European community for mobility management

A new ticket-less system is to be rolled out across London’s transport system of tubes, trams, buses and trains to allow passengers to pay for their fares by simply swiping their contactless bank or credit card. Customers who choose to pay this way will be charged for their travel directly from their bank or credit card account.

Although Oyster cards - pre payment travel cards - are currently used daily by millions of commuters in London, the new system will remove the need to top up such travel cards and will make it easier for tourists visiting London. This roll out has therefore be timed to coincide with the hosting of the Olympic Games in 2012, by which time all of London’s 8000 buses will have been adapted for contactless bank card payment. By the end of 2012 the system will be available on the entire transport system.

Transport for London has been developing the technology for the system in close collaboration with the banking industry, including Visa Europe, MasterCard and American Express and card issuers. Certain features of contactless payments will be adapted to suit the public transport environment - for example, customers will never be asked to enter a PIN at a busy station gate-line.

Oyster cards will continue to be accepted across the network, with the machines currently being used to accept these cards, adapted to also accept bank cards. Once the system is fully operational it will be able to accept bank cards issued by foreign banks.

Source