay-as-you-go trips.
