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Project Oval is a project led by the Department of Transport to expand contactless pay as you go ticketing to National Rail stations in the South East of England.
PAYG ticketing in London started in January 2004 when the PAYG functionality on Oyster cards was rolled out, which was a new, faster and more convenient method to pay for transport fares in London, compared to traditional paper tickets. After it was introduced, its use gradually increased with the expansion of validity and gained the majority of market share for the payment method of transport fares.
Since 16 September 2014, contactless payment cards where offered as an alternative to Oyster cards for the payment of fares in the Oyster area, with the same method of usage and same fares charged. [1] [2]
Since then, contactless cards started to displace Oyster cards in the market share of payment, and the use of cash and paper tickets further declined, that cash fares on buses and trams were eventually withdrawn. Also, more and more stations around London are added into the Oyster area, and communities just outside the Oyster area call for their local stations to be included as well. [3] [4]
As Oyster cards are an old system which has already run into its limitation in expansion (it can only handle 15 zones), since August 2019, new stations added into the PAYG system no longer accepts Oyster card, but only contactless payment cards. The first such station was Brookmans Park, added into the contactless system on 29 August 2019 [5] , while Potters Bar and Radlett, added into the system on the same day, were the final expansion of the Oyster area.
Since then, the contactless-only area (not Oyster) were further expanded from the boundary of Oyster area, from West Drayton to Reading including all Thames branches in between, from Radlett to Luton Airport Parkway, and Potters Bar to Welwyn Garden City.
Following a consultation in 2019, the Department of Transport made a procurement to deliver contactless PAYG ticketing to circa 233 stations in the South East of England, to be delivered by 2024. The contactless system needs to be integrated with the existing CPAY system in use in and around London. The contract was awarded to Transport for London for a sum of £68.1 million. [6]
On 4 July 2023, The DfT announced that phase 1 of Project Oval would inlcude the following 53 stations on the following lines by the end of the year [7] (listed in clockwise order from the Thames estuary):
Phase 1 only included adult fares, but not any form of discounts, including railcard discounts. As part of the project, and unlike previous iterations of Oyster / contactless expansions, existing fares on traditional pre-purchased tickets (paper tickets, smartcard tickets and barcode e-tickets) were also simplified to match the new contactless fares to be rolled out [8] [9] :
The change to the fare structure on traditional tickets took place on 3 December 2023, which resulted in a large fare hike of some existing tickets, such as about 30% for an Anytime Day Return between London Waterloo and Egham [10] . Although discounts were not available on contactless payment yet, discount holders could still benefit from the discounted single fares in the new fare structure by buying traditional tickets.
The actual rollout of contactless payment to the new stations were delayed. It was rolled out on 30 June 2024 to the six stations on the Chiltern network, half a year later than originally promised, with the remaining 47 stations planned for 22 September. However, TfL suffered a cyberattack early September which stopped the final rollout for the 47 stations. The rollout eventually took place on 2 February 2025. [11]
After the rollout of Phase 1, c2c has become the first non-TfL train operating company in and around London which fully accepts contactless payment on all its routes.
On 20 January 2025, The DfT announced that a further 49 stations would be added into the contactless system by the end of the year, in addition to the 47 phase 1 stations scheduled to go live on 2 February. The 49 new stations are on the following lines [12] (listed in clockwise order from the Thames estuary):
Trenitalia c2c, trading as c2c, is a British train operating company that operates commuter services from its London terminus at Fenchurch Street to parts of East London and south Essex along the London, Tilbury and Southend line, as part of the Essex Thameside railway contract. It manages 25 stations and its trains call at 28. It is owned by Trenitalia, the primary train operator of Italy.
Gatwick Express is an express rail passenger service between London Victoria, Gatwick Airport, Haywards Heath and Brighton in South East England. It is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Gatwick Express route of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise.
The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London, England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport for London (TfL) and can be used on as part of London's integrated transport network on travel modes including London Buses, London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground, Tramlink, some river boat services, and most National Rail services within the London fare zones. Since its introduction in June 2003, more than 86 million cards have been used.
