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London transport: Tube, bus, rail, river and walking
A London journey has three moving parts: the route, the payment method and the journey home. Get those right before choosing between the Tube, bus, rail or river.
Start with the door-to-door journey
The familiar line name is only the middle of a London trip.
A station exit on the wrong side of a large junction, a long interchange or a final walk with luggage can matter more than one extra stop. Enter the destination you will actually use, not just the nearest famous landmark.
For a show, use the venue entrance; for an airport trip, use the terminal. Compare the final walking section before accepting the first route.
The current check, before you travel
Source checked · Europe/London. This check covers the rules below; older dated comparison rows retain their own check dates.
Source review needed. This planning check is older than seven London days or unavailable. Older event checks are excluded below; verify current details with the linked organisers.
Keep the same card or device for your touches. Tube and rail pay-as-you-go journeys need touch-in and touch-out; buses and trams need touch-in only. A bank card and its phone-wallet version are separate travel identities.
Checked adult daily cap examples are £8.90 for Zones 1–2, £10.50 for Zones 1–3 and £16.30 for Zones 1–6. These are ceilings for eligible journeys, not a flat charge or a promise that every airport train is included. The fare day runs 04:30–04:29.
Bus/tram-only adult fares are currently £1.75 single and £5.25 daily cap. TfL announces £1.85 single and £5.55 daily cap from 1 November 2026. Keep the travel date attached to the price.
Official payment instructions ↗ · Current caps ↗ · Bus fare change ↗
Make the journey simpler
Choose the bit you need now: payment, an airport arrival or the way home after a late night.
- Oyster vs contactless · Choose by traveller and payment rules.
- Tube zones · Match your route to the fare rules.
- Night transport · Plan the way home before going out.
- Airport overview · Compare the complete arrival.
- Heathrow to London · Choose the London station you actually need, not simply the train with the shortest advertised journey.
- Gatwick to London · Victoria is not the right arrival for every hotel. Compare the Southern and Thameslink corridors before buying.
- Stansted to London · Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale lead to different onward journeys. Choose the useful connection, then the ticket.
- Luton Airport to London · Luton Airport Parkway is not the terminal. Settle the DART connection before comparing train prices.
- London City Airport to London · Start with the DLR connection, then choose the interchange that gets you close to your destination.
- ULEZ vs Congestion Charge · Check the vehicle and the journey separately.
On this page
Choose one payment method and keep it consistent
TfL treats a contactless bank card and its phone or watch version as separate devices for travel, even when they draw on the same account.
Use one card or device for your touches and for the day’s travel. Switching halfway through can split the journey records and affect capping.
Keep other payment cards away from the reader so the intended card is the one presented. Use Oyster vs contactless to compare payment choices by traveller eligibility and journey type before deciding which card or device to use consistently.
The touch-out rule depends on the service
For pay-as-you-go Tube and rail journeys, touch in and out with the same card or device.
Buses and trams normally need a touch-in only. Station arrangements matter: TfL gives specific instructions for tram interchanges and the exit gates at Wimbledon.
Follow the local signs rather than using a general rule to walk through a gate unrecorded. An incomplete rail journey can attract a maximum fare and may not count toward the daily cap.
A cap is a payment rule, not a pass for every service
Do not build the budget by adding together a rail journey, a boat ride and a cable-car visit as if every fare belongs to one unlimited ticket.
TfL identifies services excluded from ordinary daily capping, including River Bus and the London Cable Car. Check the fare for the service you intend to use.
This guide gives no fixed fare total: zones, route, time and eligibility affect the calculation.
Plan the return before booking the outing
A daytime connection does not establish that the same route works after a late performance.
Set the journey planner to your realistic return time and check the dated engineering notice. Our separate weekend travel reports belong to their stated weekends; an old closure paragraph should not govern a new trip.
Save a second route and the venue address before leaving, especially when several people need to get home together. When the outing falls on 31 December, use New Year’s Eve in London to keep event access and the journey home together, then check the responsible operator for your actual travel time.
Use fewer interchanges when the day needs flexibility
A family outing or a trip with bulky bags is often easier when the route has one understandable interchange rather than several theoretically quick changes.
Compare a direct bus with the rail route, and check whether walking between nearby stops simplifies the last part. This is a planning choice, not a promise that the bus is faster: traffic, the date and your destination still decide the actual journey.
Separate access checks from ordinary routing
A route that exists on a network diagram is not automatically suitable for your access needs.
Use the planner’s accessibility settings and recheck the station information for your date. The final street approach and venue entrance are separate questions.
Keep the source links below available for the next check rather than relying on a saved screenshot of a journey made weeks earlier.
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