TfL Ref: FOI-2706-2021 Thank you for your request of 26th March 2021 asking for a split of customer payment methods and usage for each sector of TFL. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. Specifically you asked: “I would like to put in a freedom of information request please, to find out the split of customer payment methods and usage for each sector of TFL (underground, bus etc) I would like to know please the split there of: Number and percentage of unique users per year 2018,19,20 The split of those totals for each method of entry/payment for journeys using Oyster card, Contactless (bank card, phone etc), tickets, season passes and pre paid tickets. This would be for the number of journeys in a specific year and the number of unique users per specific year.” I can confirm that we hold the information you require. TfL estimates that in 2018/19 over 55 million individual Oyster cards/contactless payment cards (CPCs – which include smartcards as well as smart devices) were used (49% Oyster 51% CPC). In 2019/20 this had risen to around 60 million cards (43% Oyster and 57% CPC). The coronavirus pandemic reduced travel demand to around 20 million cards in 2020/21 (38% Oyster and 62% CPC). Both Oyster and CPC can be used on Buses and Trams, London Underground (LU), London Overground, TfL Rail, Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and National Rail services. We do not routinely collect data on how many unique cards are used on each service as it is not always possible to determine which rail mode was used for certain journeys. As a result, the card number estimates above include cards that may be exclusively used on National Rail services in addition to those seen on TfL modes. Oyster can hold a variety of products: Pay As You Go (PAYG - valid on all modes), Bus and Tram passes (valid only on Bus and Tram) and Travelcard seasons (valid on all modes within the zones of the Travelcard). Individual cards may use more than one product for a journey and may use a variety of products over the course of a year. These are the journeys records validated using CPC or Oyster in the last 3 years: Bus (000s) 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 Oyster PAYG 402,892 362,185 145,619 CPC PAYG 367,337 426,014 214,485 Oyster Bus & Tram Pass 251,394 222,997 94,946 Oyster Travelcard season 321,693 274,498 61,515 Underground/DLR (000s) 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 Oyster PAYG 392,381 350,929 71,226 CPC PAYG 438,184 499,995 135,521 Oyster Travelcard season 313,661 264,864 41,038 All other rail services (including TfL Rail, London Overground and National Rail) (000s) 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 Oyster PAYG 136,211 125,625 38,196 CPC PAYG 175,215 205,237 68,662 Oyster Travelcard season 136,884 120,240 23,255 If this is not the information you are looking for please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed. Yours sincerely, David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London