London buses go cashless

From July 6 it will no longer be possible to hop on a London bus and pay with cash.

Transport for London (TfL) cited a “considerable drop” in the number of people who pay for their bus fare using cash as the reason for making London’s buses cashless. According to TfL, 25% of journeys were paid for by cash in 2000, whereas today that figure stands at around one per cent.

The organisation issued a consultation document on the subject last summer and a third of the 37,000 Londoners who responded agreed that cash fares should be removed. Three quarters of those surveyed indicated that they did not pay for the bus using cash.

In a statement TfL said: “This change will not affect 99% of bus passengers who already pay for their journeys using Oyster, prepaid tickets, contactless payment cards or concessionary tickets.

“TfL research shows this change is also unlikely to affect tourists as the vast majority use Oyster or a prepaid ticket to get around the capital."

Concerns have been raised by a number of passengers living in outer London, where there are less Oyster top-up machines. In response TfL will introduce a ‘one more journey’ system, allowing passengers to use the bus to get to Central London if they have a positive balance on their card, but not enough for a single journey.”

www.tfl.gov.uk

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