The Travelcard is an inter-modal travel ticket for unlimited use on the London Underground, London Overground, Elizabeth line, Docklands Light Railway, London Trams, London Buses and National Rail services in the Greater London area. Travelcards can be purchased for a period of time varying from one day to a year, from Transport for London, National Rail and their agents. Depending on where it is purchased, and the length of validity, a Travelcard is either printed on a paper ticket with a magnetic stripe or encoded onto an Oyster card, Transport for London's contactless electronic smart card, or an ITSO smartcard issued by a National Rail train operating company. The cost of a Travelcard is determined by the area it covers and, for this purpose, London is divided into a number of fare zones. The Travelcard season ticket for unlimited travel on London Buses and the London Underground was launched on 22 May 1983 by London Transport. One Day Travelcards and validity on other transport modes were added from 1984 onwards. The introduction of the Travelcard caused an increase in patronage and reduced the number of tickets that needed to be purchased by passengers.
The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a sub-brand of Greater Anglia, the current franchise operator of the East Anglia franchise.
Dartford railway station serves the town of Dartford in Kent, England. It is 17 miles 12 chains (27.6 km) down the line from London Charing Cross. Train services from the station are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink. Southeastern also manages the station. Dartford is a major interchange station in the North Kent region of the Southeastern network. Ticket barriers control access to the platforms.
Swanley railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in England, serving the town of Swanley, Kent. It is 17 miles 31 chains (28.0 km) down the line from London Victoria and is situated between St Mary Cray and Farningham Road on the main line. The Maidstone Line branches from the main line east of Swanley and the next station on that route is Eynsford.
Redhill railway station serves the town of Redhill, Surrey, England. The station is a major interchange point on the Brighton Main Line, 22 miles 40 chains (36.2 km) measured from London Charing Cross. It is managed by Southern, and is also served by Thameslink and Great Western Railway.
Horley railway station serves the town of Horley in Surrey, England. It is on the Brighton Main Line, 25 miles 60 chains (41.4 km) down the line from London Bridge via Redhill, and train services are provided by Thameslink and Southern.
Salfords railway station serves the village of Salfords in Surrey, England. The station is sometimes shown as Salfords (Surrey) in timetables to differentiate it from the two stations in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is on the Brighton Main Line, 23 miles 37 chains (37.8 km) down the line from London Bridge via Redhill and is managed by Southern. Train services are provided by Thameslink and Southern.
Earlswood railway station serves Earlswood, south of Redhill, in Surrey, England. It is on the Brighton Main Line, 21 miles 50 chains (34.8 km) down the line from London Bridge via Redhill and south of the junction between the Redhill line and the Quarry line. Train services are provided by Thameslink and Southern.
Luton Airport Parkway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving south Luton and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. The station is situated in Luton's Park Town district, being 29.27 miles (47.11 km) from London St Pancras between Harpenden to the south and Luton to the north. Its three-letter station code is LTN, also the IATA code for the airport.
The London Underground and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) metro systems of London, England uses a mix of paper and electronic smart-card ticketing.
Welwyn Garden City railway station serves the town of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. It is 20 miles 25 chains from London King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line. Train services are currently provided by Thameslink and Great Northern.
Opal is a contactless smartcard fare collection system for public transport services in the greater Sydney area. Operation of the Opal system is managed by Transport for NSW. First launched in late 2012, Opal is valid on Transport for NSW's metro, train, bus, ferry and light rail services that operate in Sydney and the neighbouring Central Coast, Hunter Region, Blue Mountains, Illawarra and Southern Highlands areas. Opal equipment was designed from the start to support a variety of cards, but launched with the captive Opal cards.
Contactless smartcards are being progressively introduced as an alternative option to paper ticketing on the National Rail system of Great Britain. Tickets for use on National Rail services can be loaded onto any ITSO card.
The Key is a contactless ITSO-compatible smartcard developed by the Go-Ahead Group used on buses, trains and other forms of public transport across various areas of the United Kingdom.
MetroCARD is a contactless smartcard ticketing system for public transport services in the Adelaide city and suburbs in South Australia. The system is managed by Adelaide Metro and is usable on their bus, train and tram services.
Pay as you go, or PAYG, in the context of public transport, refers to a method of fare collection where the fare is only charged at or after usage, depending on the actual usage, instead of buying a ticket in advance. In such a case, the payment method itself, when validated, is the proof-of-payment, with the actual journey detail not yet known.
CPAY is the codename of the contactless payment system operated by Transport for London in and around London. It does not have a public facing brand name and is simply known as pay as you go by contactless by the public.