A much-needed change is coming to London Stansted Airport: ‘Overdue an upgrade’

Holidaymakers rejoice — railway stations in two major UK airports are about to get contactless card payments for the first time.

After years of waiting, London Stansted and Southend airports will finally introduce a tap-in, tap-out ticketing system on December 14 — just in time for the Christmas travel rush.

The only exception is services between Cambridge and Stansted, which won’t qualify for contactless payment.

It means the 6.7 million people travelling to and from the UK’s fourth busiest airport each year will no longer need to worry about booking train tickets in advance.

And it’s likely to save them a nice chunk of cash, too.

London Travelwatch estimates that thousands of customers use contactless barriers at stations in the capital — only to be fined up to £100 at Stansted for not having a ticket.

As it stands, passengers can open ticket barriers at Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale stations and board a train to the airport by tapping their cards, but are then prohibited from tapping out at the end of their journey.

And in recent years, countless travellers have been caught out. Stansted Express operator Greater Anglia – which was nationalised last month – regularly deploys teams of ticket inspectors at the airport station.

A London Travelwatch spokesperson welcomed the decision to scrap the ‘unfair’ ban on contactless payments.

She said: ‘Passengers still need to be savvy to avoid paying over the odds, and the rail industry has got to be super-clear in communicating the changes.

‘Oyster cards won’t count as contactless cards and will still not be valid at Stansted Airport Station.’

The shift to contactless is part of an £18.7million investment from the Department of Transport, which aims to make ticketing more convenient for travellers.

Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy described it as a long-overdue upgrade to an archaic system.

‘Rail ticketing is far too complicated and long overdue an upgrade to bring it into the 21st Century,’ he said.

‘Through the expansion of tap-in tap-out technology, and shortly through GBR (Great British Railways), we’re doing just that and making buying tickets more convenient, more accessible and more flexible – and ensuring passengers can get the best fares.’

Other stations overhauling their ticketing systems include those used by publicly owned train companies Greater Anglia and South Western Railway, such as Beaulieu Park, Woking and Chelmsford.