Update 3 December: the introduction of contactless ticketing, originally scheduled on 14 December, was postponed on Greater Anglia (including Stansted Express) only due to problems identified during testing. Greater Anglia mentioned that “During detailed testing, issues were identified that could have affected journeys and the price paid on Greater Anglia services and prevented the technology from working as intended.” The expansion of the system will still take place on routes of other operators as scheduled. Therefore, it has been confirmed that Greater Anglia has broken the promise.

From summer 2026, contactless payment for train travel around London is expanded to 50 more stations, including the remaining two London airports, Stansted Airport and Southend Airport, as part of Project Oval. In the previous phase, it was promoted as simpler fares as singles become half of the return, and peak / off-peak times are standardised.

However, the best fare promise will be broken again, and a sneaky price increase has inserted into the system, which can be found by comparing the fares now and the future fares already loaded into the system.

For a journey from Stansted Mountfitchet (the last station before the airport) to London Liverpool Street, both the Anytime Day Return and Off-Peak Day Return will be increased by 10p to become a multiple of 20p so that the single fares, which are half of the return, remain a multiple of 10p. However, the Off-Peak Day Return fare didn’t decrease despite the previous existence of a Super Off-Peak Day Return, unlike the previous phase, resulting in a price increase overall.

However, for Stansted Airport, the new price in December is set to £28 Off-Peak Day Return to London, the same as now, but £21 for an Off-Peak Day Single! (There is no Off-Peak Single right now, the only single is the £25 Anytime Single) Where for previous expansions of Project Oval, the single was reduced to exactly half of the return. For peak time travel, the new Anytime Day Single will be £23, replacing the current £25 Anytime Single which allows the travel to be completed in two days, and there will be no return ticket available (also unlike other Project Oval stations). The current £38 Anytime Return will be abolished so, while those who only travel one-way will benefit from the price decrease, those travelling both ways on different days, or during peak hours on the same day, will have to pay more. Those who travel off-peak both ways on the same day will still have to buy a ticket instead of using contactless (which only supports single fares) to avoid paying more.

At the time of writing, new fares from Stansted Airport are only loaded for journeys on the same line to Liverpool Street, and to the Underground Zones. I have found that this abnormaly only applies to journeys from Stansted Airport to at least Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters – journeys from the airport to Northumberland Park or Bruce Grove, or Stansted Mountfitchet to anywhere, are priced normally like other Project Oval journeys, resulting in a cliff edge just north of the Victoria line.

For journeys on the Great Eastern Main Line and its branches (including Southend Airport), the situation is different. At the time of writing, The old Off-Peak Day Return (code CDR, with the old restrictions) still remains in the system, with a new Off-Peak Day Return (code DDR, with standardised Oval off-peak times) which is set slightly cheaper than CDR but more expensive than the withdrawn Super Off-Peak Return, so there are two different Off-Peak Day Returns for these journeys.

For journeys beyond their own lines, including journeys between the West Anglia line and Great Eastern main line, simplified and contactless fares are still not completely loaded yet, with fares still available in the legacy forms, therefore the information in this article is subject to change before the final roll-out. However, tickets are already on sale at the new prices for travel on or after 7 December, as shown in the following screenshots, showing a return journey more expensive than the withdrawn Anytime Return fare.