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London, what’s best value please..
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telstarbox
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Are you arriving by train? If so where from?
Using a contactless credit or debit card will almost certainly be the cheapest way. Just touch your card on the reader at the gateline when you enter the system and touch out on the gateline when you exit and the system will calculate the appropriate fare and charge your account.
Unless of course you have a Railcard. If so get an Oyster, register the Railcard and save offpeak.
Yes, of course although Two Together, Family & Friends and Network Railcards cannot be added to Oyster cards.
The maximum daily cap for travel in Zones 1 and 2 only is £7.40 and £4.90 with a railcard.
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I'm going to say that assuming you have UK issued contactless cards* then touching in and out with your contactless card is your best option. I will summarize the other options and why I don't think they are the best deal for your particular case.
For day trips into London by rail, outboundary travelcards can be a good deal, but they aren't applicable if you are staying in London for multiple days as the "outboundary" part is effectively a day return.
Paper day travelcards are generally more expensive than oyster/contactless capping. They can be a good idea if you are "bashing" because they don't suffer from maximum journey times/mismatched touches, but those shouldn't be issues for people using trains/tubes for regular travel.
Oyster PAYG has the advantage that you can add some railcards to it, but from what I understand even if you have a suitable railcard actually getting it added can be a hassle. Worth going through the hassle if you are in London regularly but for occasional trips I'd question the value.
* Or a foreign contactless card that doesn't charge per-transaction fees for transactions in the UK.
For day trips into London by rail, outboundary travelcards can be a good deal, but they aren't applicable if you are staying in London for multiple days as the "outboundary" part is effectively a day return.
Paper day travelcards are generally more expensive than oyster/contactless capping. They can be a good idea if you are "bashing" because they don't suffer from maximum journey times/mismatched touches, but those shouldn't be issues for people using trains/tubes for regular travel.
Oyster PAYG has the advantage that you can add some railcards to it, but from what I understand even if you have a suitable railcard actually getting it added can be a hassle. Worth going through the hassle if you are in London regularly but for occasional trips I'd question the value.
* Or a foreign contactless card that doesn't charge per-transaction fees for transactions in the UK.
A very good summation of the options.
Senior can, surely, I "know" because I just got one ..... https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/national-railcard-discount (but I won't be bothering because I don't want an Oyster card in the first place and it's probably too much hassle if I had one, I'm only an occasional visitor).
EDIT "Family & Friends" can't be added to Oyster, so perhaps you meant this instead?
Thanks you, that's what I meant
I've updated my original post.
Note that there is only one transaction per day as far as the bank is concerned.
Yes, so on a two day trip you will get stung with the fee twice.
Probably still less than the card fee for an oyster card unless the bank really sucks, but I didn't want to get into detailed discussion in the post as I suspected the travellers are most likely in the UK.
Probably still less than the card fee for an oyster card unless the bank really sucks, but I didn't want to get into detailed discussion in the post as I suspected the travellers are most likely in the UK.
Agreed. My comment was more aimed at those who think every journey is a separate charge.
Presumably because TfL levy a single cumulative daily charge, the maximum being the relevant cap, to the card?
thejuggler
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For shorter hops which may be slightly too far to walk I'd also recommend considering the bus. £1.55 per trip. Citymapper is a great resource for info on the bus number and stops to use.
Another couple of more left field options. Excuse me if teaching to suck eggs but this is based on the "very rare visitor" comment: 1. Many occasional visitors knowledge is based on islands around tube stations, and these islands are often actually quite close together. Many central London journeys are easy to do on foot, by bus (cheaper, usually slower, often more scenic than the tube, just tap in with a contactless card), or by downloading Uber, gett, here now etc cab apps, all of which almost constantly have promotional codes available for new users offering several cheap trips.
Dave W
Member
Correct - the charge generally arrives on my Monzo at some point during the following morning.
Agree with this - the temptation is to get the tube everywhere but if you’re mobile enough and staying vaguely central most journeys are walkable. If not a bus route usually exists and you actually get to see the city then. Citymapper is certainly good at pointing out alternatives.
