'Wave and pay' bus journeys in London hit 1 million mark

Date: 11/4/2013

One million journeys have now been made on London's buses using the contactless 'wave and pay' system since it was introduced in December 2012, (TfL) Transport for London has revealed.

The scheme involves passengers using their debit, credit or charge card to pay for their travel, and figures show that the service has been growing in popularity as an increasing number of people have taken advantage of the scheme.

According to the statistics, a total of 2,061 travellers made 2,586 journeys using the contactless payment method on the first day it was available.

And with that figure having risen to the point where as many as 10,000 people make up to 16,000 wave and pay journeys in the capital every day, TfL has hailed the early success of its initiative.

Shashi Verma, TfL's Director of Customer Experience, said: "It is fantastic that we've already seen a million bus journeys made using a contactless payment cards and it's a great sign that our customers are keen to benefit from this technology.

"We are now working hard to roll contactless payments out to the rest of the transport network."

The inspiration behind the scheme is to improve the travel experience by removing the need to constantly top-up Oyster cards or fumble for change when boarding a bus, and Sandra Alzetta, Senior Vice President at Visa Europe, added that the initial signs are promising.

"[The] milestone is further validation that contactless payment is a convenience consumers really appreciate," she commented.

With TfL revealing that around 1,000 new contactless payment cards are used on London's buses every day, the statistics show that a growing number of people are using the service for the first time.

And with plans to roll out the service on the Tube, DLR, London Overground and trams at the end of the year, TfL is also aiming to implement the daily and weekly price capping of fares for people who use contactless payment cards.

Posted by Sarah Bailey

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