On 21/11/2013 12:55, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 12:40:32 on Thu, 21 Nov
2013, Mizter T remarked:
Re the ticketing - the crucial change will be the acceptance of
Contactless Payment Cards (CPCs - e.g. Visa payWave) on the Tube. This
will I think lead to a fairly revolutionary change (with the
significant caveat that many passengers won't have access to a CPC),
but it'll only really make sense if NR in London also accepts CPCs in
the same manner.

Do you happen to know if they've started accepting foreign issued and
prepaid CPCs yet? This is of course of some importance to tourists,
especially since the move towards prepaid card for the issuing of
foreign exchange.

TfL hasn't actually got a policy of not accepting foreign issued CPCs on
buses, rather they just promote the scheme as accepting UK-issued
contactless credit/debit/charge cards because they can't guarantee
foreign issued ones will work.

See this PDF from TfL - "Using contactless payment cards
on buses":
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/tickets/Using_contactless_payment_cards_on_buses.pdf

---quote---
Most contactless payment cards (CPCs) issued by UK banks and payment
card companies will be accepted on buses but some cards issued outside
the UK will not.
---/quote---


FWIW, I've read reports elsewhere that foreign issued CPCs have worked
just fine on buses.

I can't offer any insight into when TfL will be able to offer an
assurance that foreign issued CPCs will work, ditto for (UK or foreign
issued) prepaid cards, for I don't know any more than that.

As I said earlier, I think CPCs will likely change the ticketing picture
significantly, but they're certainly not some magic solve-all solution.
I wonder if the Tube sans ticket offices proposal is perhaps a bit
before its time - that said, others have suggested that public transport
ticketing might be the real driver that leads to widespread adoption and
usage of contactless cards.