TfL awards Barclaycard 10-year contract that’ll include the roll out of contactless on the Elizabeth Line
Barclaycard has retained its contract providing payment solutions to Transport for London (TfL), securing a new 10-year contract that includes the roll-out of contactless for the Elizabeth Line.
The awarding of the £380m contract is for seven years with an option of extending for a further three years.
Barclaycard will help TfL roll out contactless for train travel beyond London as it plans for providing contactless payment solutions for the Elizabeth Line, which will run services from Reading and Heathrow to Shenfield and Abbey Wood by December 2019.
As TfL's merchant acquirer Barclaycard has processed over 278m contactless transactions to date and they now make up nearly four in ten (39 per cent) pay as you go journeys on the capital's Tube, rail and bus services.
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Shashi Verma, chief technology officer at TfL, said:
Contactless payments have completely transformed the way people pay for travel in London, with more than 800m journeys already made and around 1.8m journeys being made every day.
This new 10-year contract will help ensure these numbers continue to grow while also providing support to allow us to develop our ticketing system even further.
London's buses began accepting contactless debit and credit card payments in December 2012, before it was rolled out across Tube, tram, the DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in 2014.
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In January last year, pay as you go with Oyster cards and contactless was expanded to cover rail services between the capital and Gatwick Airport. More than 3m journeys have been made on these services since its introduction.
And in October, it was announced that all London black cabs had to carry a card payment device to allow passengers to pay by credit and debit cards, including contactless payments.
It came after an overwhelming response to Transport for London's (TfL) consultation; 86 per cent of respondents said they wanted to be able to use cards and contactless payments in taxis.