New TfL app enables passengers to top up their Oyster card ‘on the go’

Copyright: TfL

TfL has launched its new app, allowing Oyster card users to check their pay as you go balance and top up their card using their smartphone.

Copyright: TfL

The new app, which was designed by TfL and developed by Cubic Transportation Systems, is free to download via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and enables customers to use their smartphone to quickly add pay as you go credit or Travelcards to their Oyster card. These can then be added after 30 minutes by simply touching the Oyster card on the yellow card reader at any Tube or rail station, tram stop or River Bus pier as part of a journey.

Later this year, customers will be able to collect their top up by touching their Oyster card on the yellow card readers on any of London’s 9,000 buses.

The app also enables customers to view the last eight weeks of their journey history, check how much pay as you go credit they have on their Oyster card and provides, for the first time, a ‘low balance’ alert direct to their phone to help ensure they have enough pay as you go credit before they travel. Additional functionality will be added, including the ability to apply for refunds for incomplete journeys.

In order to use the new TfL app, customers need to have an Oyster online account, which can be set up in a few minutes directly within the app or by visiting oyster.tfl.gov.uk. As well offering access to the new app, Oyster online accounts give access to email updates on service changes to a passenger’s regular route and protects their Oyster card against any loss or theft.

“As we continue to build a world-class, affordable transport network across our city, we will make sure we utilise the very latest technology to improve the experience for every passenger,” commented Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London.

Throughout 2017 and 2018, further improvements to the Oyster and Contactless system will also be introduced, including:

• Expanding the Mayor’s ‘Hopper fare’ to allow unlimited journeys on buses and trams within an hour from 2018
• Adding the ability to view journey history for Contactless payments through the TfL app
• Introducing pay as you go to cover the Elizabeth line, which once fully open will see services running from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east by December 2019
• Making Bus & Tram Pass season tickets available to purchase online and via the app
• Introducing weekly capping on Oyster to bring it in line with Contactless.