London Underground

[Brokenfurnitureandroses]

Hi Everyone.
Quick question about travelling on the London Underground. My husband and son will be there this weekend and haven’t been there in a while. For a small amount of trips on the underground do they need an Oyster card? Or is it possible to just buy short distance tickets one at a time? Is there any other way to pay (adult and child).
Thanks in advance!

I'd advise using a contact less card. But you would need to use a different one for your son and husband. I find it much more simple than preloaded oyster card.

How olds your son? He's probably free.

Tap to enter the tube and then tap the same contactless bank card to leave. Same on the bus, kid goes and sits down, tap card on and no need to tap off.

How old is DS? If U11, then he's free.

11-16 then either PAYG on a contactless card (but that will be adult fare) or buy a Child 1 day travelcard

I agree, contactless bank card, but if your son needs to pay, he will need a separate card to your husband

Thank you everyone. The contactless system sounds ideal. Child is under 11 so it’s great that he will be free. But how does he get through turnstiles?

Use the wide gates!

I go through the bigger / wider turnstiles and child goes first with me tapping behind

And also if you use your contactless bank card isn’t it capped so that you don’t spend more than you would with a daily ticket? I seem to think that’s the case

Just use the wide family/pram/accessible gates at each end.

Yes it's automatically capped

Yep it’s capped

It’s all on TfL’s website - https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/pay-as-you-go-caps#on-this-page-1

Amazing. Thank you all for the info. Such a helpful bunch. The delights of London await my 8 year old who has been obsessed with Big Ben for years!🙂

Oh brilliant- hope he enjoys! I seem to think the scaffolding is now off Big Ben as my child was very disappointed when they they came out of the tube station and saw that…!!

I think the scaffolding is off (hopefully). He’s very excited about seeing London. 🙂

Tell your DH to look at the buses. Google maps works for me and you see more. It'll cost them £1.50 total for an hour on the buses

Just go through the wider gates I have 4 children and we all go through together

It IS capped, but to benefit from the cap you need to take care to use the same card each time

£1.75

If your son is between 11-16 then you should buy him an Oyster card and you can have this changed to a child card (ie you’ll only get charged children’s fares) when you’re there. You need to get it done at a tube station and ask one of the staff members to do it. Takes 5 mins and will save you a fortune.

Sorry, just saw he’s 8 in which case, as others have said, he’s free

The 9 and 11 buses are fab for sightseeing.

Yes, the scaffolding is finally off. I went up to London last week for the NEU march and rally and we parked near Parliament.
Big Ben (or the tower housing it) is looking really good now.