OYSTERS are soon to be found on the Thames—helping commuters get to work. The Oyster travel cards are soon being extended to river boat services which include the new clipper run between Canary Wharf and London Bridge

OYSTERS are soon to be found on the Thames—helping commuters get to work.

The Oyster travel cards used by millions of passengers on London’s buses an Underground are being extended to river boat services.

These include the new clipper run between Canary Wharf and London Bridge which has just been started.

Thames Clipper services are accepting the pay-as-you-go cards from November, which could trim travelling costs by up to a third.

The commuter clippers’ carried 2.7 million passengers up and down the Thames last year alone, an increase of nearly 400 per cent in the previous two years.

Now Tower Pier is being extended, it which will pave the way for more river commuter traffic when work is finished in 2011.

Pier owners, boat operators and local authorities have signed up to City Hall’s ambitious programme to turn the Thames into the river highway’ as a fresh alternative to London’s crowded public transport.