London bus and tram fares rise to £1.85 as three-year freeze ends
The single pay-as-you-go bus fare has gone up by 10p, and the daily cap is now £5.55. It is the first increase since March 2023, and Tube and rail fares stay frozen for now.
Bus and tram passengers across London are now paying more for their journeys. The first fare rise in more than three years came into force on Sunday 1 November.
An adult pay-as-you-go single bus or tram fare is now £1.85, up 10p from £1.75. The daily bus and tram cap has gone up by 30p, from £5.25 to £5.55.
The new fares started at 4.30am on Sunday. The Mayor of London approved the change in Mayoral Decision MD3517, which set out an overall rise of 5.7 per cent in bus and tram fares.
What passengers pay now
Here are the main adult fares:
Single bus or tram journey: £1.85, up from £1.75.
Daily bus and tram cap: £5.55, up from £5.25.
Weekly bus and tram cap and 7 Day Bus & Tram Pass: £26.10, up from £24.70.
1 Day Bus & Tram Pass: £6.40, up from £6.00.
Child and half-adult pay-as-you-go bus and tram fares have gone up to 90p.
The Hopper fare has not changed. Passengers can still make unlimited bus and tram journeys within one hour of first touching in, and pay just one fare. Nothing changes for holders of the 60+ London Oyster photocard or the Freedom Pass, who keep free travel.
End of a long freeze
Bus and tram fares had not gone up since March 2023, when the single fare rose to £1.75. Since then the Mayor has frozen them several times.
An earlier decision, MD3464, froze bus and tram fares until 5 July 2026. City Hall said this was the seventh freeze under the current Mayor. MD3517 then kept the freeze going over the summer, until 4.30am on 1 November, before the increase took effect.
During the summer, City Hall also ran a Weekend Hopper fare from 25 July to 31 August. Passengers paid a single fare on a Saturday or Sunday for unlimited bus and tram journeys that day.
The Hopper itself started in September 2016. That year the single bus fare was £1.50, so the new £1.85 fare is 35p higher than it was a decade ago.
City Hall has said that Londoners would still be paying around 16 per cent more on the Tube and rail if those fares had risen in line with inflation since 2016.
What it means locally
Buses are the main way many people get around West and North West London. Routes link Southall, Hayes, Hounslow, Uxbridge, Ealing, Wembley and Harrow, and many parts of these areas are a long way from a Tube or Elizabeth line station.
For someone who only uses buses, the daily cap means they will never pay more than £5.55 in a day on pay-as-you-go, however many journeys they make. Anyone touching in with the same contactless card or Oyster card all week will be capped at £26.10 from Monday to Sunday.
Tube, London Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR and other TfL rail pay-as-you-go fares, caps and Travelcards were not part of this rise. They remain frozen until the next annual fares change, expected in March.
Full fare details are on the TfL website.