Contactless payments and Oyster extended to Dartford

Thousands of rail passengers are set for cheaper fares and more convenient journeys from Sunday 6 September as acceptance of contactless payments and Oyster is extended to pay as you go travel on Southeastern services to and from Dartford station.

The move is part of Transport for London's (TfL's) work to make life easier for customers, and will mean Dartford station moves into Zone 8, with customers able to use pay as you go and Zone 1-8 Travelcard season tickets. Customers using contactless payments to travel will pay the same fare as Oyster and, whether using Oyster or contactless payments, customers will make significant financial savings.

A standard anytime single fare for travel to Dartford is currently £8.40, but from Sunday the new pay as you go contactless payment or Oyster single fare will be £7.00 in the peak (saving £1.40) and £4.00 off peak (saving £4.40).

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: `Integrating the fares on this route with the wider TfL network makes perfect sense and ties in with our mission to make getting around our city easy for everyone, no matter where they live. I'm delighted that the great people of Dartford can now benefit from contactless payments and Oyster, which offer better fares and a more convenient way to travel.'

TfL's Director of Customer Experience, Shashi Verma, said: `This is just one of the many projects we are working on to make paying for transport easier for everyone travelling in the Capital and beyond. Over 20 per cent of our pay as you go customers use contactless payment already because it is so quick and easy. There's no need to top-up, you just touch in and out with your credit or debit card.'

Southeastern's Commercial Director, Mike Boden, said, `We're really pleased to be able to offer this service at Dartford station. The investment in this region will benefit a huge number of people and make it easier and cheaper to use our services.'

In March this year, TfL was named the fastest growing Visa contactless payments merchant in Europe. This was only six months after the launch of contactless payments on Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground, and most National Rail services in London. Contactless payments have been accepted on London Buses since December 2012. TfL developed the contactless technology needed to travel on its services in-house and is leading the way with over 157 million contactless journeys made on services since it launched in September 2014.

Notes to editors:

• Each day there are about 375,000 contactless journeys on Tube and Rail services and 250,000 on London Buses.
• One in ten contactless transactions in the UK are made on TfL's services, making TfL one of the largest contactless merchants worldwide.

 •Further fares are available on request.