Half of all Tube and rail pay as you go journeys are now regularly made using contactless payment cards or mobile devices, the latest figures from Transport for London (TfL) reveal.

The convenient payment method, which launched on buses in London in December 2012 and across Tube and rail services in London in September 2014, is now being used to make around 17 million journeys a week across London. This is important when you consider how many people commute in the city and are always in a hurry. Being able to use efficient transport means that people can still look to purchase a home with estate agents wimbledon whilst commuting across the city to areas like Westminister. The introduction of contactless is a reflection of the transportation systems dedication to being efficient. Since it launched, more than 1.7 billion journeys have been made across the capital, showing how Londoners and visitors have taken to using contactless payments as part of their daily life. Businesses who aren’t offering contactless payment options just yet may wish to consider looking into it, as this could well become a payment method that people expect to see in the future. The number of journeys made in London using contactless has risen from around 25 per cent just two years ago. On buses and trams, the use of contactless is also increasing rapidly – with around 45 per cent of all pay as you go journeys now being made using contactless.

Other key figures released today by TfL include:

• While half of all pay as you go journeys across London are now made using contactless payments, a number of stations, including Blackfriars, Shoreditch High Street, Canary Wharf and Clapham Common, are consistently seeing more that 60 per cent of all pay as you go journeys made using contactless. Close to half a million contactless pay as you go journeys are made from Oxford Circus every week – the equivalent of 50 cards touching in every minute.
• Contactless journeys made using mobile devices continue to increase, with around one in eight contactless journeys in London now being made using a mobile phone or smart device.
• On the London bus network, the most popular bus route for using contactless is the route 521 from Waterloo station to London Bridge station via Holborn, which regularly sees more than 60 per cent of all pay as you go journeys being made using contactless.
• London’s airports where pay as you go is accepted continue to see a growing proportion of contactless journeys made from both UK and overseas customers. More than 35 per cent of pay as you go journeys from Heathrow airport, more than 40 per cent of pay as you go journeys from London City Airport and more than 55 per cent of pay as you go journeys from Gatwick airport towards London are now made using contactless.