Tottenham Hale's ticket hall is emblazoned with red signs warning airport-bound passengers not to touch in with Oyster or a contactless card. Nevertheless many do, and then discover when they reach the airport that they can't touch out so get whacked by a £100 penalty fare. But that's due to change on Sunday 14th December as Stansted finally gets contactless, as do 49 other southeastern railway stations. It's the second stage of what's known in the trade as Project Oval, long delayed, and will spread the availability of tap-in tap-out even further beyond the Oyster boundary.
The new zone extends to Dorking, Reigate and East Grinstead on Southern, to Witham and Southend on Greater Anglia, to Harlington and Baldock on Thameslink and to Aylesbury on Chiltern. The DfT have produced a minimalist map to show the 50 new stations, and also produced a similar map to show the last 53, but there isn't yet a combined map to show where the full contactless zone will be. Expect the South East Rail Services map to be updated next month, but in the meantime here's my rough attempt so you can get the gist.
The longest contactless journey on a single train looks like it'll be East Grinstead to Harlington, which is over 100km. The most expensive contactless journey may be Gatwick to Stansted at £56.70. The closest stations to London without contactless will be Esher and Hinchley Wood in Surrey, and Stone Crossing in Kent.
But if you do rely on contactless to travel to Stansted, now without the need to pay up front, you may be surprised how much you get charged. It's £25 single, i.e. £50 return, which could be more than your basic Easyjet flight. Airport travel can be expensive if you simply tap and go...
Heathrow Express: £25 (but half that on the Elizabeth line)
Gatwick Express: £24 (or less than half that on other trains)
Stansted Express: £25 (or £24.60 from Tottenham Hale)
Luton: £12.30 (plus £4.90 for the DART shuttle)
Southend: £21.90
But this time there's bad news for owners of electric vehicles who've previously enjoyed a 100% Cleaner Vehicle Discount. EVs now make up 20% of the traffic in the Congestion Zone and if numbers continue to grow then central London risks getting congested again. Thus from January electric vans will only merit a 50% discount and electric cars just 25%, i.e. EV car drivers go from paying nothing to paying 75%. The discounts are destined to halve from 2030, i.e. everyone'll be paying almost everything. Alternatively keep out of central London and it won't cost a penny extra, your choice.
3) London's new shortest bus route
The 424 is a seriously twiddly bus route, introduced in 2001 to wind round several unserved backstreets in Fulham and Putney. It's also notoriously unreliable due to narrow streets and congestion, so TfL have just launched a consultation to chop it in two. The majority becomes a new route, the 454, meandering the long way from Craven Cottage to Putney Bridge station. The south-of-the river bit becomes a teensy shuttle from Putney station to Putney Heath and retains the number 424. No overlap will exist, this because Putney's bridge and high street have the worst congestion so they're being omitted.
The bus currently runs every 35 minutes, an annoyingly unmemorable frequency, but this is proposed to change. The shortened 424 would run every 45 minutes, making it even more of a pain to wait for, and the new 454 would run either every 30 or every 45 depending on the consultation. What's more route 424 would now be less than two miles long, a pathetic runt of a service, making it the shortest (non-circular) route in London. The current title-holder is the 209 (1.9 miles), but a separate consultation proposes extending that to 6 miles to replace the 533.
The consultation screams of frustrated desperation, breaking a malfunctioning route to create two less useful ones, and if it goes ahead should create not just London's shortest route but also one of its least used.
4) DangleChristmas
It's almost Christmas so it's time to tell you about this year's festive upselling on London's most mercenary cablecar.
For the Standard Christmas Experience (£15.50) children get...
• A standard round trip
• Meet and Greet with Santa
• Gift from Santa
• Colouring-in activity
Pay £3 more for the Premium Christmas Experience to also get...
• London Cable Car Kids Pack
Pay another £3 for the Ultimate Christmas Experience to also get...
• A Fast Track round trip
• A Winters hot chocolate
If that's the Ultimate Christmas Experience then you're doing December wrong.
5) 2026's heritage bus days
This year the London Bus Museum organised three heritage vehicle days based around routes 19, 418 and 54. And they've just announced next year's chosen three, so add these to your diary if you want to be sure of a chuggy ride.
Route 38 Heritage Day: 14 March 2026 Route 213 Heritage Day: 13 June 2026 Route 106 Heritage Day: 3 October 2026
6) Road Safety Week
This week is Road Safety Week, which is both quite important and quite dull. But have you seen TfL's new Highway Code posters which they plugged yesterday on the TfL blog?
