Contactless smartcards are being progressively introduced as an alternative option to paper ticketing on the

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

system of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. Tickets for use on National Rail services can be loaded onto any ITSO card. The ITSO standard has been developed to cover all types of public transport. It has been included as a requirement by the Department for Transport for all new rail franchises in the last few years. It is also the format that ENCTS concessionary passes and rail staff passes are issued in. Three train operating companies have launched pay-as-you-go systems where fares are automatically deducted by touching-in-and-out at the start and end of the journey. Branded as keyGo on

Govia Thameslink Railway Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is a train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise in England. Within the franchise, GTR runs the Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern and Gatwick Expr ...

(GTR) and Tap2Go on South Western Railway (SWR), they require use of GTR's The Key and SWR's Touch smartcard respectively. Great Western Railway (GWR) also launched a pay-as-you-go system called GWR Touch in August 2022, which required the use of GWR’s Touch smartcard. The first large scale adoption of smartcards for transport in Great Britain was by Transport for London (TfL) with the

Oyster card The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and certain areas around it) in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport ...

. It was initially only available on TfL services, but it has been progressively rolled out to National Rail services in and around Greater London. ITSO cards can also now be used on Oyster card readers. , support for smartcards is as follows:

Notes

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External links

Smart Tickets on National Rail – National RailSmart Ticketing Operators and Retailers – National RailNational Rail Smartcard Manager – Apple App StoreNational Rail Smartcard Manager – Google Play
Fare collection systems in the United Kingdom

See also

Notes

External links