To have not reasoned how expensive travel within London is!

Not saying this applies to OP's niece, but so many students these days a little bit lazy when it comes to walking. I work in a Uni and students queue up for ages for a shuttle bus that takes them max a mile down the road.
When I was a student in London in the late 90s we walked everywhere!

Cycling in many parts of London is dangerous.

The bus is cheaper than the tube .

It's for zone 1 and 2

I am just walking to the station now (25 mins) rather than get the bus or tram as it feels like £1.75 unnecessarily spent. If I was not paying then I might feel differently especially if I was a young person 🤪

You sound like an amazing aunt (and I'm sure she is lovely too)

Exactly- it's doable to live car-free within the Greater London area, even on the London edges of the home counties, but it's completely impossible to do it outside of the big cities up North. Even when one of us does get the train somewhere, we need to drive to the nearest station in a different village.

Yeah, luck of the draw I suppose!

I know. I'm a big advocate for not driving and using public transport instead, but the infrastructure really needs to be there and it needs to be affordable, otherwise you can't blame people for driving.

Has someone seriously suggested buying a classic car as an alternative??!

Agree with a pp that getting the discount via student Railcard would be helpful, also that if she's getting a monthly pass she needs to think it through in advance and decide which day to start it on. In December/January for eg presumably she won't be at college so much so it may not be worth it.

Public transport is expensive everywhere. London is actually better value than most of the rest of the UK in that provision is at least frequent and comprehensive. If I got the bus to work here I'd be paying £8 a day and it would take bloody ages even though it's only four miles away - two buses each way, infrequent service, lots of hanging around at stops. I wouldn't be able to use the bus to go out in the evening because there aren't any.

It's mad isn't it! We're a half hour drive from Liverpool and a 1 hour drive from Manchester, but getting the train to either will set us back ~£15 for an adult off peak. For 4 of us, that's almost £50 just to get in, whereas we can drive, pay £4 to cover the Mersey bridge if we go to Liverpool, and park for less than a tenner. Plus, the convenience of being able to leave when we want and not worry about getting a seat or forgetting a bag. It's no wonder we're in the middle of a climate emergency when public transport is so unappealing.

@MarkWithaC oh that's a bit of a bummer for you 🙁

I think travel in London is cheap. Cheaper than public transport where I live.
How much were you thinking it would cost?

She could get used to cycling quite quickly. I didn't cycle as a kid but learnt in my mid twenties and was cycling in busy city traffic within days. Long term it'll be worthwhile for her to put in the effort if she's only just starting Uni in London now.

£8 a day is not a lot but can she actually walk any of this instead?

If it continues I may suggest instead of the Oyster card I just transfer her say £100 a month to her bank. Then she can choose whether to use it on travel, or if she finds more economical ways of getting about she has more beer money

I think it's a much nicer gesture to top up her Oyster card directly so she always has a means of transport, which is essential in London. Other than walking, TfL is pretty economical and, more importantly, relatively safe.

Because it's impossible?

No, it's from a city to a village and not a route/bus company that is part of the scheme.

It's the tube too, but only off peak, it sounds like she'd save a lot. And of course if she's doing day trips having the Railcard will help.
You need a physical oyster card to get the Railcard discount, which costs £7 if you don't have one, and she'd need to remember to use that for all journeys because the weekly caps apply per payment type.

Yes it's expensive, but there are alternatives:

Bike
e-bike
Classic car, cheap and ULEZ free. Driving in London is actually pretty easy (because nobody does it)

Why isn’t she getting a student discount Oyster card and buying a weekly travel pass?

I’d definitely look at just doing a monthly contribution. I don’t know where she is but because there is so much transport it can be easy to be a bit lazy and jump on tubes and buses when perhaps you don’t need to (could walk). I am pay as you go so am always making a calculation of how much the journey will be, but if someone else was paying I might not be so careful.

@MarkWithaC if you are literally travelling there and back from one city to another (so 2 bus journeys) does your bus not have the £2 fare at the moment?
So 4 quid total?

@Boomer55 transport in London is considerably cheaper than other parts of the country if you look at the distances you can travel and the many choices of type of transport (buses/trains/trams/tube etc) available.

You can put both on the same card: get an 18+ student oyster card and attach a 16-24 railcard to it. But that depends on being able to get an 18+ student oyster, which is currently impossible.

Not true. Plenty of things are cheap (or free) in London. Public transport is a lot cheaper than in other parts of the UK; the daily cap for Zones 1 to 3 is about £10.

By contrast, I regularly visit friends in a village about 45 minutes' bus ride from another UK city and ONE return fare is about £9.