Choosing the most appropriate ticket option for a journey by public transport isn’t always easy. The best ticket to choose will depend upon how you are travelling, where from and how frequently.
What is for sure, however, is that unless your journey is a one off or infrequent, paying for your ticket on the day could be wasting you a lot of money. There are a wide range of ticket options available which can dramatically reduce the cost of public transport journeys made, so make sure you have checked out your options! To help out we have provided some useful pointers below:
Travelcard Season Tickets
A Travelcard gives you unlimited travel at any time on bus, Tube, Tram, DLR, London Overground, TfL Rail and National Rail services in London.
You can buy a 7-day, Monthly, 3-month, 6-month, odd period or Annual Travelcard season ticket. If you choose an Annual Travelcard you’ll get 12 months travel for the price of ten and a half. Monthly Travelcards are cheaper than buying four 7-Day Travelcards. Your Travelcard season ticket can start on any day of the week and can be used at any time.
You can buy Travelcards on Oyster:
- Online with a contactless and Oyster account, if you have a UK bank account (7 Day, Monthly, 3 month, 6 month or odd period and Annual Travelcard)
- Using the free TfL Oyster and contactless app (7 Day, Monthly and 3 or 6 month and Annual Travelcard)
- At Oyster Ticket Stops in many newsagents in London (7 Day and Monthly Travelcards)
- At ticket offices at London Overground, most TfL Rail and National Rail stations (7 Day, Monthly, 3 month, 6 month or odd period and Annual Travelcard)
- At ticket machines at Tube, London Overground, most TfL Rail and National Rail stations (7 Day or Monthly Travelcard)
- At Visitor Centres (All Visitor Centres sell 7 Day and Monthly Travelcards. Heathrow, King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Piccadilly Circus and Victoria Visitor Centres sell 3 month, 6 month and odd period Travelcards)
Bus & Tram Pass Season Tickets
If your regular journey only consists of travel by bus and tram, then a Travelcard might not be the right ticket for you. You can buy a 7-day, Monthly or Annual Bus & Tram pass and add it to your Oyster card. As with a Travelcard, an Annual ticket gives you 12 months for the price of ten and a half and a Monthly ticket is cheaper than four 7 Day passes. Your Bus & Tram pass can start on any day of the week and can be used for journeys that start before 04:30 the day after the expiry date.
You can buy Bus & Tram passes at all of the same places you can purchase a Travelcard ticket, aside from at London Overground and TfL Rail ticket offices, where only One Day paper tickets are available.
Adult Bus & Tram pass costs:
- 7 Day – ยฃ24.70
- Monthly – ยฃ94.90
- Annual – ยฃ988.00
Hopper Fares
The improved Hopper fare allows you to make an unlimited number of bus and tram journeys within an hour for just ยฃ1.75. You only need to touch in when getting on the bus or tram, using the same Oyster or contactless card on all the journeys you make, and the discounted fare will be applied automatically.
Train Tickets
Paying for train journeys isn’t complicated, you can turn up at the train station and purchase a ticket for a single journey, but if your trip is a regular commute a period ticket will be much better value.
National Rail offers a season ticket calculator so you can work out how much your regular commute will be โ and more importantly how much youโll save compared to buying a ticket each day!
If you are making a one off journey to London by train you can still make savings! Booking train travel in advance is an easy way to get cheaper tickets, with the number of cheap advance fares available doubling in the last few years! Advance tickets are available to buy as far as 12 weeks before your date of travel and can usually be purchased up until 6pm the day before! Tickets can be purchased from a number of places but here are our recommendations:
If you’re more flexible with the dates/times of your train journey, National Rail Enquiries have a great ‘Cheapest Fare Finder’ tool which will show you the lowest possible fare for all UK train operators on all routes.
You can now pay for journeys on suburban train services which both start and finish within zones 1-9 using your Oyster card. Find out more about National Rail fares, caps and Travelcards beyond Zone 9 by following the link below.
Pay As You Go Guide
You can use contactless (card and mobile device) and Oyster cards for adult rate pay as you go travel on all transport services across London. There are a couple of handy guides to using contactless payments on the TfL website if you aren’t familiar with it.
Pay As You Go Caps
Make as many pay as you go journeys as you like using contactless (card or device) or an Oyster card in a day or a week (Monday to Sunday) and your fare will be capped so you don’t pay more.
The cap limit will vary depending on a number of things, including the zones you travelled through and the times you travelled. Find out more about capped fares by following the link below.
Additional Help and Support
If you need any more help or assistance in planning your commute, please get in touch with the MyCommute team. We can provide you with a Personalised Journey Plan to highlight all your travel options โ simply fill out the contact form with details of your commute and we’ll do the rest.