My general rule is if the Jubilee, Central or Piccadilly fit your route, use them, they are faster.
if you route features short hops on the district in zone 1, look on Google maps, walking might be faster.
If your able bodied, Convent Garden, Leicester Sq, Piccadilly Circus down to Charing Cross and as far as Green Park are all walkable distances between each other, faster +/- a minute than using the tube between them.
if you route features short hops on the district in zone 1, look on Google maps, walking might be faster.
If your able bodied, Convent Garden, Leicester Sq, Piccadilly Circus down to Charing Cross and as far as Green Park are all walkable distances between each other, faster +/- a minute than using the tube between them.
At weekends of late that service has declined massively... try every 10 minutes on a sunday…. Its even causing the barriers at Victoria to be closed to manage congestion on the platforms.. (anyone remember those days before covid).
Experienced it 3 straight weekends in a row, mid afternoon.
Service on other lines is much reduced too at weekends…its taking me much longer to cross London than it used to, through waiting for trains, and they are crammeed like a pre- covid rush hour much more on saturdays, especially, for sure as a result.
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Hi guys. Could someone help me understand the issue with Contactless? I understand you may get not 'normal' tapping in and out (because of odd journeys without leaving the network, or longer time on stations) which may then break the 'maximum journey time' rule. The TfL website says you could then be charged 2 x maximum fare (whatever that means) but surely the daily cap still applies, so what's the problem?
The daily cap doesn't apply where a maximum fare is charged, only on journeys which are properly completed. That is the problem.
The maximum is the relevant cap as long as the card has been used correctly. Note that if someone spent all day travelling back and forth between Paddington and Heathrow on the Express and touching in and out at each end each time then the charge would be in the £100s.
I'd be interested to know what sort of time it appears if you can help. Start a conversation if you don't want to make it public.
Incomplete journeys where the maximum fare has been charged do not count towards the daily cap. If you exceed the maximum journey time then you may get one maximum fare relating to the touch in and another one relating to touching out.
Dave W
Member
No worries, I just won't include my sort code
The "challenger" banks with their apps are good for this sort of thing as they give you an exact time (and a notification).I've gone through all of October to see if there's a pattern, cross checking against my TfL account. Provides some insight about TfL reconciliation! Sometimes Saturdays are charged on Monday, sometimes on Sunday. There are some other quirks too. I don't pay close attention but if you asked me before checking I'd say the charge would come through on the morning of the following day - that was certainly how it used to be. It would appear, however, that's not the case anymore and it's got a bit random... The situation has started to normalise towards the end of the month though.
(FYI: The ones marked [x] appear to have updated the £0.10 credit check to include the travel for the day. TfL doesn't always do that check. On the three occasions marked, the time is when I first used the card that day. Other times they don't do this and then I get a refund of the £0.10 later. [As I said in another thread, I cocked up on the 16th and didn't complete a journey, so I suspect the £0.10 charge was then upgraded to charge me the £1.55 from the Sunday... Does rather look like they've time travelled!])
| Date of travel | Time card charged |
|---|---|
| Sat 2/10 | Sat 2/10 13:01 [x] |
| Sun 3/10 | Tue 5/10 02:57 |
| Wed 6/10 | Thu 7/10 02:39 |
| Thu 7/10 | Fri 8/10 13:12 |
| Sat 9/10 | Mon 11/10 10:01 |
| Sun 10/10 | Tue 12/10 00:41 |
| Wed 13/10 | Wed 13/10 08:04 [x] |
| Thu 14/10 | Fri 15/10 12:43 |
| Fri 15/10 | Sat 16/10 12:56 |
| Sat 16/10 | Mon 18/10 02:08 |
| Sun 17/10 | Sat 16/10 13:35 (!) [x] |
| Fri 22/10 | Sat 23/10 12:55 |
| Sat 23/10 | Sun 24/10 13:25 |
| Sat 30/10 | Sun 31/10 13:16 |
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