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The UK rail network already supports QR codes, with the busiest station handling over 80M entries/exits per year. Meanwhile, the integrated subway/overground/b
by scoot 2y ago
The UK rail network already supports QR codes, with the busiest station handling over 80M entries/exits per year.
Meanwhile, the integrated subway/overground/bus network in London supports direct payment with NFC smartphones, without the need for an intermediate "smart" paper ticket; the infrastructure for vending those; or the (not insignificant) cost of producing the tickets. Not sure what Montreal was thinking!
- PaulRobinson 2y agoEven better, London doesn’t need NFC smartphones: if you have a chip bank card with a chip for tap payments, just tap that. For those of us with smart watches, they do the metro fast pay thing as well, so I literally just tap my watch without having to press anything or get anything out of my pocket. If my watch battery is dead, I can just a bank card. The only advantage to having Oyster is if you’re travelling enough to justify a monthly pass (daily and weekly caps are respected on bank card taps), or longer. I travel a lot across North America and EMEA, always glad to get home and deal with London’s transport network: it’s the only one that is really designed around, built for and feels invested in the passenger experience.
- scoot 2y agoGood point, the choices are: smartphone, smart watch, physical bank card (credit or debit), and pre-paid "Oyster" card (think pre-paid debit card specific to the London public transport network), and, yes, legacy paper mag-stripe tickets.