London Travelcard goodbye!

Transport for London, the company that runs London's transport system, has made a decision that has been 'in the air' for some time. The dear old Travelcard is to be retired. As of 8 January 2023, the underground turnstiles will no longer accept 7-day Travelcards. Instead, day cards will continue to operate regularly.

So what happens in practice? Nothing particularly serious. The Visitor Oyster Card, which has been on sale for some time, will remain the ideal solution for getting around London.

It is useful at this point to give a brief overview of how Oyster Cards work.

These cards work on a daily and weekly price cap principle.

You can buy an Oyster Card of different denominations: £20, £25, £30 and so on. Every time you travel, an amount (much discounted compared to a single ticket) is downloaded until you reach the 'price cap'. But how much does it amount to? For zones 1 and 2, for example, it is £7.70 per day, and £38.40 per week.

For the daily 'price cap' it goes from the start of the service until midnight.

The weekly 'price cap' is calculated from Monday to Sunday. So if you start travelling on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, it's OK. By Sunday you will reach the weekly 'price cap' of £38.40 and you will then only need an Oyster Card loaded with £40 to travel unlimited for 7 consecutive days. If, on the other hand, you start travelling from Thursday onwards, this mechanism is not triggered and you will only continue with the daily 'price cap' of £7.70 per day.

A bit complicated isn't it?

See our Oyster Card page for more details