NFC TIMES Exclusive – At least 13,000 buses in the UK outside of London now accept open-loop contactless payments, and more rollouts are underway as part of a plan by UK bus operators to roll out contactless on all 32,000 buses operating in the UK outside of the capital, NFC Times has learned.
Following launch of contactless acceptance on more than 8,000 buses by London transit authority Transport for London in late 2012, bus companies in other parts of the UK have been rolling out acceptance, including Britain’s largest bus operator, Stagecoach, which told NFC Times that its contactless rollouts were on target for completion in by December. Implementations have already been completed at Stagecoach operating companies in 15 locations around England, Scotland, and Wales, with three more scheduled for completion in the final months of 2018.
The rollouts completed so far account for about 6,200 of Stagecoach’s total 7,200 buses, which carry a combined 500 million passengers per year. And about 30% of the trips on Stagecoach buses are paid for with open-loop contactless cards or card credentials on NFC devices, a Stagecoach representative told NFC Times.
