Fifty-three stations in south east England are to introduce tap-in-tap-out ticketing by the end of this year.

Government funding of £20 million is being spent on enabling passengers to use bank cards or smart devices to tap readers at stations and be charged the lowest price available on the day of travelling.

Pay As You Go is already available at more than three hundred and fifty stations across London and the south east, in an area that stretches from Reading and Gatwick Airport to Shenfield and Welwyn Garden City. The addition of the fifty-three stations will bring the total number of tap-in-tap-out stations in England to over four hundred.

The Department for Transport announced the move in partnership with Transport for London, C2C, Southeastern, South Western Railway, London Northwestern, and Chiltern.

It follows the Transport Secretary’s promise in his George Bradshaw Address to “reform and overhaul” fares and ticketing across Britain’s railways, pledging to make fares simpler and more flexible. The reform programme includes the recent single-leg pricing on LNER’s network.

The government claims that this will encourage more people to travel by rail, which will help economic growth.

Pay As You Go is widely used in and around London. Transport for London data shows that the proportion of journeys made using contactless payment cards or mobile devices on its Tube and rail network has increased from one-quarter to three-quarters since 2016..

Following this, the DfT is continuing to work with the Great British Railways Transition Team to extend Pay As You Go in the Midlands and the North of England, as part of ‘Trailblazer’ devolution arrangements announced earlier this year with Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

Transport for Greater Manchester last week announced details of a pilot scheme for Manchester’s first contactless payment system on its rail network. This is subject to final Government agreement and funding,

Further information on when each of the fifty-three south east stations will introduce pay-as-you-go will be available at the stations.

The fifty-three stations which will have pay-as-you-go technology by the end of 2023 are:

• Basildon
• West Horndon
• Sevenoaks
• Bletchley
• Benfleet
• Westcliff
• Shoreham (Kent)
• Bricket Wood
• Chalkwell
• Beaconsfield
• Ashford (Surrey)
• Cheddington
• East Tilbury
• Denham
• Datchet
• Garston
• Laindon
• Denham Golf Club
• Egham
• Hemel Hempstead
• Leigh-on-Sea
• Gerrards Cross
• Kempton Park
• How Wood
• Pitsea
• High Wycombe
• Shepperton
• Kings Langley
• Shoeburyness
• Seer Green & Jordans
• Staines
• Leighton Buzzard
• Southend Central
• Bat & Ball
• Sunbury
• Park Street
• Southend East
• Dunton Green
• Sunnymeads
• St Albans Abbey
• Stanford-le-Hope
• Eynsford
• Upper Halliford
• Tring
• Thorpe Bay
• Otford
• Virginia Water
• Watford North
• Tilbury Town
• Windsor & Eton Riverside
• Wraysbury
• Apsley
• Berkhamsted

Jacqueline Starr, Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “We have long called for fares to be made easier and more flexible for our customers – our extensive fare consultation in collaboration with the independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus in 2019 overwhelmingly demonstrated the need for modernising rail fares.

“The introduction of contactless, Pay As You Go payments is a significant step in the right direction. It eliminates the need to queue at ticket machines or pre-book paper tickets, allowing passengers to simply tap their contactless cards or devices to pay for their journey. We believe that embracing contactless technology will enhance the overall passenger experience and contribute to a more seamless journey on our network.”

Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London (TfL) said: “The popularity of convenient travel via a pay as you go system has seen it expand and become increasingly popular across London and the surrounding areas in recent years. We are delighted to be delivering this expansion of pay as you go with contactless to a further 53 stations across the South East for the Department for Transport (DfT), helping to share our experience in smartcard ticketing with the wider rail industry. This will help those traveling by rail outside London do so more flexibly and conveniently, and support the wider UK economic recovery through easier access to rail travel.”

Rail Minister Huw Merriman said: “One of the best ways to get more people using our railways is to make journeys as simple, flexible and convenient as possible and the Government’s programme for rail reform prioritises exactly that.

“By removing the stress of finding the best deal in advance or having the right ticket ready to go at the barriers, the extension of tap-in tap-out ticketing is the next step of our plan for rail reform and we’re working towards Pay As You Go being rolled out beyond the South East through the Midlands and up to the North.”