London Finds Increase in Transit Contactless Payments Boost Mobile Wallets

Transport for London (TfL) revealed July 6 that its passengers have made more than 1 billion journeys using contactless payment cards, a 15% increase from a year ago.  This growth underscores consumers growing willingness to embrace alternative payment methods.

Roughly 400 million of pay-as-you-go trips, which enable travelers to pay for their trips while they travel, were paid for with contactless payment. Although contactless cards are the most used contactless payment method for riders, mobile wallets are starting to gain traction. More than 31 million journeys were made using mobile phones, representing nearly one in 10 contactless transactions.

Last year, TfL signed a deal worth up to £15 million (US$19.4 million) with Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) enabling the company to adapt the city’s contactless ticketing system worldwide. It’s the first of a number of planned agreements to sell TfL’s expertise both at home and abroad, according to TfL.

Since then, CTS has progressed discussions with a number of world cities, including Sydney and Miami, to introduce contactless ticketing technology to their transport networks in the future.

This trend should promote the use of contactless payments in the U.S. mass transit systems. Americans took 10.6 billion trips on public transportation in 2015, according to the American Public. Nearly 80% of US transit riders would be willing to pay more per ride for a completely paperless trip, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.