Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, speaking about the rollout of contactless payment (‘wave and pay’) to Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London, said:
“Providing an additional form of payment for passengers is welcome, as long as it is nothing more than an additional form of payment and people are not pushed into having to use it.
“Many people will quite rightly want to stick with their travelcards. Other people will have no desire to start using contactless payment due to the risk of ‘card clash’.
“But most importantly we should not overlook the many people who use Oyster PAYG out of real necessity. There are still hundreds of thousands of households who have no access to a bank account and therefore rely on Oyster PAYG whenever they travel.
“There are also people who at the start of the week simply don’t have enough money at hand to buy even a weekly bus pass. Why should these people be denied a weekly cap on their fares, when people using contactless payment will now have one?
“The Mayor has already broken a long standing pledge that Oyster will always provide the cheapest fare option. We are now in the situation where we have a weekly cap on fares for people using contactless payment, but this is denied to people who rely on Oyster PAYG. That is unfair and penalising some of the poorest Londoners who either have no bank account facilities, or simply do not have enough money to pay upfront for a weekly or monthly pass.
“The Mayor has had many years to ensure equity of fares exists between Oyster and contactless payment, but he completely failed to ensure this is the case. Providing cheaper fares to people using contactless payment sets a dubious precedent for fares in the future.”