Transport for London (TfL)’s contactless ticketing technology will soon be used in other cities around the world thanks to a GBP 15 million licensing agreement. London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledged to freeze fares in the capital earlier this year, “I made a firm commitment to sell Transport for London’s expertise around the globe. We will use the income from those deals for further investment in new infrastructure and to freeze TfL fares.”
Another reason for TfL needing to generate more revenue is that financial support from central government is also being decreased.
Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) will combine TfL’s technology with other systems to make it easier for mass transit operators to let passengers pay using contactless cards and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay.
Shashi Verma, TfL CTO said “We’re delighted to have agreed this licensing deal with Cubic Transportation Systems to introduce our contactless payment system to other world cities. Contactless payments have completely transformed the way people pay for travel in London and this deal will allow other world cities to benefit from the hard work we put into making the system work for our customers.”
CTS has worked with TfL since 2003, introducing the pre-payment Oyster card in 2003 and helping London buses, tubes and rail services support contactless (NFC) debit and credit cards since 2012.
Over the past four years, more than half a billion journeys have been paid using contactless and one tenth of all contactless transactions in the UK take place on the capital’s transport networks.
CTS works with authorities in Sydney, Brisbane, Vancouver and Chicago among others and says the licensing agreement is the first of many set to be agreed.
Matthew Cole, president of CTS said “The challenges of mobility in 21st century cities – including access for all, inclusion, environmental concerns and the pressure of ever-growing populations – can only be met through cooperation and partnership,” and added “No single entity has all the answers and this agreement between Cubic and TfL sets a new standard in public/private partnerships for addressing these issues, and acknowledges the success of account-based payment for transit for which there is clear interest from many cities across the world.”
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