One billion contactless transactions will be made on London’s transport network in 2019
Intelligenttransport March 2019
According to TfL, London hit an accumulated total of 1 billion contactless payments in 2017. Contactless was first introduced to London’s transport in September of 2014, and in less than four years it was already set to overtake oyster journeys.
It is predicted that this pattern will continue with 1.5 billion contactless journeys estimated to be made by 2025.
£400m unclaimed on Transport for London Oyster cards
BBC November 2019
Oyster used to be the go-to way of paying for travel around London, but 66 million of the blue plastic cards haven’t been used in at least a year. And while they languish forgotten in drawers, bags, and wallets, Transport for London (TfL) has amassed a fortune in unclaimed balances and deposits – now worth almost £400m.
Oyster card to Contactless card conversion is basically a London card to the US credit cards.
1 billion payments on average of £4.90, mean £4.9 billion transaction business giveaway to Visa/Mastercard of United States.
Account-base ticketing is basically American-based ticketing.
Conclusion
London has missed a big chance to develop its own cashless payment industry with the strong user base of the Oyster card.
London did not learn from the success of the Octopus Card of Hong Kong, used to be a British colony before 1997. Octopus Card has been the most popular cashless payment from transportation to retail markets despite the challenge of traditional credit cards and the new Alipay from China.
UK should give up the tradition as a follower of the US and it is time for the UK to rebuild its identity. Effort should be spent on technology innovation such as to make Oyster card a true mobile payment system supporting all IOS and Android phones.
The author has over 19 years of experience in the automated fare collection industry. The latest development of mobile wallets is worth looking into. To learn more, please visit mobileafc.net