Barclaycard Secures 10-Year Contract With TfL To Deliver Contactless Payments

Barclaycard has secured a ten year merchant contract with Transport for London (TfL), which will see it continue to provide the payment infrastructure for Tube, rail and bus travel around London.

The contract builds upon the long-standing relationship between the two organisations which has spanned two decades so far.

London’s contactless

The bolstered partnership will see Barclaycard focus on not only supporting the payments infrastructure for the TfL as its network grows, but also look to bring contactless payments for train travel beyond the confines of the capital.

Another key part of the deal will be Barclaycard’s support of the launch of the Elizabeth line, which will run from Reading to Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east when it launches in 2019.

Barclaycard will also continue to support the adoption of contactless payments for travel across London; so far 39 percent of the pay-as-you-go transactions are carried out through the use of contactless payments, indicating there is a growing appetite for the technology.

“Contactless payments have completely transformed the way people pay for travel in London, with more than 800 million journeys already made and around 1.8 million journeys being made every day. This new 10-year contract will help ensure these numbers continue to grow while also providing support to allow us to develop our ticketing system even further,” said Shashi Verma, chief technology officer at TfL.

The adoption of contactless payments has been prolific, despite potential risks to cards being stolen and taken on a shopping spree of low-cost transactions; the UK has been a leader in contactless payment adoption.

And the growth of adoption has been significant and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon, given the rise of Apple Pay and Android Pay facilitating contactless payments via credit card details saved on smartphones.

Are you a mobile payments aficionado? Take our quiz!