UK: The previously-announced expansion of contactless pay-as-you-go payment to a further 20 Greater Anglia stations including the key destination of Stansted Airport has been delayed until ‘summer 2026’.
PAYG with contactless bank cards and devices will be available at 30 more Chiltern, Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern stations from December 14 2025. However the planned simultaneous roll-out at 20 Greater Anglia stations, including those serving Stansted and Southend airports, has been postponed.
Issues identified in testing
On December 3 the Rail Delivery Group which manages the national rail fare system on behalf of train operators said ‘for pay-as-you-go with contactless to work correctly, train company fares must be fully integrated with Transport for London’s fare system. During rigorous testing, the system identified issues affecting journeys on Greater Anglia services. These issues meant customers would not get the experience they should, and the technology would not have worked as intended. To make sure customers get the best possible experience, additional work is required.’
Rail Business UK understands the issue would would have affected the price paid for travel on Greater Anglia services.
Greater Anglia’s Managing Director Martin Beable said ‘I am very sorry for the disappointment this will cause some of our customers. It is essential, however, that contactless ticketing works reliably from day one. Our teams are working closely with our partners to complete this work as quickly as possible, and we remain committed to introducing contactless ticketing across these additional stations by summer 2026.’
‘Not ideal’ says watchdog
Watchdog body London TravelWatch said it had been calling for the expansion of PAYG for several years, and ‘it’s not ideal that passengers will find they have to wait even longer.’
PAYG can already be used to London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton Airport Parkway stations, and there have been problems with passengers wrongly assuming it can also be used to Stansted.
London TravelWatch urged train operators to ensure that communications about the delay are ‘clear and honest’ so that people don’t ‘continue to get caught out when travelling to the airport.’
- RDG said that from December 7, some passengers may notice ‘small changes’ in fares for journeys into the London travel zones 1-9 in preparation for the introduction of contactless PAYG.
