Project Oval: TfL win DfT contract to expand contactless system to 233 rail stations by May 2024, Railcards coming to contactless payment cards

MrJeeves · 23 Sep 2026

Edvid said:
If you have an Ovalised cross-London paper ticket, am I right in saying the 1600-1900 restriction doesn't apply to the LU transfer?

A cross-London journey has no travel time restrictions. The same also applies to tickets to London Underground zones, too. They are all treated as "anytime" for this portion.

You could use a Off-Peak ticket restricted in the mornings to cross London at 7am if you'd like, but you can't make your journey on National Rail within the restricted times.

The only exception is Travelcards, where Anytime is Anytime, and anything else* is considered Off-Peak so is valid in the fare zones after 0930 on weekdays (even if it's a Super Off-Peak Travelcard with a restriction like "not valid into London until after 10:45am", you can use it in Zones 1-n from 0930).

* I'm sure someone will find an exception!

RailUK Forums

Kevin51 · 27 Sep 2026

swt_passenger said:
The boundary is generally, but not always, where suburban service groups terminate. Another possibility is that they’ve used an obvious orbital route as a boundary, an example of this would be the North Downs line Reading to Gatwick. People had previously highlighted that as already having contactless at both ends, but not on the route itself.

Does seem a bit odd. All of the East Grinstead line except East Grinstead. Goes to Stevanage, could they they not have gone one station further to Hitchin or even Baldock or Letchworth?

MikeWh · 27 Sep 2026

Kevin51 said:
Does seem a bit odd. All of the East Grinstead line except East Grinstead. Goes to Stevanage, could they they not have gone one station further to Hitchin or even Baldock or Letchworth?

Contactless PAYG does go to East Grinstead, and to Baldock. I'm not quite sure what you're saying.

swt_passenger · 27 Sep 2026

MikeWh said:
Contactless PAYG does go to East Grinstead, and to Baldock. I'm not quite sure what you're saying.

@Kevin51 just replied to a post I wrote in May 2022, post #8 on page 1, so he may be reading other info that is overtaken by later events...

Edvid · 29 Sep 2026

Latest look back on recent progress within TfL's Q1 2026/27 Investment Programme Report (page 29).

8.7.9 Payments
[...]
(a) customer adoption across the recently enabled stations continues to grow, reflecting sustained demand for simple and seamless ticketing. Since the expansion programme began, there have been more than 13 million PAYG taps across the newly activated stations, demonstrating increasing customer confidence in contactless travel and the benefits of integrated ticketing across the wider southeast rail network.
(b) in Q1, the programme focused on preparing the next phase of the PAYG expansion, including readiness of station infrastructure, fare structures and enhancement to the contactless back-office functionality required to support future launches. This work will help ensure that further expansion can be delivered efficiently while maintaining a consistent customer experience across the network.

Edvid · Thursday at 13:25

Looking 4 weeks ahead it's still only CPAY test fares between the likes of Esher / Farningham Road and their respective London termini with the Super Off-Peak tier fares (where they already exist) still in place, so it does seem that no Project Oval additions will happen before March 2027.

There are already some Ovalised cross-London paper fares at those stations but only where neither SWR nor SE are the faresetter.

Danno · Monday at 12:05

What would be the reason for yet another delay? This project has been in the planning since early 2019, and I genuinely don't understand why it's taking so long to roll out.

Project Oval was originally supposed to be completed by May 2024, including Railcard support. Yet here we are in October 2026, more than two years later, with only 103 of the planned 233 stations up and running.

I appreciate TfL suffered a serious cyberattack in September 2024, which obviously caused disruption, but surely that can't be the sole reason? The project was already behind schedule before the attack even happened.

Nearly eight years on, and we're still waiting for the full rollout, with no clear indication of when Railcard support will arrive.

Frankly, it's been a really poor effort!

Adam Williams · Monday at 12:11

Danno said:
Nearly eight years on, and we're still waiting for the full rollout

Bit like the 4G rollout to the Underground that was going to be done by the end of 2024.

Goldfish62 · Monday at 12:38

Danno said:
What would be the reason for yet another delay? This project has been in the planning since early 2019, and I genuinely don't understand why it's taking so long to roll out.

The usual excuses/reasons for delays with everything seem to be Covid, invasion of Ukraine and the cyberattack. Oh, and now we have the Iran war.

Benjwri · Monday at 12:41

Danno said:
What would be the reason for yet another delay? This project has been in the planning since early 2019, and I genuinely don't understand why it's taking so long to roll out.

Project Oval was originally supposed to be completed by May 2024, including Railcard support. Yet here we are in October 2026, more than two years later, with only 103 of the planned 233 stations up and running.

I appreciate TfL suffered a serious cyberattack in September 2024, which obviously caused disruption, but surely that can't be the sole reason? The project was already behind schedule before the attack even happened.

Nearly eight years on, and we're still waiting for the full rollout, with no clear indication of when Railcard support will arrive.

Frankly, it's been a really poor effort!

There was of course the compatibility issue with the Greater Anglia change. The whole process is just slow though in regards to getting the fares ‘ovalised’ as the forum likes to call it, and how these revisions, and any corrections to issues, are only done at fare change dates.

JonathanH · Monday at 12:52

Danno said:
What would be the reason for yet another delay? This project has been in the planning since early 2019, and I genuinely don't understand why it's taking so long to roll out.

The idea that implementation of the necessary fares revisions is incompatible with the fares freeze, mentioned upthread, does seem to have some grounds for thinking why March implementation would be favoured, particularly if something wider happens with the morning peak window.

Danno · Monday at 18:19

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's fed up! :smile:

I've reached out to the RDG, who have now pointed me to contact Southeastern about the next phase. Hopefully, I'll get a detailed response rather than the usual vague, generic reply.

If it's worth sharing, I'll give an update.

:rolleyes:

CyrusWuff · Monday at 20:23

Danno said:
I've reached out to the RDG, who have now pointed me to contact Southeastern about the next phase. Hopefully, I'll get a detailed response rather than the usual vague, generic reply.

I wouldn't hold your breath.

Expect a round of buzzword bingo word salad in response that doesn't actually say anything useful.

JaJaWa · 2026-10-14T05:00:45+0100

Danno said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's fed up!

I've reached out to the RDG, who have now pointed me to contact Southeastern about the next phase. Hopefully, I'll get a detailed response rather than the usual vague, generic reply.

If it's worth sharing, I'll give an update.

Southeastern’s Twitter/X staff seem quite informed on most matters & there’s some managers on there who reply that you could copy in too. But if it’s not been publicly announced, not sure they can share much.

Although you can now submit FOI requests to Southeastern?

Project Oval: TfL win DfT contract to expand contactless system to 233 rail stations by May 2024, Railcards coming to contactless payment cards

MrJeeves

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Kevin51

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MikeWh

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Edvid

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Danno

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