News from West Sussex and around: Stagecoach, naturally, have contactless card payments and Compass Bus have recently started to accept the cards for payment.
This means that, in Brighton, operators with smaller presence are up-to-speed, but the major players are not. Brighton & Hove were apparently looking for a system that was no slower than the Key Cards currently are (doesn't seem much of a challenge, so perhaps they just couldn't get hold of the machines).
Change is on the way though. It seems that contactless will be introduced from January next year and the company is planning for this to be a touch-in & touch-out system with a daily cap which ought to drive demand as passengers will not need to commit to Saver ticket in advance. What is not clear at present is whether other operators will be included in the scheme (Metrobus as part of the same company, as well as Compass and Big Lemon operating services under contract to the City Council charge common fares and issue and accept inter-available tickets). It would be a pity if this sort of co-operation was lessened, but we already see that KeyGo tickets which combine bus and train are only valid on Go-Ahead operations.