The long row of bright red signs at Liverpool Street station, warning passengers heading to Stansted Airport that they need to buy a paper ticket, has been replaced with signs promoting contactless travel.
The change follows the delayed rollout of contactless payments on Greater Anglia services, which finally came into effect on Sunday. Passengers travelling to Stansted Airport can now use contactless payment instead of having to buy a paper ticket in advance.
The lack of contactless payments between London and the airport had long caught people out. Visitors who had spent time travelling around London using contactless would understandably assume the same system applied to the Stansted route.
To reduce the number of passengers being caught without the correct ticket, Liverpool Street station installed large warning signs reminding people to buy a ticket before boarding. Even so, some travellers were still occasionally caught out.
Now, with TfL-managed contactless payments extended to a further 20 stations on the Greater Anglia network, those warnings are no longer needed.
The red signs have been removed, and in their place are new adverts encouraging passengers to simply tap in and travel.
Stations where contactless ticketing was enabled at the weekend:
- Billericay
- Beaulieu Park
- Bishop’s Stortford
- Chelmsford
- Harlow Mill
- Harlow Town
- Hatfield Peverel
- Hockley
- Ingatestone
- Prittlewell
- Rayleigh
- Rochford
- Roydon
- Sawbridgeworth
- Stansted Airport
- Southend Airport
- Southend Victoria
- Stansted Mountfitchet
- Wickford
- Witham
Oyster cards don’t work for trips to Stansted Airport as they use an older technology that can’t be expanded.
Note that people with railcard discounts or concession rates will still find their existing tickets are likely to be cheaper than contactless tickets, although those concession rates will eventually be added to contactless tickets.