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.

UTC

Related Content

  • December 19, 2013
    First electric buses hit London’s streets
    Transport for London (TfL) and bus operator Go-Ahead London have begun a trial of the capital’s first electric buses on two routes in the city. The 12-metre single deck buses were built by Chinese manufacturer BYD Auto have zero tail pipe emissions, resulting in lower carbon emissions. The trial will help TfL develop plans for greater use of electric buses in central London in the future, supporting the Mayor’s vision of a central London Ultra Low Emission Zone. The trial will be used to establish wh
    Read More
  • November 23, 2012
    Nottingham takes to e-ticketing
    England’s least car dependent city, Nottingham, is to further develop its public transport system with integrated ticketing solutions from Germany-headquartered ITS provider INIT, which is to supply systems for the town’s bus and tram network. With more than 40 million customer journeys per year, Nottingham’s independent bus operator Trent Barton was already successfully using INIT’s integrated ticketing solution comprising of Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETM), validators and Mango smartcards. Passengers
    Read More
  • December 10, 2014
    New thinking needed on the transportation front
    Having spent his working life in transportation, Larry Yermack gives his views on today’s technology challenges. I remember it vividly; it was the late 80s, soon after I started as CFO of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and I was standing mid-span on the deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge on a Friday afternoon.
    Read More
  • December 15, 2014
    PPP helps speed Chicago’s transit fare upgrade
    David Crawford on a fast-tracked payment upgrade. This July saw the completion of the final stage of the implementation of Chicago’s new Ventra open fare payment system on the services of two of the region’s three transit providers, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and regional bus operator Pace. Ventra has been introduced to accept any contactless general purpose payment card, including personal debit and credit cards.
    Read More

Highlighted Content