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Rail passengers travelling between Gatwick and London will be able to use Oyster and contactless payment from next year.

The pay-as-you-go system will be brought in at the Sussex airport and five other stations on the route from January.

A rush-hour single journey trip from a London terminal to the airport using Oyster or contactless (but excluding Gatwick Express) will cost £14, compared to £15.40 at the moment for a paper ticket.

“As we undertake the biggest rail modernisation since the Victorian era, improving London to Gatwick by rail is another step to a modern railway that strengthens the economy,” said rail minister Claire Perry.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson stressed the new system would give passengers a “quick and easy” way to pay for their journey.

“We’ve already extended this on a number of key routes outside of London and it makes perfect sense for Londoners, commuters and passengers from around the world to benefit from this further link to Gatwick Airport,” he explained.

Passengers on Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink services serving the airport will be able to use Oyster and contactless following the agreement between Transport for London, the Government and Govia Thameslink Railway.

The airport’s chief commercial officer Guy Stephenson said: “It means a single ticketless system will link Gatwick with the whole of Greater London so passengers can benefit from seamless connections to and throughout the capital.”

TfL’s director of customer experience Shashi Verma stressed nearly a quarter of pay-as-you-go travellers in London were already using contactless payment, with more than a million such journeys a day.

He added: “Already customers from 70 countries across the world are using their contactless payment cards on the capital’s transport network.

“We are committed to making paying for transport easier for everyone and this extension will allow travellers from across the world to quickly jump on a train to central London and start their holiday or business trip with minimum fuss.”

The pay-as-you-go technology will also be introduced at Horley, Salfords, Earlswood, Redhill and Merstham stations.

It will lead to a number of journeys, including on Gatwick Express, being slightly cheaper.