TfL commences consultation on cashless trams

Transport for London (TfL) has begun an eight-week public consultation on plans to make trams in London ‘cashless’. The proposal would see existing cash ticket machines, which only sell a small number of the more expensive paper tickets every week and do not allow customers to top-up their Oyster card, removed from the tram network. As the ticket machines, which were installed when the tram system opened in 2000, have such low usage and have now reached the end of their useful life
September 5, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

1466 Transport for London (TfL) has begun an eight-week public consultation on plans to make trams in London ‘cashless’.
 
The proposal would see existing cash ticket machines, which only sell a small number of the more expensive paper tickets every week and do not allow customers to top-up their Oyster card, removed from the tram network.
 
As the ticket machines, which were installed when the tram system opened in 2000, have such low usage and have now reached the end of their useful life, it is no longer cost effective for TfL to maintain them or have them replaced.
 
TfL therefore proposes to remove the machines and ask any customers who still buy paper tickets to switch to Oyster or contactless. Customers will be able to top up their Oyster cards at Oyster Ticket Stops along the route, at ticket machines at National Rail stations or via the TfL website and forthcoming TfL Ticketing app.
 
Due to the convenience and value for money of payment using Oyster and contactless bank payment cards, only 0.3 per cent of single tram journeys are paid for with a ticket bought from a tram stop ticket machine. This is fewer than 250 tickets per day, with more than half of these sold from 10 tram stops.
 
A paper ticket bought from a ticket machine costs £2.60 whereas the equivalent pay as you go single fare with Oyster or a contactless bank card is £1.50. Customers using pay as you go also have access to the Mayor’s Hopper fare, which gives a second tram or bus journey for free within one hour of touching in on the first tram or bus journey.
 
Subject to the results of the consultation, a final decision on whether to remove the machines will be made early next year.
 
The consultation runs until Sunday 29 October.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Metric wins New Jersey parking machine order after successful pilot
    April 17, 2012
    Metric Parking, a subsidiary of Hoeft & Wessel Group, has been awarded a contract with the US city of Hoboken, New Jesey, to supply 135 car parking ticket machines. During a successful 10-machine pilot project last year, the city saw a 30 per cent increase in revenue and additional parking spaces. These spaces were created by moving from the traditional single space meters to pay and display. Hoboken found that they are fitting two to three more cars on a given block with nearly half of all transactions now
    Read More
  • ITS & Ethics: yes means yes
    March 4, 2019
    There is an increasing wealth of information available to create personalised transport solutions – and the possibilities are exciting. But, Andrew Bunn warns, ITS companies have a duty to be explicit in explaining what people’s data is going to be used for
    Read More
  • Ride sharing services increase traffic, says Schaller Consulting
    August 1, 2018
    Ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, also called transportation network companies (TNC), are increasing congestion in US cities, says Schaller Consulting. The transport consultancy’s latest report reveals TNCs add 2.6 new vehicle miles on the road for each mile of personal driving removed, increasing driving on city streets by 160%. Called The New Automobility: Lyft, Uber and the Future of American Cities, the document combines research and data from a national travel survey to create a detailed
    Read More
  • Transition to all electronic tolling leads to cost savings
    February 2, 2012
    How a temporary congestion-relief solution resulted in the North Texas Tollway Authority's transition to all-electronic toll collection and potential savings of up to $472 million by 2045. By Carla Kienast, ETC Corporation
    Read More

Highlighted Content