Bristol, Avon -- (SBWire) -- 08/03/2011 --M6 Toll operator, Midland Expressway, has partnered with CreditCall and Barclaycard, becoming the first toll road in the UK to enable drivers pay for their journeys by tapping their contactless cards on new readers installed at the Toll lanes.

With MasterCard and Visa concentrating on increasing usage of contactless technology countrywide, the joint effort between Barclaycard, M6 Toll and CreditCall is not only the UK’s first contactless project within transportation but also the biggest outside London.

CreditCall is providing on-site transaction servers connecting with the contactless card readers at each of the toll lanes over a secure network, sending transactions back to the CreditCall network for settlement. The whole process will operate within the scope of PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

Contactless payments will initially be trialled from autumn 2011, rolling the technology out across all M6 card-accepting toll booths in the first quarter of 2012 ahead of time for the London 2012 Olympics.

The new contactless technology will allow convenient and quick payments to be made by M6Toll customers, at the toll booths.

Tom Fanning CEO of Midland Expressway explained “CreditCall were awarded the contract to provide the additions to our toll lane infrastructure for contactless transactions, after demonstrating a resilient and cost-effective solution that will meet all the complex regulatory and security requirements imposed upon us.”

Peter Turner CEO of CreditCall said “We are delighted to have been chosen by Midland Expressway to provide our payment gateway services for such an innovative project. CreditCall’s core expertise is in providing secure transaction processing systems. The acceptance of contactless payment for using the M6 Toll road is a significant step forward."

According to the UK Cards Association, 16.2 million contactless-enabled credit and debit cards were in circulation in May 2011.