{"id":650842,"date":"2025-12-23T18:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/650842\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T18:00:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:00:56","slug":"explained-how-tfl-plans-to-change-londons-tube-and-bus-ticketing-system-and-upgrade-oyster-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/650842\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: how TfL plans to change London’s Tube and bus ticketing system and upgrade Oyster card"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WEST<\/p>\n

But, setting aside the political arguments about the other business activities of the likely new contractor, the Spanish<\/a> firm Indra Group , what changes could be in store for passengers?<\/p>\n

This is what we know about TfL<\/a>\u2019s plans \u2013 and what they could mean for millions of journeys taken on the capital\u2019s transport system each day.<\/p>\n

Why is TfL changing contractor?<\/p>\n

In November 2022, TfL put its ticketing contract out to tender \u2013 as it does with many contracts every year. <\/p>\n

Its current deal with US firm Cubic was in its final period and TfL wanted to set new targets in response to changing travel habits and continued technological advances.<\/p>\n

Spanish firm Indra was reported in October to have won the contract \u2013 but at present it remains the preferred bidder, rather than the confirmed new contractor, as a legal challenge against TfL\u2019s procurement process has been mounted by Cubic.<\/p>\n

Who will benefit from the changes?<\/p>\n

Known as Project Proteus, the tender documents make clear TfL\u2019s desire to make technology work better for passengers \u2013 and keep London at the forefront of innovation.<\/p>\n

The Proteus contract is for \u201crevenue collection services\u201d and seeks a firm able to \u201ctake over, operate and maintain the TfL fare collection system; provide the associated revenue collection services; and, in partnership with TfL, develop, enhance and expand these to meet future needs\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Contactless bank cards are used to pay for millions of TfL journeys every day<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

One of the biggest benefits will be to passengers who use a mix of Contactless card, smart watch and smartphone to pay for their travel.<\/p>\n

At present, passengers who use different devices or different cards \u2013 such as a Contactless bank card and then an Oyster card<\/a> \u2013 cannot benefit from daily and weekly price capping.<\/p>\n

They also run the risk of incurring a maximum fare surcharge if they accidentally use a different card or device to touch in at the start of their journey and to touch out through the barriers at the end of their journey.<\/p>\n

Under TfL\u2019s plans, the system will be upgraded to enable \u201cinterchangeable use of payment devices\u201d by linking mobile phones and smart watches to the same bank account.<\/p>\n

This will mean that, regardless of which device is used to tap on the card reader at the ticket barrier, all fares will count towards that passenger\u2019s daily or weekly cap.<\/p>\n

Will the Oyster card be scrapped?<\/p>\n

No \u2013 TfL is committed to retaining the Oyster card, even though it is now more than two decades old.<\/p>\n

But there will be changes to the Oyster system, which at present is a \u201cclosed\u201d system. <\/p>\n

TfL wants the new contractor to \u201cmake Oyster an account-based system\u201d \u2013 which means the data will be held on a server or \u201ccloud\u201d network, not on the card itself.<\/p>\n

While many passengers do register their Oyster card with TfL, and benefit from Auto top-up, others choose to keep their Oyster cards unregistered. This means if the card is lost then there is no way of recovering any cash held on the card.<\/p>\n

How long will the new contract last?<\/p>\n

The contract is for a basic seven years, with several extensions possible if both sides agree. This could extend it to 12 years, and be worth up to \u00a31.5bn (at 2022 prices).<\/p>\n

However, the contract tender was published three years ago, in the aftermath of the pandemic, when it was unclear how travel trends would change.<\/p>\n

This means that some aspects of the new contract are almost certain to differ from those envisaged in 2022.<\/p>\n

How long has the Oyster card been around?<\/p>\n

The Oyster card was introduced by TfL in 2003, during Ken Livingstone\u2019s first term as London mayor. <\/p>\n

Cubic, which was part of the TransSys consortium that delivered Oyster, can trace its involvement in the London Underground back to 1989, when it installed ticket barriers.<\/p>\n

The Oyster card began life via a 17-year PFI project known as Prestige. The contract was worth \u00a3100m and was meant to last until 2015, but TfL terminated it in 2010 and took ownership of the Oyster brand for \u00a31m. Cubic became the main contractor running the system.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Oyster card celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023<\/p>\n

TfL<\/p>\n

In 2012, TfL became the first transport authority in the world to accept Contactless payments<\/a>. About 80 per cent of journeys are now paid using Contactless, with the use of Oyster cards in decline.<\/p>\n

TfL struck a licensing deal with Cubic that allowed the firm to introduce Contactless ticketing to other cities including Sydney, Brisbane, Miami, Boston, Vancouver and Chicago.<\/p>\n

In 2022, TfL won the contract to expand the Contactless network to hundreds of train stations in the South-East outside of Greater London, with Cubic as its subcontractor. This initiative is known as Project Oval.<\/p>\n

It recently hit problems when the proposed expansion to Stansted airport, and other stations on the Greater Anglia train network, was delayed until next summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But, setting aside the political arguments about the other business activities of the likely new contractor, the Spanish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,60281,393,4884,257,1145,199232,1264,1261,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-650842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-contactless-payments","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-londoners","14":"tag-oyster-card","15":"tag-tfl","16":"tag-tube","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115770195781955667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}