London mayor Sadiq Khan has secured a £15m windfall after licensing contactless ticketing technology
London mayor Sadiq Khan has secured a £15m windfall after licencing the technology behind Transport for London's contactless ticketing system.
TfL technology can now be used worldwide by Cubic Transportation Systems, which provides ticketing tools in Sydney, Brisbane, Vancouver and Chicago.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said the cash from the licensing deal will go towards the delivery of his promised fare freeze.
Khan's fare promise has come under fire for excluding tickets such as weekly travelcards, but it is not expected that the licensing deal will allow for the programme to be extended further.
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TfL developed much of the systems behind London's contactless travel systems in-house, while it worked with suppliers, including CTS, on technology such as the card readers in buses and tube stations.
CTS also maintains ticketing and fare equipment on buses and ticket gates across the tube and Overground network, as well as the Docklands Light Railway.
Khan, said: “I made a firm commitment to sell Transport for London’s expertise around the globe.
“We will use the income from those deals for further investment in new infrastructure and to freeze TfL fares”.
Roughly one in 10 contactless transactions in the UK are made on the TfL network, making it one of the largest contactless merchants worldwide.