At least a million journeys a day in London are now made using contactless payments, new figures from Transport for London (TfL) reveal.
TfL said this represents 27% of pay-as-you-go journeys on the Tube and on rail in the capital and that 25,000 new cards and 1,000 new mobile devices are used on its network every day.
More than 300 million journeys have now been made using TfL’s contactless payment technology, which it developed in-house, since its introduction in 2012.
Contactless payment: A palpable hit
TfL says it will continue to make improvements to the Oyster and contactless payment system in the coming year as it seeks to phase out paper tickets on the Tube.
It says that plans are already underway to improve the auto-refund system for Oyster and contactless, to better identify where people have accidentally failed to touch out.
London mayor Boris Johnson said: ‘It's wonderful Londoners and visitors from around the world are embracing the use of contactless technology right across our network.
'Passengers clearly love using their bank cards and mobile phones to travel, and why not - it's quick, easy and gets you the best fare. It's another fine example of how we are innovating and investing to make getting around the Capital as easy as possible.’
Janet Cooke, chief executive of London TravelWatch, said: ‘For many passengers contactless payment cards are the easiest and most convenient way to pay for travel as these figures confirm. For some time, passengers in towns such as Epsom, Slough, and Sevenoaks have been calling for the benefits of Oyster and contactless payments to be extended to them. This should now be done without further delay.’
