The two UK airports that are about to be much easier and cheaper to travel to

TWO UK airports will be much easier to travel to in less than two weeks and could save you from a hefty fine.

Contactless payment will make it easier to travel to London Stansted and London Southend Airports from March 8.

The update applies to some Greater Anglia routes and means that passengers travelling from London Liverpool Street Station to either airport, can tap-in and tap-out on their journey.

In total, across Essex, 20 stations will be added to the contactless network.

Before, passengers were travelling to Stansted Airport using their contactless cards at the start of their journey not realising that you could not use contactless at the end of their journey, at the airport, reports London TravelWatch.

This meant that passengers would need to purchase a ticket instead, to avoid a £100 penalty.

If they did try to tap-out, they would get an automatic £100 fine, plus the price of a standard single ticket – though the fine would be reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days.

Data released back in 2019 revealed that the number of people fined had risen by over 16,000 in just two years.

At the time, London TravelWatch’s boss Michael Roberts told the Daily Mail: “It’s plainly wrong that passengers continue to be unfairly penalised for not knowing that contactless payment isn’t accepted at London Stansted Airport.

“With ‘London’ in its name, people quite reasonably assume they’ll be able to tap out using a contactless card, especially when they were allowed to tap in using one at the start of their journey.”

Despite the update, passengers will still NOT be able to use their Oyster cards in the stations.

Contactless can sometimes be cheaper than purchasing a ticket.

Your fare will either be based on a peak or off-peak single for each journey you make.

And daily and weekly caps will be applied to journeys into and within London.

The Stansted Express links London Liverpool Street Station with Stansted Airport, taking about 48 minutes.

The trains are usually every 15 minutes, with fares starting from £9.90 per person.

In comparison, the journey from London Liverpool Street to Southend Airport takes about 50 minutes.

Commuters will benefit from the update too, as stops such as Southend Victoria, Witham, Chelmsford, Harlow Town and Bishop’s Stortford have all been added to the contactless payment option.

Greater Anglia’s managing director, Martin Beable, said: “We are pleased to be able to confirm that pay-as-you-go contactless ticketing will be introduced at a further 20 stations from March 8, making travel across our network simpler and more flexible for customers.

“This extension is another important step in modernising ticketing on the railway, allowing passengers to tap in and out and pay for the journeys they make, while improving the overall experience for those travelling into and out of London.”

The update comes as part of a wider programme to simplify fares and ticketing across the rail industry, which both the Department for Transport and Transport for London are working on.

In other rail news, thousands more Brits will get a £126 discount on rail travel as certain rules have been relaxed.

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