Cheap Travel in London

Beating the rising cost of traveling in London…

by Kelly Henderson (follow Kelly on Twitter: @kellythekiwi)

The cost of travel in London has rised on the 19^th of January. With the average increase for Travelcards and season tickets being 2.7%, I am definitely looking for ways to save money on my daily travel costs.

It is always cheaper to use an Oyster Card or a contactless payment card rather than paying cash, and you should travel outside of peak hours if possible.  But here are some other tips:

1# Get those legs moving

You will be surprised at how many places in London are accessible by foot – especially in Central London. Embarrassingly enough, when I first came to London I changed tubes at Bond Street to get off and go shopping at Oxford Circus. And the distance from Covent Garden to Leicester Square is the shortest distance between two stations on the whole underground system yet remains one of the most popular journeys. Failing that, hire a Santander Cycles. If you keep your journeys to less than 30 minutes a time, you’ll only pay £2 for 24 hours.

2# Take the bus whenever you can

Okay okay, so the novelty of being able to see what’s around you does start to wear off when you are doing the same journey every day. And, sometimes the traffic can be almost unbearable but, bus journeys are a lot cheaper than the tube. A single journey using an Oyster Card is £1.50 but if you are making several journeys then the daily cap is £4.40 meaning that you’re fourth bus journey is practically free.

3# Buy a Travelcard

If you need to take the bus or train to work and back, plus another couple of journeys throughout the week then it is cheaper to buy a weekly, monthly or annual pass. The longer you buy it for, the cheaper it is but it depends on how much available cash you have at the time – a monthly Travelcard works for me as that’s how often I get paid. Be careful – Zone 1-2 and Zone 1-4 off-peak daily Travelcards will no longer be sold so it will be cheaper to use the daily cap on your Oyster than paying for the Zone 1-9 Travelcard that is available.

Useful Twitter links for you to check out:

Transport for London: @TFLOfficial
Walk It: @walkitcom
Walk London: @walklondon
Barclays Cycle Hire: @BarclaysCycle
London TravelWatch: @LonTravelWatch

You may also want to check our Cycle in London guide.

p.s Feel free to share your Tips with me at  kelly@brokeinlondon.com.