London - Tube and other fares in 2015

Transport for London has announced fares for 2015, and there are some significant changes that are likely to affect many visitors. These new fares will come into force on 2 January 2015.

There are the usual small increases in individual fares.

One significant change is to the daily price caps when using Oyster or contactless. A cap is the maximum amount that you will be charged for travel in one day in the zones and by the modes of transport that you use. This is calculated dynamically so you don't have to work out in advance whether you will reach a cap that day. You are simply charged for the travel that you use until you reach the applicable cap for the travel that you have actually done; from then on you are not charged any more unless the applicable cap changes (eg you venture into a new Zone so a higher cap applies).

Hitherto, there have been different daily caps depending on whether you have done any travel during the weekday morning peak. The current rates for Zones 1-2 (the zones within which most visitors are likely to do all their travelling) are £8.40 peak and £7.00 off-peak.

In 2015, the off-peak daily cap will be abolished, and there will only be one all-day daily cap.

However, for most visitors this will actually be good news because the new all-day daily cap for Zones 1-2 will be only £6.40.

Another significant change is the withdrawal of one-day Travelcards valid only for the innermost zones. (If you buy a Travelcard, you pay the full cost regardless of how much or little you end up using it.) At present, you can buy a Zones 1-2 one-day Travelcard for £9.00 including weekday morning peak travel. There is also an off-peak one-day Travelcard; if you include Zone 1, the cheapest is for Zones 1-6 for £8.90.

Next year, the minimum cost for a one-day Travelcard will be £12.00. If you include Zone 1 and weekday morning peak travel, that will cover Zones 1-4. For those Zones, there will in effect be no off-peak version (but if you need more Zones than that, then there will still be a cheaper off-peak version).

The consequence is that using Oyster or contactless in Zones 1-2 will at most be only a little more more than half of the cost of using a one-day Travelcard. (It will be even cheaper if you don't travel enough to reach the Zones 1-2 cap.)

An Excel spreadsheet with 2014 and 2015 fares is currently available from the TfL website - click here.

Thank you for the crystal clear explanation. The drop in the daily cap for travel in zones 1-2 to £6.40 is good news. I see from the spreadsheet that a seven day zone 1-2 travelcard is tolerable at £32.10.

Is there an explanation for the change in the one day zone 1-2 travelcard?

Is there an explanation for the change in the one day zone 1-2 travelcard?

Thanks for posting this Globaliser. I was just reading my old posts when we did Europe in 2004 and you were very helpful to me then. I do have a couple of questions. Can you still buy one day travelcards from the magazine shops?

Thanks,

Tammy

Can you still buy one day travelcards from the magazine shops?