TfL have won the DfT's contract to expand their contactless payment system to 233 rail stations by May 2024, which also includes the requirement to allow Railcards and concessionary discounts to be added to contactless payment cards
Phase 1
Phase 2
Announcement by TfL:
Details of contract:
Further details of the award:
More details from the original consultation:
See also: Project Proteus: New features in TfL revenue collection tender
Phase 1
- Contactless payments in 53 stations – majority due by the end of 2022.
- Full-fare, Adult PAYG travel using contactless payment cards and mobile devices across the South East, fully integrated with TfL’s existing scheme.
Phase 2
- Contactless payments in 180 stations – majority due by May 2024.
- Enable discounted PAYG travel for National Rail concessionary customers.
Announcement by TfL:
Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at TfL said: “Our pay as you go with contactless system has helped revolutionise the ability to pay for travel, and is now used in a number of cities across the world. We have recently been selected as the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) preferred partner to deliver an initiative to expand pay as you go on rail services across the South East. This will both help rail customers outside London travel more flexibly and conveniently, and support the wider economic recovery of the South East through easier access to rail travel. We are now working closely with the DfT on an implementation plan and hope to provide further details in due course.”
Details of contract:
Source: https://bidstats.uk/tenders/2021/W49/764543468The Rail Group's Passenger Services Directorate within the Department for Transport ("DfT") is planning the expansion of Pay As You Go (PAYG) rail ticketing in the South East of England, following publication of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.
Following a consultation held in 2019, the DfT settled on an expanded geography that will see circa 233 new stations converting to a new EMV based contactless payment system.
The Government's timetable for implementation requires the majority of the extension stations to be delivered by May 2024, with extension of PAYG to all stations completed by the end of 2024.
The contactless payment system will also need to seamlessly integrate with the existing Transport Trading Limited ("TTL")/TOC CPAY area in order to allow passengers to travel to/from London using a single tap in/tap out with their bank card
TTL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London ("TfL").
The project therefore requires a technical solution that can be deployed and integrated successfully within the existing operating environment to achieve the DfT's required objectives.
The DfT is publishing this transparency notice to inform suppliers of its intention to grant funding to TTL for the delivery of a new EMV-based contactless payment system across circa 233 stations in the South East of England. TTL will deliver the required PAYG solution, subcontracting the provision of on-station validation equipment to Cubic Transportation Systems Limited ("Cubic"), a provider of PAYG services to TfL under the existing Revenue Collection Contract.
Entry into the contract will take place following a period of at least 30 days from the date of publication of this notice.
Further details of the award:
Source: https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl-to-expand-contactless-payments-outside-london-54582/Over 230 mainline rail stations around London are to be brought into Transport for London’s contactless payments system over the next couple of years, under an agreement with the Department for Transport (DfT).
Following an initial consultation back in 2019, a year ago, the DfT decided that around 233 stations would be upgraded to accept contactless payments to allow customers to travel to/from London using a single tap in/tap out with their bank card, and put out a tender to suppliers. The upgrade is part of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail that aims to make it simpler to catch a train without the hassles of selecting which sort of ticket a person should buy in advance in order to avoid paying more than they should.
The map below was the suggested coverage expansion in the 2019 consultation, although the consultation also includes options to expand further to Brighton, Oxford and Milton Keynes. As it’s the consultation map, it may not match the final rollout plans.
As TfL already runs a large contactless payments system that offers what the DfT is looking for, it’s understandable that TfL won the contract. Although TfL is carrying out the work, the project’s roughly £68 million cost is being fully covered by the DfT at no cost to TfL, who will be subcontracting the provision of in-station validation equipment to Cubic Transportation Systems, who already provide the same kit to TfL.
The list of stations being included in the southeast of England rollout will be announced by the DfT in the next few months, but due to the scale of the work, the expansion of contactless payments has already been decided to be split into two phases:
The decision about which stations are in phase one or phase two will be mainly down to which are easier to deliver to, such as stations that already have validation equipment in them and the existing fares structure, and discussions with the train companies involved.
- Phase 1 – Contactless payments in 53 stations – majority due by the end of 2022.
- Phase 2 – Contactless payments in 180 stations – majority due by May 2024.
