London to lead world with ticketless travel

With airline passengers getting used to the idea of ticketless travel (and even cheque books said to be on their way out) Transport for London (TfL) is planning to role out a scheme in 2012 that just involves the swiping of a credit card.  This will be across the whole transport network including buses, Tube, DLR, Tram and London Overground.

By the end of next year card readers across the whole of the TfL network will have been upgraded so that a touch of a contactless bank or credit card will allow passengers to touch in and out for pay-as-you-go travel.  The new system will be up and running on all of London's 8,000 buses in time for the 2012 Games, enabling quick and easy bus travel for the millions of visitors expected to flock to the UK capital.

To make the new system possible TfL is upgrading software in the Oyster smartcard system to recognise contactless credit and debit cards issued by Visa, MasterCard and American Express as well as Oyster cards. www.tfl.gov.uk

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