In about two weeks, Transport for London expects to record its one-millionth ride paid for by contactless bank cards, and the authority says it’s on track to hit its deadline for launching open-loop fare collection on the rest of its transit network, including the busy London Underground, by the end of the year.
But Transport for London, which in December became the first major transit authority in the world to launch acceptance of contactless credit and debit cards, appears to have no plans to introduce mobile NFC services anytime soon.
“Despite all of the work that we’ve done with NFC, the infrastructure of the mobile industry has not caught up with the contactless (card) payments areas of banks yet,” said Peter Lewis, external initiatives manager for Transport for London, who was speaking at the NFCP Global Summit conference Friday in London. “So, I don’t see mobile being an effective use in the world I’ve just described for some time yet, until more phones are in people’s pockets and until it’s fast enough to achieve the time scales and get people through gates, as well.”
