London fares.

[richw]

I'm trying to get my head around London travel and fares.

I have a contactless debit card, but will be travelling with my daughter (5 years old). We will probably be staying in a hotel in zone 5, so am I right in thinking I will need a daily paper travel card for my daughter and I can use my contactless card for the same fares and caps as an oyster?

Also what is the paper daily travel card child price?

Do they still do a 3 day travel card as we will be there Friday to Sunday?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Reason077]

Kids under 11 travel free on the Tube, Overground, TfL Rail, DLR, Busses, Trams and some National Rail services ("green routes"). No ticket needed so long as they're accompanied by an Adult.

Info here: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/travel-for-under-18s

There's no 3-day Travelcard. Contactless card is probably your best option, same fares and caps as Oyster.

 

[richw]

Kids under 11 travel free on the Tube, Overground, TfL Rail, DLR, Busses, Trams and some National Rail services ("green routes"). No ticket needed so long as they're accompanied by an Adult.

Info here: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/travel-for-under-18s

There's no 3-day Travelcard. Contactless card is probably your best option, same fares and caps as Oyster.

Thank you, that will explain why I could not find info on children's fares.

With the contactless card do I just tap in and out as I would with an oyster?

Sorry living in Cornwall I'm not familiar with all these modern options!

Would my child travel free on east Croydon to Victoria national rail or need a child return for that part of the journey?

 

[PermitToTravel]

Yep, it works the same way as an Oyster card

She'll need a ticket for travel between East Croydon and Victoria. A child day return is a whopping £5.55.

 

[185143]

Yep, it works the same way as an Oyster card

She'll need a ticket for travel between East Croydon and Victoria. A child day return is a whopping £5.55.

I would say then get a visitor oyster card, gives half price child fares, and without having checked, would expect this to be far cheaper than £5.55!

 

[MikeWh]

How long have you got until the trip? If you order a 5-10 zip Oyster card, cost £10, she will get free travel on all Oysterised rail routes except St Pancras Int'l to Stratford Int'l and Coulsdon South to Gatwick Airport. The card lasts until her 11th birtday. You can order online with a credit/debit card, passport photo to upload, and if you have a machine readable passport for her I believe they'll send it out straight away. If not then you may have to take proof of ID to a post office first.

 

[Haywain]

An alternative could be to buy an Off Peak Family Travelcard from Epsom (route Southern only). This will give you an adult (paper) Travelcard for £9.60, and a child Travelcard for £2.00. IIRC it needs to be an outboundary Travelcard to get the child rate at £2.00. Overall, this may work out a bit cheaper for you.

 

[Reason077]

If you want to save money and don't mind taking a slower route, you can always take the Tram to Wimbledon and the Tube from there, or the Overground from West Croydon.

 

[richw]

If you want to save money and don't mind taking a slower route, you can always take the Tram to Wimbledon and the Tube from there, or the Overground from West Croydon.

I wont be in any rush, so options to be considered. Never rode a tram so certainly something I wouldn't mind trying out.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I would say then get a visitor oyster card, gives half price child fares, and without having checked, would expect this to be far cheaper than £5.55!

I cant find anything about the half price child with visitor oyster online. Is it clear on a TVM if I went down this route?

 

[bb21]

I cant find anything about the half price child with visitor oyster online. Is it clear on a TVM if I went down this route?

Staff should be able to set the flag for you on your visitor card from a machine, for a maximum of 14 days. Obviously you cannot do it yourself.

 

[richw]

Thanks. using Contactless, and Overground to West Croydon and then Tram or Walk West Croydon to East Croydon will be a fair amount cheaper I think.

If I am reading correctly Overground Victoria- West Croydon £3.20, Tram £1.50
or Southern for Victoria -East Croydon £8.85.

 

[bb21]

There is no Overground service from Victoria. Do you mean Underground?

All journeys from Victoria to West Croydon using only services on the TfL fare scale that I can see involve quite long and winded routes, not sure what you have in mind. Perhaps I am missing something. Changing at Whitechapel being the most obvious one to me, but that is painfully slow, taking at least an hour as opposed to 15 minutes on Southern.

