You’ll get a second bus or tram journey for free if you change within an hour from Monday 12 September, 2016.
Londoners are so used to fares going up that the prospect of getting travel for free is going to take some getting used to. But Sadiq Khan promised a ‘one hour hopper’ ticket in his mayoral manifesto, and he’s delivering.
(In the interest of fairness, we should point out he nicked the idea from the London Lib Dems, who have been banging on about this for years.)
If you use Oyster or contactless cards you don’t need to do anything. Just get on your bus or tram as usual, and make sure you catch the next one within 60 minutes of touching in. Your next journey will automatically be free.
You can change bus to bus, tram to tram, bus to tram or tram to bus. Any other combinations we’ve missed?
Buy one bus journey, get more free
Londoners have been getting an extra bus journey for free since September 2016, but Mayor Sadiq Khan’s ‘one hour hopper’ has recently got a lot better. If you use Oyster or contactless cards you don’t need to do anything. Just get on your bus or tram as usual, and any other bus or tram journey you make within the next hour is free.
You can now also break up your bus and tram journeys with a tube, DLR, train or Overground trip. So you can get a bus to the tube and so long as you touch onto a bus at the other end within an hour, that next bus journey is free.
And don’t forget: if you’re using Oyster or contactless cards and only travel by bus and tram, your daily travel is capped at £4.50 anyway. Double Cheapo whammy.
Read more about how the hopper fare works on Transport for London’s website.
