On 24.10.2017 4:59 PM, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
04:33:09 on Tue, 24 Oct 2017, Paul Corfield
remarked:
If HEX had wanted smartcards it would have introduced them by now as
it's a simple self contained operation. I expect it is far keener to
get TfL's contactless card system installed off the back of Oyster
acceptance. Being able to use bank cards will likely appeal to a large
proportion of their regular users.

I wonder how many foreign-issued bank cards will work with the
contactless system?

If anything the UK is backward compared to the rest of the world on
contactless acceptance, and since the technology is standardised by EMV
(https://www.emvco.com/emv-technologies/contactless/) worldwide, the answer
is going to be "as close to 100% as makes no odds." Much as large parts of
the world jumped straight into mobile internet without a fixed line step in
the middle, much of the world doesn't need to support ancient ICL tills and
went straight to always-connected card terminals which easily support
things like contactless. Here in the East we use contactless with no
transaction limit even on debit cards with zero floor limit (easy and safe
because all authentication is online all the time.) And my Eastern
European zero-floor Romanian Lei denominated card has been accepted
anywhere I tried it, from Thailand to Taiwan and everywhere in between, and
from Ukraine to UK and everywhere in between (and quite a few not) as well
- including, yes, on the tube. (And indeed, relevantly, on the Gatwick
Express.)


No ticket purchase and no queues will appeal to business travellers.

As a much travelled businessman (in general terms) I can assure you that
the lack of a paper receipt/ticket to attach to my expenses claim is a
huge disadvantage.

Other systems solve this problem easily, as you've been told before. NS's
system for Chipkaart produces a very nice online expenses claim receipt
(which is specifically valid for Dutch tax purposes in the case of
nominal/registered cards,) which is far more convenient than toting around
bits of paper - the same can be done for contractless cards. I see no
reason why a printout from the TfL website would be unacceptable for exes
purposes (or indeed for companies not in the dark ages, a screenshot or web
clip or PDF - I can't remember the last time I actually needed to submit a
physical piece of paper...)