Labour’s London Assembly Member Val Shawcross is reported as pointing up a discrepancy between pay as you go (PAYG) Oyster cards and contactless bank cards, claiming that Transport for London (TfL) has introduced weekly caps on contactless cards, while only daily caps apply on Oyster.
TfL says the same fares apply to both contactless and Oyster.
Labour party analysts evidently found that passengers using PAYG fares travelling between zones 4 and 7 during peak-time seven days a week would pay £137.20, while those using contactless for the same journeyswould spend £29.40.
Likewise, travel through zones 1-4 over seven days would cost PAYG commuters £74.20 while contactless payment users would be charged £45.
Ms Shawcross told the BBC that London Mayor Boris Johnson had broken an assurance that Oyster would always be the cheapest way to travel.
Almost half a million Londoners didn’t have a bank account let alone a contactless card, she said.
Transport for London insists that the same fares apply to both contactless and Oyster, pointing out that if a customer used contactless for a week within zones 4 to 7 they would have their fare capped at £29.40, the same fare that would be charged for someone buying a weekly Travelcard on their Oyster card for zones 4 to 7.
