The Rail Delivery Group has confirmed that 30 additional National Rail stations across the South-East will receive contactless pay-as-you-go (PAYG) technology starting from 14 December 2025.
The Group also recently announced that a further 20 stations across Greater Anglia will follow from summer 2026 – including both Stansted and Southend airports.
Locations set to receive the technology this month include stations across Chiltern, Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern rail lines, such as Aylesbury, Baldock, Ashtead, Harlington, Aylesbury Vale Parkway, Hitchin, Box Hill & Westhumble, Leagrave, Great Missenden, Knebworth, Dorking (Main) and Luton, amongst others.
The technology allows customers to tap in and tap out when making journeys between stations fitted with the PAYG capabilities, negating the need to use ticket machines and phone applications.
Recently, testing efforts identified issues affecting journeys along Greater Anglia services, with additional work now being carried out to improve the experience for customers along the network.
Martin Beable, Greater Anglia’s Managing Director, said:We understand how frustrating it is when improvements like this are delayed, and I am very sorry for the disappointment this will cause some of our customers. It is essential, however, that contactless ticketing works reliably from day one.
Our teams are working closely with our partners to complete this work as quickly as possible, and we remain committed to introducing contactless ticketing across these additional stations by summer 2026.
Thus far; the technology has been rolled out at 53 stations across the south-east, with 5.6 million journeys taken since June 2024.
