Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, has secured its contract with Transport for London (TFL) for another seven years, with an option to extend a further three years.
The renewed partnership will see Barclaycard support the launch of the Elizabeth Line and help introduce contactless payments for train travel beyond London. It will also assist in delivering one of the UK’s largest payment infrastructure projects to expand outside of the nation’s capital.
“Contactless payments have completely transformed the way people pay for travel in London, with more than 800 million journeys already made and around 1.8 million journeys being made every day. This new 10-year contract will help ensure these numbers continue to grow while also providing support to allow us to develop our ticketing system even further.” says Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London.
Barclaycard introduced the first contactless payment card in September 2007. Since 2012, London buses began accepting contactless debit and credit cards as a means of payment, combining the functionality of the oyster card with a visa enabled payment.
In 2015, Apple Pay became accepted on TFL as well as other contactless methods of device payments. Since January 2016, contactless spending on travel extended from tube stations to cover rail services between London and Gatwick. Over three million contactless journeys have been made on these services since their introduction.
Since the launch of contactless payments, TFL has seen the number of transactions using tap and go increase significantly. Contactless now represents one in four payments of all transactions in the UK.
“We have used our five decades of experience in payments technology to help London become a world-leader in transport ticketing.” adds Paulette Rowe, Managing Director of Barclaycard Payment Solutions.
The introduction of contactless payments has revolutionised travel in and out of the Capital, making paying for journeys quicker and easier for both everyday commuters and the millions of tourists who visit the city each year. We’re looking forward to embarking on the next phase of our partnership with TfL to roll-out a range of new technology initiatives in London and beyond.”
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