Cheapest London tube tickets required

pem

Hi
i need help finding cheapest London tube tickets for late November 2023

will be starting journeys from Kew bridge tube station which is zone 3

2 adults aged over 66 (concessions)

For 3 consecutive whole midweek days Wednesday / Thursday / Friday

Travelling off peak after 9.30am

We will only be using the tube and not buses 

price for journeys in zones 1 to 3
(How much would zones 1 to 4 be ?)

Would prefer paper tickets rather than ones on phone

what are the tickets called and can I get them at Kew Bridge tube station on 1st day 

MSE_James

You can look up the fares between any two stations in the London area here:
 https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/single-fare-finder

For single journeys, paper tickets will certainly not be the cheapest option.

However, depending exactly on your plans, a paper Off-Peak Day Travelcard may be a better option.

Do either or both of you hold a Senior Railcard? 

DullGreyGuy

How many trips are you intending to be making each day? 

The advantage of the digital solutions is that there is that its pay as you go until you hit the daily limit and then its free after that. So if you have a day with only a little travel you dont waste paying the travelcard cost. If you know you are doing a dozen journeys a day then thats not a risk.

Like most counties, there is no discount just for being old unless you live in London. There are discounts for certain rail cards including the Senior Railcard if you happen to hold one. 

For 3 days a week you can buy a daily off peak travel card (zone 1-6 is the same price as zone 1 only or anything else up to 6) for £15.20 or £40.70 for a week. If you have a Senior Railcard then the daily drops to £10

If you use pay as you go on Oyster then the cap for 1-3 is £9.60 or £6.30 with a railcard and is an anytime ticket price so you'll be paying much more to pre-buy a travelcard and limited to offpeak unless you may want to go out to Zone 6 

Adult fairs: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/adult-fares.pdf
Fairs with a Railcard: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/railcard-fares.pdf

There is no early purchase discounting etc

MSE_James

The only thing to add to @DullGreyGuy's answer is that if you don't already have an Oyster card, these now require a £7 non-refundable deposit which may tip the balance as to the best value way to proceed in your case.

katejo

MSE_James said:

You can look up the fares between any two stations in the London area here:
 https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/single-fare-finder

For single journeys, paper tickets will certainly not be the cheapest option.

However, depending exactly on your plans, a paper Off-Peak Day Travelcard may be a better option.

Do either or both of you hold a Senior Railcard? 

Aren't 1 day travelcards being discontinued? Wouldn't it be easier to just use a debit card (no phone needed) and make sure that the same card is used for every journey so that daily limits work?

MilesT6060842

katejo said:

 

Aren't 1 day travelcards being discontinued? Wouldn't it be easier to just use a debit card (no phone needed) and make sure that the same card is used for every journey so that daily limits work?

There is a proposal to discontinue travelcards (please email haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk and express your displeasure) but they are not gone yet and may not be gone by November.

Also worth asking the question on oysterfares.com, the owner of the site is super helpful

Kew Bridge is not a tube station, Kew Gardens is (as is Gunnersbury which is nearby)

Use of buses as well as tube/rail would not make a price difference.

To work out the cheapest option would need to know

• Age 66: Do they have bus passes with the ENCTS red rose symbol?  If so then buses are free in London also (but take longer)
• Zone 1 or not  (if not, then maybe should start at an Underground/Overground station like Kew Gardens or Gunnersbury for better flexibility at low cost)
• do they have an oyster card already
• do they have senior railcards (or would it be worth getting them across a whole year).  If you have a senior railcard and an oystercard then you can get the staff operating the first TfL gateline to add the "Senior Railcard discount" flag onto the oystercard, this does not work for debit cards (no concessionary discount possible without an Oyster)
• How many trips
• If starting from Kew Bridge (rail to Waterloo), and only going one place in London, how far from Waterloo (could it be rail and bus, especially with free bus pass), offpeak rail ticket & bus might be cheaper than a travelcard or using debit cards.

Other points

• With careful purchasing on eBay you may be able to buy an active unregistered Oystercard for less than £7, but you need to confirm the status (active, no debit balance, unregistered) and take a risk (try registering the card online on receipt and then top it up online).
  
• If using debit or credit cards cards you need to use a different card for each person and they have to have different numbers (some joint accounts have the same number on all the cards on the account, and the second person wont pass through the gateline or will get a penalty fare on the card) 

jon81uk

If you don't have a railcard the simplest and cheapest is just to tap a contactless bank card.

pem

Hi all thanks for your replies

how does the contactless bank card option work.
do I tap it at a card reader  when entering at one station and off at the other end ? 

Is the journey cost the same for both credit and debit cards ?

If I make 4 of 5 journeys in a day is there a maximum daily cap on the total I pay ?

 If so how will charges show when looking at my bank statement? As several smaller payments or 1 capped daily charge ?

I will be starting at Brentford or Kew Bridge and roaming around zones 1 to 4 - will my contactless work between mixed underground and overground stations ?

will limiting use to zones 1 to 3 be any cheaper ?

thanks in advance for any help

Momanns

pem said:

Hi all thanks for your replies

how does the contactless bank card option work.
do I tap it at a card reader  when entering at one station and off at the other end ? Yes

Is the journey cost the same for both credit and debit cards ? Yes

If I make 4 of 5 journeys in a day is there a maximum daily cap on the total I pay ? Yes 

 If so how will charges show when looking at my bank statement? As several smaller payments or 1 capped daily charge ? (1 Capped daily charge)

I will be starting at Brentford or Kew Bridge and roaming around zones 1 to 4 - will my contactless work between mixed underground and overground stations ? Yes

will limiting use to zones 1 to 3 be any cheaper ? No 

thanks in advance for any help

                                                      

pem

Many Thanks to Momanns for clarification

just one last question - currently what is the capped daily charge mid week Wednesday to Friday

jon81uk

pem said:

Hi all thanks for your replies

how does the contactless bank card option work.
do I tap it at a card reader  when entering at one station and off at the other end ? 

Is the journey cost the same for both credit and debit cards ?

If I make 4 of 5 journeys in a day is there a maximum daily cap on the total I pay ?

 If so how will charges show when looking at my bank statement? As several smaller payments or 1 capped daily charge ?

I will be starting at Brentford or Kew Bridge and roaming around zones 1 to 4 - will my contactless work between mixed underground and overground stations ?

will limiting use to zones 1 to 3 be any cheaper ?

thanks in advance for any help

You can see the caps here, Caps and Travelcard prices - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)
There is a cheaper cap for zones 1-3 (£9.60 for adults) compared to 1-4 (£11.70) but not by much so I wouldn't go too far our of your way.
Contactless will work on all stations in the zones.
You can see each single journey price here Single fare finder - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)

If you create an account then you can see the journey history and how the charges were worked out.
Contactless and mobile pay as you go - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)