“Landmark moment" as TfL goes contactless

 

It’s finally here; Transport for London (TfL) has gone contactless. Londoners and visitors alike can now pay for a dash across the city with a swipe of a contactless card.

Customers can now use their contactless Visa cards to pay for journeys on all Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and National Rail services that accept Oyster – joining London Buses which went contactless in 2012.

Visa Europe predicts that Brits will make 500 million contactless payments between now and December 2015 in what is being hailed as a “landmark moment” by Visa Europe Executive Director, Sandra Alzetta.

Alzetta said that from today, “TfL accepts the 40 million Visa contactless cards already active in the UK and it’s our intention that any customer with a Visa-enabled mobile device will also be able to use it to travel on the TfL network.”

She adds: “Today’s launch by TfL will be another major boost to contactless usage leading to the three-fold increase we expect in the next year.”

From June 2013 to 2014, growth in Visa contactless use more than doubled, reaching a total value of almost £140million.

Transport for London’s contactless launch is the latest sign of increasing demand for digital payments. Visa is seeing growing usage, demand and interest in digital payments across Europe.