The government have cancelled the scheme that would have offer contactless ticketing despite having already spent £54 million on it John Stillwell/PAA government scheme to expand smart ticketing on busy rail lines has been scrapped after costs more than doubled despite most train operators failing to adopt it, according to the spending watchdog. The Department for Transport has been forced to close a project for Oyster-style tickets across southeast England despite spending £54 million on the scheme, £9 million more than the original budget. The DfT launched the scheme in 2012, aiming to make travel on Britain’s busiest commuter lines easier for passengers and to cut bureaucracy for rail firms. Passengers were to be offered contactless cards to pay for their travel, touching in and out of station barriers as an alternative to paper tickets. The National Audit Office reported that, five years later, only 5…

Source: The Times April 19, 2017 23:02 UTC