Indra signs $1.1 billion deal to manage London transport ticketing and control systems

MADRID, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Spanish technology group Indra has won a contract from Transport for London (TfL) to run the ticketing and control systems across the city’s public transit network in a deal worth up to 975 million euros ($1.1 billion), it said on Friday.

The agreement to 2034 including options that could run to 2039 covers systems used on the Underground, trams, buses and ferries across the British capital and its metropolitan area.

Indra said it will maintain and operate thousands of gates, validators and ticket machines, as well as retail sales terminals, portable inspection devices and the central back-office and payment systems, including cybersecurity. 

The London network records more than 8.6 million journeys a day for a total of more than 3.6 billion a year, the company said.

Indra said there will be a transition period of almost two years, after which it will become the sole provider of the network’s ticketing system.

It added that it plans to work with TfL on upgrades, including a future move to account-based ticketing on the Oyster Card, which has been in use since 2003. 

($1 = 0.8613 euros)

(Reporting by David LatonaEditing by David Goodman)