It is a card which allows travel on underground, bus, and local train services in an area of London for a day, a week, a month, or periods of up to a year. Weekend travelcards are valid for two days over a weekend, usually Saturday and Sunday, but on weekends where the Monday is a bank holiday you can also buy them covering the Sunday and Monday. Travelcards, charged at the monthly rate, can be made up for any period between a month and ten months - beyond this it becomes cheaper to buy an annual card. The travelcard is valid on local trains within the national railways system (the former British Rail), and on the Docklands Light Railway. The area it covers is defined by a number of 'zones' within London.
The London Underground is usually referred to as 'the tube'. It is never referred to as a subway, which in British usage describes an underground walkway (there is one exception to this in Glasgow, where 'subway' is occasionally used in its American sense).
Zone 1 comprises Central London, and an area as far out as (for example) Earls Court to the West of London. Zone 2 is a doughnut-shaped area, around zone 1, stretching as far as (for example) Putney to the South West, Greenwich to the South East, and Hampstead to the North. Zone 3 is the next doughnut-shaped area, and so on until zone 6.
Any Travelcard is now valid for all London buses, even outside the zones that the card covers.
Most of London's attractions for visitors are in zone 1, as is most accommodation. In particular the Kensington area where many visitors stay is in zone 1. The whole of the Circle Line is in zone 1.
Heathrow airport is in zone 6. Gatwick and Stansted airports are outside the Travelcard area. Many maps and timetables have the zone boundaries marked on them.
The Metropolitan Line of the Underground has a few stations outside the Travelcard area. These are divided into groups, called A, B, C and D. So if you were to buy a Travelcard at Amersham covering all zones, it would be described as a Travelcard for zones 1-6 + ABCD.
If you know the name of a station, and want to know which zone it is in, look at this list.
You can get Travelcards from any Underground or national railways station with a staffed ticket office. In addition you can buy one-day Travelcards from ticket machines at stations. Many newsagents also sell one-day, and some other, Travelcards; they will display a sign advertising the fact.
You can also buy travelcards on line at http://www.ticket-on-line.co.uk/
You can buy a one-day travelcard up to four days before the date that it is to be used on.
For a one-day or weekend Travelcard, you need none.
The first time that you buy a Travelcard which runs for a week or longer, bring along a passport-size photo of yourself. The ticket clerk will laminate this into a 'photocard' which is separate from your Travelcard, and give you a wallet to hold the two cards. The photocard will have a number, which the clerk will write on the Travelcard.
Once you have a photocard, keep it for the next time you come to London. You can go on using the same photocard as long as you like, unless you have changed beyond recognition. There are photo booths at many Underground stations, which charge £ 3.00 for a passport photo.
You can now buy family Travelcards which provide travel for a family group for a day. To qualify the family group has to comprise one or two adults and from one to four children.
As an indication
These are examples; ask for a leaflet with more details at an underground station. Not every combination of zones and length of validity is available, so check with the ticket office when you arrive in London.
A rough guide is that, if you are making three or more single journeys in one day after 9 30am, you will be better off with a one-day Travelcard. If you are thinking of buying a one-day Travelcard on more than four days in a week, you may well be better off with a weekly card.
For comparison, a single underground fare within zone 1 costs £ 1.60, from zone 1 to Heathrow Airport is £ 3.70. Single bus fares are 70p or £ 1.00 according to whether they include zone 1.
Single underground fares permit one or more changes of train, if necessary to reach your destination, and can only be used on the day on which they are purchased. Single bus fares are strictly for one ride.
Yes. London Underground ticket offices, and touchscreen ticket machines at underground stations accept Mastercard, Switch and Visa. National railways ticket offices will accept these and in most cases American Express as well.
Probably not, unless it's being offered as part of a larger package. British travel organisations around the world do offer London Travelcards, but usually for more than the equivalent of the standard sterling price. Worse, most of the Travelcards sold outside the UK seem to be for all six zones, even though most visitors will only need zones 1 and 2.
There is no real saving in time or effort; it only takes a few minutes to buy a Travelcard once you are in London. If you are offered discount vouchers for attractions in London with a Travelcard that you buy in advance, be sure that you will actually use the vouchers and that you cannot get the same thing when you arrive.
However the visitor Travelcard does cover you for more than one day without requiring photographic identity.
