TfL to upgrade travel card readers

The capital's transport authority said that work to adapt card readers on buses, trams, and at tube, London Overground and Docklands Light Railway stations will start this year. All of London's 8,000 bus fleet are scheduled to be fitted with the new technology in time for the 2012 Olympics. TfL said this will enable quick and easy access to buses for the millions of visitors expected during the Games. The system will then be rolled out onto the tube, Docklands Light Railway, tram and London Overground network before the end of 2012. TfL is also in discussions with the train operating companies that serve London about whether contactless payment cards could be used on national rail services where Oyster is currently accepted. To make the new system possible, TfL said it is upgrading software in the Oyster smart card system to recognise contactless credit and debit cards issued by Visa, MasterCard and American Express as well as Oyster cards. Most visitors to the capital arrive without a public transport ticket and have to buy one. The change will mean they can use a contactless credit or debit card to pay for public transport, in the same way that they can now make low value purchases in many coffee shops and other retail outlets, said TfL. Will Judge, TfL's head of future ticketing, said that people will also use bank cards as an alternative to the Oyster contactless smart card, or when they have left their Oyster card at home. "As more people use their bank-issued cards to pay for their travel directly, TfL's costs will reduce, delivering better value for money for London's fare and taxpayers," said Judge. A TfL spokeswoman told GGC that, while the fares when using swipe cards will ultimately be the same as when using the Oyster card, which is much cheaper than paying cash, it is not yet known if this will apply in the scheme's early days. "Once it is fully rolled out, fares will be the same as the pay-as-you-go fares," she said. "We are working through the prices for the initial roll out on buses only." Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, said: "It is tip top news that from next year a simple tap of a contactless bank card will be enough to whizz you from A to B in this great city. "London leads the way in so many different fields and we will be the first in the world to allow the millions using our tube, trams, buses and trains to benefit from the ease of using this technology." This article is published by Guardian Professional