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Travelling for free between Heathrow Airport terminals by using an Oyster Card for these journeys.

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stations

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Good morning. I am just wondering what the current policy is on using your Oyster Card to travel for free on the London Underground and TFL Rail and Heathrow Express services between the Heathrow Airport terminals? Does your card have to have credit on it? If so how much? Will a card without any credit work? Will a card that is loaded with a Bus & Tram Pass season ticket instead of any credit work? Does anyone know these answers? Any information is appreciated. I can't seem to find the answers to these questions. Thank you very much.
 
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FQTV

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There’s officially no free travel on TfL Rail, as far as I’m aware.

For the Heathrow Express, you don’t use Oyster; you pick up a free ticket from a machine next to the gateline.

For London Underground, any working Oyster or contactless debit, credit or chargecard will open the barriers, working effectively as a barrier pass. I suspect that the only reasons that a particular Oyster card wouldn’t work is if it has been damaged, cancelled or was over a threshold of negative value.

I further suspect that the lack of documented terms effectively supports the fact that it’s a barrier pass, without advertising the fact. Others may have personal experience to impart, of course, but if there’s nothing published, then presumably the specific coding rules can be changed at any time.

You’d never be stranded though, as you’d simply use Heathrow Express only, as used to be the case for free inter terminal transfers.

Indeed, you can also use the bus free of charge in the Heathrow Freeflow Zone, and you don’t even need to tap in for that.
 

paddington

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You can use Oyster for free travel on the Underground, TfL Rail or Heathrow Express.

For the tube I believe you need at least the fare to Hatton Cross to touch in (so adult £1.70 peak, £1.50 off-peak and £1** if you have a railcard) as there is no way to tell that you are making a free trip until you touch out.

The minimum fare on TfL Rail would be £6.20 / £6 to Hayes and Harlington. However, I'm not sure exactly how this works because you could change to the Heathrow Express without going through barriers - but HEx usually has on-train checks. At Paddington the barriers on the Heathrow Express platforms would deduct the full fare (£25 or £22), but not sure if they also withhold a further amount which is refunded when you touch out, or what happens in reverse.


**Many years ago we did a test and a railcard-Oyster with £1 didn't open the barriers at a Zone 6 station, but a railcard-Oyster with £1.05 did.
 

mattdickinson

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There’s officially no free travel on TfL Rail, as far as I’m aware.

For the Heathrow Express, you don’t use Oyster; you pick up a free ticket from a machine next to the gateline.

For London Underground, any working Oyster or contactless debit, credit or chargecard will open the barriers, working effectively as a barrier pass. I suspect that the only reasons that a particular Oyster card wouldn’t work is if it has been damaged, cancelled or was over a threshold of negative value.

I further suspect that the lack of documented terms effectively supports the fact that it’s a barrier pass, without advertising the fact. Others may have personal experience to impart, of course, but if there’s nothing published, then presumably the specific coding rules can be changed at any time.

You’d never be stranded though, as you’d simply use Heathrow Express only, as used to be the case for free inter terminal transfers.

Indeed, you can also use the bus free of charge in the Heathrow Freeflow Zone, and you don’t even need to tap in for that.

Free travel is definitely available on TfL Rail. It would be hard to get to T4 otherwise.

Heathrow Free Travel Map
 

FQTV

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Free travel is definitely available on TfL Rail. It would be hard to get to T4 otherwise.

Heathrow Free Travel Map

I was slightly doubtful on that point when I posted, as I struggled to find anything to specifically confirm the branding on the T4 Shuttle at the moment, as it has changed several times and I haven’t used it for a while.

I think/thought that it is/was branded Heathrow Express for that journey, though, hence the use of ‘technically’ not being TfL. I’d be interested in an update on that.

The map doesn’t show that TfL does run to T5 though, albeit as empty coaching stock only, to clear Heathrow Central platforms. Again, I’m not sure if that has any bearing on the contemporaneous accuracy of the map.
 

swt_passenger

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