At the moment, customers are usually allowed to pass through ticket barriers manually, which slows them and ties up staff, a problem during peak hours. To try out an idea, in June 2024, London Underground staff at Farringdon and Stratford stations were issued with handheld barcode scanners to check tickets before letting passengers through. Following the success, this was expanded to six stations — Farringdon, Highbury and Islington, Kentish Town, Moorgate, Old Street and Stratford.
However that still requires customers to seek out a member of staff when their ticket can’t work at the ticket barrier.
Now, in a notice sent to potential suppliers, TfL said it is considering installing fixed barcode scanners across London Underground stations, starting with key stations in central London and those shared with National Rail services.
The aim though is to have barcode scanners on the ticket barriers, and the roll-out of scanners could ultimately be required at all London Underground and TfL Rail locations, based on forecasted demand. The priority, if the contract goes ahead, would be TfL stations shared with National Rail services, followed by cross-London interchanges, such as Overground and Elizabeth line stations.
Then, if expanded, it would start with the central London tube stations and expand outwards from there.
There would also need to be back-of-house upgrades to support barcode tickets, and the supply contract would also include replacing the legacy magnetic tickets with barcode tickets for customers who need to buy a single ticket.
In the meantime, they might expand the use of the handheld barcode scanners currently used at the trial stations. As it’s likely to be a software upgrade to their existing revenue inspection devices, offering a temporary facility for London Underground staff while the ticket barriers are upgraded.
If the contract is signed, TfL expects work to enable barcode scanners in London Underground stations to start in June 2027.
A Transport for London (TfL) spokesperson said: “There is a shared ambition across the rail industry for phasing out magnetic ticketing, to deliver operational and customer benefits. To support this, we are seeking a ticketing solution that would enable barcode tickets in London, alongside our existing Oyster and contactless system.
Barcode ticketing has been rolled out nationally across the rail network, and this market engagement by TfL looks to understand the market’s capability for designing, developing, testing and deploying a scalable end to end barcode ticketing solution for identified stations on our network. Subject to the response from this engagement, we will then consider our next steps.”
The spokesperson confirmed that barcode ticketing is for rail services, and there isn’t currently a plan to offer it on buses.
As an aside, although mobile barcode tickets look like conventional QR codes, they are technically Aztec codes, which differ slightly in that they include a central bullseye for efficient scanning on small, low-screen devices. Although QR codes generally hold more data and have better error correction, Aztec codes are compact and better for mobile ticketing where quick scans are needed on small smartphone screens.
So when you’re stuck in a queue for a gig, and the staff are struggling to scan the mobile tickets, they probably issued QR code-based tickets.
The UK’s train companies use Aztec codes, as will TfL if the barcode contract is signed.
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