How has the tfl cyber security incident not been resolved yet?

Question

The contactless page has been down for literally months. I get that it was a massive security incident, but it has been SO long now.

I'm not expecting all the systems to come back online immediately, it would just be really nice if we could have access to a list of the transactions we have made.

I'm a support worker and I work in the community, I'm also a student. I use my tfl receipts to expense my transport, which pretty much adds up to the travel cap every single time I go to work as I'm visiting multiple service users a day.

It's been months of not being able to expense and I'm genuinely on my knees financially from not being able to expense my travel. ~ £12 a day over months has ruined me.

It's not just the lack of resolving the issue, it's the complete lack of clarity as well. There is no estimated resolution time whatsoever, there hasn't been from the start. I (stupidly) hoped it would take a month to resolve, I was so wrong.

I've tried to reach out to them on Twitter to get some sort of help or estimation and I get the same response every time which is just along the lines of "yeh there's no estimated time sorry". My job is already hard enough and now I'm having to walk over 30,000 steps some days to try and save on travel, and to skip lunches as well. I've spoken to my employer and they've just told me to use an Oyster card from now on, which I have been doing, but that doesn't recover me the hundreds in unpaid expenses.

jennyjuergens · Answer

yeah it's a proper mess tbh. the contactless page being down for this long is insane, especially when the tfl systems themselves are working fine - you can still tap in and out no problem. i get that they're being cautious but months with zero transparency is rough

one thing that might help a bit - if you go into a tube station and talk to the staff at the ticket counter, they can sometimes print out a transaction history for you on the spot. it's not as convenient as online but it's something. i had to do that a few weeks back when i lost my bank statement and needed proof for work

also worth trying the tfl oyster app - it's been a bit glitchy but some people have said the login worked for them when the website didn't. you might be able to pull up your contactless history through the app even if the browser version is down. no guarantees but worth a shot

liamr · Answer

honestly this is such a frustrating situation, especially when you're out the money already. one thing that might actually help - if you register your contactless card on the tfl website (when it comes back up obvs) you can download your journey history as a csv file going back years. i know that doesnt help you right now but once it's fixed you'll be able to bulk download everything and submit it to your employer at once

also worth checking if your bank does detailed statements with merchant names - most high street banks let you download a full year of transactions with tfl listed as the merchant. it wont show individual journeys but it shows the total charged each day which might be enough for your expenses team. i had to do this for a freelance gig once and they accepted it

the lack of communication from tfl is honestly piss poor though. theres no excuse for not even giving a rough timeline after this long.

susanna · Answer

tfl have actually been pretty clear about one thing that gets overlooked - the attack hit their customer database directly, not just the website. thats why theyre being so cagey about timelines, they genuinely dont know what data was compromised or how deep it goes. doesnt help your situation obviously but explains the radio silence a bit

for the expenses thing though - if you're on oyster now, you can actually set up autotop-up and then download your journey history from the oyster site. its a separate system from contactless so it still works. the data is a bit different format but it shows every journey and what you paid. might be worth switching fully to oyster just for the paperwork side even if contactless is more convenient

also your employer saying "use oyster" without offering to backdate your claims is rough. if youve got a union at work this is exactly the kind of thing they can push on - tfl failure shouldnt mean you lose money. might be worth a chat with your rep if you have one

barbaraschreier · Answer

ngl this is one of those situations where tfl's customer service is genuinely useless and theres no workaround that fully solves it. but if youre desperate for something now, try the contactless page on mobile data instead of wifi - sometimes it loads on 4g when it wont on broadband, no idea why but it worked for me once last month

also your employer telling you to switch to oyster is a bit of a cop out tbh. if youve already got a contactless card registered you can request a paper statement from tfl by post - takes about 10 working days but its official and shows every journey. i did it for a tax return once and it worked fine. the number is on the back of your oyster card or you can find it on the website when its up

the real issue here is that tfl arent even pretending to care about people like you who rely on this stuff for work. £12 a day adds up fast and walking 30k steps just to save a few quid is brutal. maybe try contacting your mp or london assembly member - they sometimes have direct lines to tfl that bypass the useless twitter team

alin · Answer

The key thing people miss is that even if the contactless page is down, your actual journey data is still being recorded. If you email TfL's customer services at enquiries@tfl.gov.uk with your contactless card details and the dates you need, they can send you a CSV of your journeys. It takes about 5-7 working days but it's their official process for this kind of thing.

For the immediate cashflow problem, have you tried asking your employer to accept screenshots from your banking app showing the daily TfL charges? Most banks now show the merchant name clearly enough that a reasonable expenses team can match it up. The charges usually appear as "TFL TRAVEL CHARGES" or similar within 24 hours of each journey.

The 30,000 steps thing is genuinely awful and I'm sorry you're having to do that. TfL really dropped the ball on communicating with the people who actually depend on this system for their livelihood.

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