Standard one-day Travelcards cannot be used before 0930 on Mondays-Fridays. They can be used at any time in the afternoon and evening, and Travelcards lasting a week or longer can be used at any time of the day. You can now buy more expensive one-day travelcards that are valid at any time
You can use all Travelcards, including one-day cards, on night buses (those with a letter N before the route number) until 0430 on the morning after the date that the card expires.
The last underground trains, and buses other than night buses, usually run between about midnight and 0030.
No. This is probably the one scheduled bus in London where it is not valid. Similarly Travelcards cannot be used on the Heathrow Express train from Paddington to Heathrow Airport
Yes. If it's a traditional thin card ticket, make sure the magnetic strip is facing down. If it's an Oyster card, use the card reader on top of the gate.
Better to get a week's zone 1 or zone 1-2 Travelcard, and pay individually for journeys further out. But if you are making a few excursions into the suburbs, for example to Kew Gardens and Greenwich, it's worth checking your costs. It doesn't cost much to get a Travelcard for more zones. If in doubt, consult the London Transport information people at the airport when you arrive.
Go to the ticket office and ask for exactly that. There is no difficulty in buying a ticket that is only valid in Central London at Heathrow.
Your single ticket from Heathrow to the edge of zone 2 will cost £ 2.10. To the edge of zone 1 it will cost £ 2.30.
What you need is something called a zone extension ticket. These are available from the ticket offices at Underground stations. Single zone extensions are also available from ticket machines
The same principle applies on other trains and buses: pay at the start of the journey for the stretch beyond the zones where your Travelcard is valid.
If you are going to Heathrow by tube, remember that trains from London go to terminal 4 first. They then go to terminals 1-3 and then, having navigated a large loop, keep going back towards Central London. This means that if you are flying from terminals 1-3, your journey to Heathrow will take a few minutes longer than your journey from Heathrow did.
Yes. The usual policy is to insist that all London buses are painted at least 80% red, but there are exceptions, such as the buses painted gold to mark the Queen's jubilee in summer 2002.
Ticket inspectors can, and do, charge penalties if they find you travelling without a valid ticket for the whole journey. On many parts of the transport system, the checks on tickets are quite relaxed, and the corollary of this is the use of penalty fares to deter fare dodging.
This is one occasion where it is usually worth buying a Travelcard outside London. If you are taking a trip to London from somewhere else in Britain, check with your local station and you may be able to combine a Travelcard with a train ticket to London, for a nominal amount extra.
In the other direction, if you already have a Travelcard, and want to take a trip out of London, show your Travelcard at a national railways booking office, and ask for a ticket from the outside of the appropriate zone to your destination
Generally these facilities are available if you are travelling to or from anywhere in Britain, South or East of a line running through (among other places) Ipswich, Ely, Peterborough, Rugby, and Warwick, and between Salisbury and Exeter.
Yes, if you have a through rail ticket which involves a change of stations in London. But it is strictly a single ticket and not a Travelcard, so if in this example you wanted to stay on the Underground, and take in that film you always wanted to see at the Ritzy in Brixton, you'll need to buy another single ticket for the trip back to Victoria station.
This is quite a recent idea for London, but well established in Paris. It is a book of ten single tickets, for use only on the Underground and only within zone 1, sold at a discount. Currently a carnet costs £ 11.50 whereas ten individual tickets would cost £ 16.00.
This is a one-day card that does not include national rail services, with a very few exceptions, but does allow travel before 0930. It cannot be used on night buses. An all zones LT card costs £ 8.00.
This is simply a Travelcard that is valid for a whole year.
Up to 16, but if you are 14 or 15 you need to get a special card which you can present as proof of age. Get this from an Underground station when you are in London. There are not generally any consessions for students over 16
London is a safe city by international standards, and there are no areas which you should particularly avoid. Do be on your guard against pickpockets and petty thieves, though.
The principle of one card valid across different modes of transport is popular and well-established and it is unlikely that anybody would seek to change it for political ends. There is a project to replace the existing tickets with smart cards, known as Oyster cards. This will, if anything, expand the scope of the Travelcard scheme, and also introduce new options for paying for tickets.
Phone (020) 7222 1234 at any time of the day or night.
Or look at Transport for London's own web site
Here are some Notes on place names in London
This list of questions is strictly unofficial and is not the responsibility of any organisation providing travel or transport services in London.
Last modified 27 August 2003