If you’re one of the legions of people commuting and travelling across our city every day, you’ve no doubt got your preferred ticketing tekkers. You could be a die-hard physical ticket holder, or you might tap your phone at the ticket gates everywhere you go. Regardless, there’s one iconic ticketing solution that is iconically ‘London’, but often felt in need of an upgrade: the Oyster card. But changes are coming, and the Oyster could soon become everyone’s ticketing solution of choice again.
The Oyster card has a lot of benefits for Londoners and tourists alike. It provides a way to track your travel across the city, and you can even get refunds for incorrect journeys or for accidentally tapping in wrong. Plus, it’s fairly easy to top up and keep track of how much money you’re spending as you travel around the capital.
But in a world of contactless payment and people tapping their phone to get onto the Tube or bus, it’s bizarre that there is no option to load the Oyster onto your phone. Instead, you have to carry the physical card around with you at all times. (And no doubt lose it a few times, too!) However, that could all be changing soon.
Updated Oyster and Contactless systems
Transport for London recently announced that it had awarded a new seven-year contract to Indra Group to operate TfL’s revenue collection system. This includes “the operation, maintenance, development, enhancement and expansion of the Oyster and contactless ticketing systems”. That means they’ll be in charge of keeping it all running smoothly, whilst also looking ahead to update and improve everything.
There are big plans in store, with even more of London’s stations set to become contactless, and the introduction of “an account-based ticketing system onto the Oyster card”. But the change we’re most excited about is the announcement that improvements could include “customers being able to load an Oyster card onto a mobile phone, as well as potentially further innovative enhancements, in the future.”
That’s right, folks, we could finally be getting digital Oyster cards! And with over 90% of Tube and bus journeys being made with Oyster or contactless systems, it just makes sense to combine the two worlds.
The digital Oyster cards will be a particular boon for railcard users. Currently, if you want to connect your railcard to your Oyster to net yourself a discount on travel, there is no contactless way to claim your discount. A digital Oyster card would allow young people, disabled people, and older travellers to make their way around London cheaply and conveniently.
Nothing has been confirmed yet, but we’re feeling optimistic!
Read TfL’s full announcement about the new contract with Indra Group here.