RAIL passengers in Greater London are now paying for more than two million journeys a week with Oyster smartcards, after equipment to accept them was installed at the last of 350 suburban stations in the capital just over a year ago.

The completion of the Oyster programme marked the end of a long saga, during which the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone made funding available to National Rail operators to encourage them to update or install gatelines.

However, they were slow to respond at first, and much of the work was only done as the funding deadline approached.

The installation of Oyster had also been accelerated on those lines which form part of London Overground, after Transport for London took them over in November 2007 and began to upgrade and modernise their stations.

The upsurge in smartcard use is not surprising, because in most cases an Oyster card offers the cheapest single fare, as it also does on the Underground and other Transport for London services.

Even so, the figure of two million, which compares with 600,00 a week at the end of 2009, has been greeted with satisfaction by the present Mayor, Boris Johnson. He said: “Getting Oyster on National Rail has made a radical difference to people living in outer London. Many of who depend on overground rail to get around. I am pleased that the train operating companies worked with us to introduce this.”

About 16 million journeys are made by rail each week in London and the south east, according to the Office of Rail Regulation.

This total includes London Overground, but not the Underground or other TfL services.

Meanwhile, a project to introduce a National Rail smartcard still appears to be in its early stages. Some research was done with the co-operation of a small group of South West Trains commuters in 2008-9, who swiped trial cards and also recorded their journeys on paper so that the accuracy of the electronic data could be checked.