 

[simonw]

There is no Overground service from Victoria. Do you mean Underground?

All journeys from Victoria to West Croydon using only services on the TfL fare scale that I can see involve quite long and winded routes, not sure what you have in mind. Perhaps I am missing something. Changing at Whitechapel being the most obvious one to me, but that is painfully slow, taking at least an hour as opposed to 15 minutes on Southern.

I think he meant overground as opposed to underground. Not London Overground.

 

[Romilly]

There is no Overground service from Victoria. Do you mean Underground?

Presumably the reference to "Overground" should be to "overground", i.e. National Rail - that's a fairly common layperson's usage.

 

[richw]

There is no Overground service from Victoria. Do you mean Underground?

All journeys from Victoria to West Croydon using only services on the TfL fare scale that I can see involve quite long and winded routes, not sure what you have in mind. Perhaps I am missing something. Changing at Whitechapel being the most obvious one to me, but that is painfully slow, taking at least an hour as opposed to 15 minutes on Southern.

I don't know. I was reading this map which shows Victoria but I suspect I'm reading it wrong,
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-overground-network-map.pdf

I'm not worried about going the long way to save a few quid.

 

[Romilly]

I think that where Victoria appears on that map on a blue background next to a station it is to indicate that the Victoria underground line passes through the station concerned.

 

[bb21]

I think he meant overground as opposed to underground. Not London Overground.

Presumably the reference to "Overground" should be to "overground", i.e. National Rail - that's a fairly common layperson's usage.

Different fares quoted, and the mention of Southern implied to me that he did not mean "National Rail". I could be wrong mind.

I don't know. I was reading this map which shows Victoria but I suspect I'm reading it wrong,
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-overground-network-map.pdf

I'm not worried about going the long way to save a few quid.

Victoria's not on that map though.

 

[richw]

Victoria's not on that map though.

I was reading the blue highlight as being Victoria. I now know from the above post by Romilly that the blue highlight saying Victoria is actually the Victoria line.

 

[Reason077]

All journeys from Victoria to West Croydon using only services on the TfL fare scale that I can see involve quite long and winded routes, not sure what you have in mind.

Yeah, if Victoria is the actual destination then it's much slower to take the Tram+Tube or Overground than taking the direct service on Southern. But the time difference if travelling to many other destinations in central London would be smaller.

The cheapest route would be tram to Wimbledon and then the District line, as you'd only pay the Zone 1-3 fare cap (£7.60) instead of the Zone 1-5 cap (£11.00) for all your day's travel, and the kid wouldn't need a ticket.

 

[bb21]

That's actually not a bad shout, compared to the long trek along thr ELL.

 

[richw]

Yeah, if Victoria is the actual destination then it's much slower to take the Tram+Tube or Overground than taking the direct service on Southern. But the time difference if travelling to many other destinations in central London would be smaller.

The cheapest route would be tram to Wimbledon and then the District line, as you'd only pay the Zone 1-3 fare cap (£7.60) instead of the Zone 1-5 cap (£11.00) for all your day's travel, and the kid wouldn't need a ticket.

Thankyou for this suggestion and would work ok.

I've noticed on my dates a TFL update, will this have an impact to this suggestion? Sorry I don't know whether these places are on my routes. My initial destination on the Saturday will be the Natural History Museum, as that is where my daughter wants to visit. I'm guessing from the map on the nhm webpage South Kensington would be the best place to get off the Tube?

DISTRICT LINE: Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 February, no service between Tower Hill and Upminster to allow us to carry out track and drainage replacement work at Barking and Hornchurch, as well as Crossrail work at Whitechapel. Replacement buses operate.

 

[greatkingrat]

No, the engineering work is at the other end of the line so you will still be able to get from Wimbledon to Victoria or South Kensington

 

[bicbasher]

All journeys from Victoria to West Croydon using only services on the TfL fare scale that I can see involve quite long and winded routes, not sure what you have in mind. Perhaps I am missing something. Changing at Whitechapel being the most obvious one to me, but that is painfully slow, taking at least an hour as opposed to 15 minutes on Southern.

I've done the ELL to Victoria changing at Westminster and Canada Water.