TfL to accept Apple Pay on public transport

08 June 2015
Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed Apple Pay can be used on London's public transport system when it launches in the UK next month.
"With around one in ten of all contactless transactions in the UK now taking place on our transport services in London, we are delighted to welcome Apple Pay as another new and convenient contactless way for our customers to pay for their travel. I would encourage anyone who uses pay as you go to try contactless. There's no need to top-up, just touch in and out with your mobile device, credit or debit card"
Shashi Verma
Director of Customer Experience, TfL

TfL was the first public transport provider to accept contactless payment cards and will continue this record of innovation by becoming the first to accept Apple Pay. TfL developed the contactless technology needed to travel on its services in-house and is leading the way with over 100 million contactless journeys made on its services since it launched in September 2014.

One in ten contactless transactions in the UK are made on TfL's network, making TfL one of the largest contactless merchants worldwide and over four million unique credit or debit cards have been used on TfL services so far. More than 1.2 million contactless transactions are made each day on TfL services - representing 17 per cent of pay as you go journeys. This high level of take up continues to drive the use of contactless elsewhere in the retail, food and leisure industry.

TfL's Director of Customer Experience, Shashi Verma, said:

'With around one in ten of all contactless transactions in the UK now taking place on our transport services in London, we are delighted to welcome Apple Pay as another new and convenient contactless way for our customers to pay for their travel. I would encourage anyone who uses pay as you go to try contactless. There's no need to top-up, just touch in and out with your mobile device, credit or debit card.'

For more information on Apple Pay, visit: http://www.apple.com/uk/apple-pay/

Contactless is a quick and easy way to get around on transport services in London. It removes the need for customers to top up, and is a secure means of paying for travel with multiple layers of security protecting against fraud.

Customers using contactless pay the same adult-rate pay as you go fare as Oyster and benefit from having their fares capped - this automatically calculates the best value for their contactless travel in a day or over a seven-day period from Monday to Sunday.

The top five London Underground stations for contactless payments are Oxford Circus, Kings Cross, London Bridge, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf.

Oyster will continue to be available, with contactless payments being another option that lets customers travel without the need to top-up their Oyster credit. The next part of TfL's plans to revolutionise ticketing concentrate on how the benefits of contactless can be brought to Oyster, to ensure all customers experience the same convenience.

More information on contactless payments can be found at www.tfl.gov.uk/contactless

 

Notes to Editors:

  • Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay. When a credit or debit card is added to Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on the device. Each transaction is authorised with a one-time unique dynamic security code
  • Contactless payments were launched on London's buses in December 2012 and on Tube and rail services in September 2014
  • It is not a requirement for customers to sign up for an online account and register their credit or debit card to travel but it is encouraged. Customers are able to view 12 months of journey and payment history while unregistered customers will only be able to access their history for the last 7 days from a one-off log in on the TfL website or via TfL Customer Services (0343 222 1234)
  • For customers making several rail journeys or a mixture of rail, bus and tram journeys in one day, capping is usually better value than buying a Day Travelcard. The Monday to Sunday cap is available for journeys made between 0430 on Monday and 0429 the following Monday
  • Monday to Sunday capping is calculated by analysing the cumulative daily totals as the week progresses and applying a Monday to Sunday cap when appropriate. To benefit from Monday to Sunday capping, customers must:
  • Use the same contactless device or payment card for each journey
  • Make sure they touch in on the yellow card reader at the start of each journey and touch out at the end of all rail journeys
  • Start using their contactless payment card or device on a Monday for maximum benefit
  • Monday to Sunday capping always calculates your week of travel from a Monday and finishes on the following Sunday
  • TfL's card reader technology was built by Cubic Transportation Systems. The back-office processing infrastructure was built in-house within TfL.