London’s transport system has been at the cutting edge of technology for the past 150 years when 19th century engineers first decided to run trains deep underground beneath the capital’s busy streets.

Today, Transport for London, the body that runs the capital city’s network of tube, buses and roads, has maintained that tradition of innovation by revolutionising ticketing systems — helping to speed up the movement of millions of people through London.

The group pioneered the use of smart ticketing in Europe when it launched its Oyster card in 2003, enabling commuters to quickly tap on a reader to go through an entry or exit barrier rather than having to queue up to buy a paper ticket. This shaved precious seconds from the time it takes to get through congested ticket barriers at London Underground stations or to pay.

But Shashi Verma, TfL’s director of customer experience, says the operator is continuously looking at how to further advance its ticketing system. This has seen TfL become one of the first public transit systems in the world to enable contactless bank card and mobile payments.