TfL
and Cubic agree to license the use
of London Transport's contactless ticketing system worldwide.
From TFL Press release
Transport
for London (TfL) has announced its world-class contactless ticketing system is
set to be used by other major cities across the globe as part of a deal worth
up to £15m, which will be used to help deliver a fares freeze that the Mayor of
London, Sadiq Khan has announced across TfL services for the next four years.
TfL
signed a deal today (13 July 2016) with Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS), a
business unit of Cubic Corporation (NYSE:CUB), allowing them to adapt the capital's contactless ticketing
system worldwide. It is the first of a number of planned agreements to sell
TfL's expertise both at home and abroad - a key manifesto commitment for the
Mayor.
The
licence will grant CTS access to London's contactless system, allowing it to be
specifically tailored for other world cities' transport systems.
The Mayor of London,
Sadiq Khan, said:
'I
made a firm commitment to sell Transport for London's expertise around the
globe. We will use the income from those deals for further investment in new infrastructure and to freeze TfL
fares.'
TfL
and CTS have a long-running partnership, having worked together to introduce
the Oyster card system in 2003 as well as working together with the UK card
industry to make TfL the first public transport provider in the world to accept
contactless payment cards. The contactless payment system was first launched on
London's buses in December 2012 and expanded to cover Tube and rail services in
London in September 2014.
Since
then, more than 500 million journeys
have been made by more than 12 million unique credit and debit cards from 90
different countries, as well as using contactless-enabled mobile devices.
Around one in 10 contactless transactions in the UK are made on TfL's network,
making it one of the largest contactless merchants worldwide.
Outside
London, CTS also provides smartcard
ticketing technology to a number of world cities, including Sydney, Brisbane,
Vancouver and Chicago. This new non-exclusive agreement will also enable
them to combine the best features from the London and other Cubic systems and
make them available to other cities across the globe.
Shashi Verma, Chief
Technology Officer and Director of Customer Experience at TfL said:
'We're
delighted to have agreed this licensing deal with Cubic Transportation Systems
to introduce our contactless payment system to other world cities. Contactless
payments have completely transformed the way people pay for travel in London
and this deal will allow other world cities to benefit from the hard work we
put into making the system work for our customers.'
Matthew Cole,
president of Cubic Transportation Systems, said:
'The
challenges of mobility in 21st century cities - including access for all,
inclusion, environmental concerns and the pressure of ever-growing populations
- can only be met through cooperation and partnership. No single entity has all
the answers and this agreement between Cubic and TfL sets a new standard in
public/private partnerships for addressing these issues, and acknowledges the
success of account-based payment for transit for which there is clear interest
from many cities across the world.'
This looks
interesting; it shows that London Transport is leading the way with innovation
and technology. With the growth of the smartcard
ticketing system around the world, the contactless bank cards are a step
forward towards cashless society.
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