cheap public transport in London??

ex_fox_now_a_dragon

Is there any??
Whenever we visited London before I always got a family one day pass. I think these are now obsolete. What are my options now, we are a family of 2 adults & 2 children and are visiting London for 3 days next week. Most of our travelling will be in Zone 1.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

DavidHM

Which days? (Not sure if this still makes a difference, it used to but the rules may well have changed).

Winston_the_Dog

ex_fox_now_a_dragon wrote:

Is there any??
Whenever we visited London before I always got a family one day pass. I think these are now obsolete. What are my options now, we are a family of 2 adults & 2 children and are visiting London for 3 days next week. Most of our travelling will be in Zone 1.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The Socialist Republic of London (ie Livingstone still on an ego trip) forbids travel by any convenient means or public transport that can't be monitored. I'm afraid you'll have to visit the tfl site and divulge your credit card details to the system known as Oyster.

It's not a bad system for the individual travelling around Londonistan, but a complete pain in the a**e for families, tourists, etc.

Joking aside, it is a pain but look at https://www.tfl.gov.uk, badly designed web site but you can buy advanced tickets for public transport and can usually get a good deal to tie in with visits to some of the sites.

Astaroth

The 2 for 1 entry is good and relates to any train travel but I am yet to ever have my train ticket checked and have driven to somewhere and then used the voucher.

Depending on how old the children are (or more accurately how old they look) dictates how easy it is going to be for you. I still think that travel cards are good value for money - kids travel cards are something like £1 when travelling with an adult paying normal fair but if they look over 12 (I think thats the age) then they must have a special photo ID card to prove their age. According to TFL these take a few weeks to come through.

We have the added complication of having to use the "overground" trains too and so have been passed about a bit between TFL and National Rail and cannot just go for the oyster card option for when the little ones come to visit next week.

dag_2

How old are the children? If they're under 16, then travel on buses will be FREE. If they're under 11, then travel on Tube or DLR will also be free. For children under 16 but not under 11, then it's 50p for a single Tube or DLR journey, and you will not pay more than £1 per child per day, no matter how much a child travels in one day.

However, you will need to have the relevant Child Oyster photocards to claim these discounts - children who do not have the photocard may be expected to pay full adult cash fare.

See http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2007/visitors.asp for more information.

You'd be wise to allow four weeks to get a child photocard. Adult oyster cards don't take that long, though, because you don't have to provide a photo - in fact you can pick up an adult oyster card on the day from most tube stations when you first come to London.

Like Astaroth says, oyster pay as you go can't be used on national rail lines - you may find that paper travelcards are cheaper if you're going to be using both tube and national rail, and cheap day returns may be cheaper if you're using national rail only.

With a national rail cheap day return, you're allowed to break and continue your journey at any national rail station that lies on a reasonable route there or back, and you can break the journey at a station where you change between national rail and tube. But you can't break the journey at a tube station where you don't change to or from national rail.

As a rule, cheap day return tickets that include a section of journey on the tube will not be cheaper than buying a cheap day return for the national rail section only, and using oyster pay-as-you-go for the tube part of the journey. Travelcards may also be cheaper.

ex_fox_now_a_dragon

thanks for all the info guys. I've been on the website but can't order my tickets as the 1st day I'm able to buy for is Sun 25 Feb & I shall be back here in sunny Wales then. Shame about the time taken to get child discount photocards, I'll just have to play it by ear when we get there next Thursday but will definately remember to get my act together for next time we visit. It's a good thing I was lucky enough to get £15 rooms in Travelodge.