According to Katie Morley from the Telegraph:
Millions of passengers across Britain could be left stranded under plans for every bus in Britain to go cashless despite widespread security fears over contactless technology.
She goes on to say:
Which? said that despite nine in ten of its members owning a card with a contactless option, 40% of them had not used it for at least 12 months, opting instead to pay via chip-and-pin.
This is odd, because TfL has found that in London, c. 25% of journeys are now paid for using contactless bank cards rather than Oyster or paper tickets.
She also asserts:
Busses in Scotland and Northern cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield are looking to copy London busses which do not allow travellers to pay by cash onboard, according to plans outlined in a major report by the UK Cards Association, a body which represents the payments industry.
This kind of justifies her headline:
Millions of travellers could be stranded under plans for every bus in Britain to go “cashless”
Except that it is not true. Yes, our work at TfN has plans for rolling out modern smart ticketing technologies across the north of England. Yes, there are current plans for contactless payments cards to be accepted by the largest bus operators across the UK. But they have not committed to banishing cash from buses like London has.
And when London did stop accepting cash on buses, were millions stranded? No.