Contactless rail expansion beyond London starts February after long delay
Plans to expand contactless and mobile travel beyond London are back after a September 2024 start date was cancelled.
A total of 47 stations will be able to take contactless card payments from next month at a number of Southeastern, Thameslink, LNWR, SWR and C2C stations beyond the capital.
Project Oval’s 47-station expansion was supposed to start on 22nd September last year but cancelled after TfL’s cyber incident. TfL had been given responsibility for the roll-out.
That September 2024 start date was already some time behind schedule under a project approved by the last government. Despite that the press release from the DfT today makes it sound like an initiative from the current government.
Whereas before we had Conservative buzzwords in their 2023 press release, now we have the new government’s buzzwords.
When finally fully rolled out the programme will cover 223 stations within the orange circle below.
Stations included in the next tranche starting on 2nd February include:
Southeastern and Thameslink
- Bat & Ball
- Dunton Green
- Eynsford
- Otford
- Sevenoaks
- Shoreham
C2C will see extensive coverage all the way to Southend and Shoeburyness.
- Basildon
- Benfleet
- Chalkwell
- East Tilbury
- Laindon
- Leigh-on-Sea
- Pitsea
- Shoeburyness
- Southend Central
- Southend East
- Stanford-le-Hope
- Thorpe Bay
- Tilbury Town
- West Horndon
- Westcliff
LNWR out of Euston will see these stations covered:
- Apsley
- Berkhamsted
- Bletchley
- Bricket Wood
- Cheddington
- Garston
- Hemel Hempstead
- How Wood
- King’s Langley
- Leighton Buzzard
- Park Street
- St. Albans Abbey
- Tring
- Watford North
SWR stations out of Waterloo include:
- Ashford
- Datchet
- Egham
- Kempton Park
- Shepperton
- Staines
- Sunbury
- Sunnymeads
- Upper Halliford
- Virginia Water
- Windsor & Eton Riverside
- Wraysbury
A further 49 stations are expected to go live later in 2025 including Greater Anglia stations.
