TFL has just announced
that Swanley railway station will have Pay As You Go Contactless and Oyster
card systems in order to have cheap fares for commuters going to Central
London.
From TFL Press release
Thousands
of rail passengers in north Kent are set for cheaper fares and more convenient
journeys from Wednesday 9 March as
pay as you go with contactless and Oyster is extended to Southeastern and
Thameslink services to and from Swanley.
Pay
as you go fares are cheaper than paper
tickets and are the same regardless whether you use a contactless payment
or an Oyster card. As part of the introduction, Swanley will also move into the
London zones for the first time, allowing customers to now use a Zone 1-8 Travelcard to complete their
journey.
The
extension of pay as you go to Swanley forms part of TfL's, Southeastern's and
Govia Thameslink Railway's (GTR's) wider work to make life easier for
customers.
Last
year, pay as you go was extended to
Dartford, with around 16,000 journeys now made using pay as you go with
contactless payment or Oyster cards from this station every week.
Extending
pay as you go to Swanley also means that a range of concessions, such as free
travel for children under 10 and veterans, will now also be available on
services into London.
A
standard anytime National Rail single fare from London to Swanley is currently
£8.80, but from 9 March the new pay as you go peak fare will be £7.10 (saving
£1.70) and £4.10 off peak (saving £4.70).
Currently,
a Day Travelcard from Swanley to Zones 1-6 costs £22.40 (anytime) or £13.60
(off-peak). With pay as you go the price of daily travel within Zones 1-8 is
capped at £15.20 (anytime) or £11.90 (off-peak).
Mayor
of London, Boris Johnson, said: 'Integrating the fares on this route with the
wider pay as you go 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 good people of Swanley will soon have the choice of paying
for travel with contactless payments and Oyster, which offer better fares and a
more convenient way to travel.'
Shashi
Verma, Director of Customer Experience at TfL, said: 'This is just one of the
many projects we are working on across London and the south east to help make
paying for transport easier for everyone.
'Pay
as you go has helped to completely revolutionise travel around London since it
launched, bringing cheaper, quicker travel to everyone.
'Furthermore,
more than 25% of all pay as you go
customers now use contactless payments because it is so convenient and easy.
There's no need to top-up, you just touch in and out with your credit or debit
card.'
Mike
Boden, Commercial Director at Southeastern said: 'We're really pleased to be
able to offer Oyster and contactless from Swanley station. The investment in
this project will benefit many people and will offer more choice as to how to
pay for our services.
'By
offering Oyster card and contactless payment technology, we can provide a more
seamless journey for commuters in Swanley who travel into the Capital.'
Stuart
Cheshire, Thameslink's Passenger Service Director, said: 'Thameslink passengers
at Swanley will welcome this move to further modernise our network. Moving away
from paper tickets is the way forward.'
Adult National Rail only fares
|
||
Pay as you go single
|
||
Zones
|
Peak
|
Off-peak
|
Zones 1- Swanley
|
£7.10
|
£4.10
|
Zones 2 - Swanley
|
£5.90
|
£3.50
|
Zones 3 - Swanley
|
£4.80
|
£2.80
|
Zones 4 - Swanley
|
£4.00
|
£2.30
|
Zones 5 - Swanley
|
£3.30
|
£2.10
|
Zones 6 - Swanley
|
£2.50
|
£1.70
|
What I'd also like to
add is that Freedom Pass users have free travel to and from Swanley station, just like Dartford Railway
station as it was not part of the London Travelcard zone and is currently
outside the Greater London boundary.
As TFL and Railway
operators are enabling contactless payments at the railway stations, this is a
step forward towards the ‘cashless
society’. The use of Oyster/Contactless Payment is expanding on National
Rail as we see the expansion of stations as far as Hertford East and Gatwick
Airport. So in my personal view, why not expand the usage of the Oyster system
to the old entire Network SouthEast?
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Related
article:
Image attribution
By Sunil060902 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7117307