There are also two phases to the payment options being rolled out:
Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at TfL said: “Our pay as you go with contactless system has helped revolutionise the ability to pay for travel, and is now used in a number of cities across the world. We have recently been selected as the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) preferred partner to deliver an initiative to expand pay as you go on rail services across the South East. This will both help rail customers outside London travel more flexibly and conveniently, and support the wider economic recovery of the South East through easier access to rail travel. We are now working closely with the DfT on an implementation plan and hope to provide further details in due course.”
- Phase 1 – Full-fare, Adult PAYG travel using contactless payment cards and mobile devices across the South East, fully integrated with TfL’s existing scheme.
- Phase 2 – Enable discounted PAYG travel for National Rail concessionary customers.
The expansion work with the DfT follows on from the recent expansion of pay as you go with contactless to GWR branch line services to Henley on Thames, Windsor and Eton Central and, from later this month, to Bourne End and Marlow.
Due to the older technology used, the expansion will not include Oyster cards, just the newer bank card-based contactless payments. That mirrors the way the Elizabeth line was extended to Reading, with Oyster only working as far as the edge of Zone 6, after which only bank card contactless will work.
The original consultation also suggested that in some cases, contactless payments could also extend to local transport services such as buses, although this is not a major focus of the programme at the moment.
Similar schemes are also being rolled on South Western Railway and Transport for the North.
More details from the original consultation:
Source: https://assets.publishing.service.g...ta/file/776998/payg-rail-consultation-doc.pdfIntegration
Passengers would be able to travel seamlessly between all rail services in the area and on the TfL network, all using the same PAYG ticket or account. In some cases, a PAYG scheme could also extend to local transport services such as buses, although this is not the primary focus of our proposals.
Fares
We will consider changes to fares where this helps passengers gain the benefits of PAYG travel, making them simpler and more reflective of modern travel preferences, and potentially introduce a cap on daily or weekly fares.
Technology
No decisions have been made. A number of options are available, including using dedicated transport smart cards, contactless bankcards, to 'tap' at different points on the network and allow the computer to work out the best fare. New technology based on mobile phones could remove the need to 'tap' on dedicated readers.
Other ticketing options and mobile ticketing
Passengers would still be able to buy tickets in advance. The Government's recent £80m investment in smart ticketing means that a smart ticket option will be available across almost all of the rail network. For single and return fares this is often likely to be a barcode ticket which passengers can print at home or display on their mobile phone. Technology already exists to allow mobile phones to store bankcards, which means mobile phones can be used with TfL's Contactless system. Similar technology is being trialled that could allow mobile phones to store dedicated transport smart cards. This could allow mobile phones to work with PAYG systems based on dedicated transport smart cards as well.
Passengers without a bank or credit card
The PAYG roll out plan, following this consultation, would need to ensure that the choice of technology does not inadvertently exclude some sections of society. For instance, you currently need a bank card or credit card to use TfL's Contactless system. Instead, for passengers without access to these, the Oyster system is available. We do not currently have plans to withdraw paper tickets.
Discounted fares
The PAYG roll out plan, following this consultation, would need to ensure that the choice of technology is able to offer discounted fare schemes. For instance, it is not currently possible to apply a concessionary discount to travel made using TfL's Contactless system. Instead, discounts can be applied to Oyster cards, or special Oyster cards are issued for passengers who are eligible for discounted travel.
Penalties for not 'tapping out'
Assuming the system adopted requires passengers to tap at the start and end of their journey, there is a risk that a small minority of passengers might try to 'cheat the system' by not tapping their card or phone. This simply means that other law-abiding passengers have to pay more, and is unfair. To encourage all passengers to tap in and out, we propose that there would be a maximum fare for not tapping out. On the other hand, passengers might simply forget to tap their card or phone at a free-standing card reader on the station. To address this, (a) every effort would need to be made to identify the 'missing tap' and (b) the maximum fare should be reasonable and applied with a significant amount of discretion.
One-click compensation
Since a core feature of most modern PAYG ticketing systems is the facility to use location information (e.g. from 'taps') to identify what trains a passenger has taken, there is a good opportunity for PAYG travel to speed the introduction of 'one-click' compensation. The c2c franchise is able to offer automated compensation arrangements already for registered smart card users: as a fully-gated network, passengers using smart cards already have to both 'tap in' and 'tap out'.
See also: Project Proteus: New features in TfL revenue collection tender
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