Digital is the mainstream now in fare payment, but it does little for those like on no or small fixed incomes, recent immigrants, those without bank or Oyster cards, people uncomfortable or unable to use technology, and some international visitors. Increasing digitisation saves public transport agencies considerable money and effort, and provides them with reams of travel, payment, demographic, and station data points to optimise and plan services. Unfortunately, this digitisation oftentimes makes travel more expensive and difficult for those outside the mainstream.
Further to our article on mainline Rail Ticketing in a post-Covid world, TfL has similarly wanted to slim and simplify its fare offerings. But it is being pushed to do so, indirectly, by the government it appears.
This article covers Travelcards in general, Day Travelcards in particular, and the importance on the people who use and rely them. They are not an insignificant number, as we shall find out.
TfL’s attempt to eliminate Day Travelcards
On 18 April 2023, TfL initiated a public consultation on removing the popular Day Travelcards. The Mayor claimed that TfL’s recent Government funding settlement had forced it to consider ways to increase revenue. The increased revenue from eliminating Day Travelcards was estimated to be approximately £40m, or some 0.44% of TfL’s annual budget.
Once the consultation inputs had been analysed, the Mayor announced his decision to partly withdraw from the London Travelcard agreement. The full Mayoral Decision, rationale, facts, and advice can be read here.
Travelcards: a potted history
Early simple fares experiments and then the Fares Fair experiences of 1979-83 started London on the path to fare simplification.
In 1981, London Underground, as was, introduced zone fares throughout its operation in place of point-to-point tickets to expedite fare payment and passenger flow at stations. Initially this was implemented in what is now Zone 1 but divided into two overlapping areas called City and West End. The following year additional concentric zones were added. As these would lead to considerable fare rises for some people – eg, short journeys crossing Zones, this was mitigated by the political decision to reduce fares. People who previously held season tickets moved to zonal Travelcards for the original six Zones. In the 1985, the scheme was extended to British Railways lines operating within the London Transport Zones, and the season tickets were called Capitalcards (slightly more expensive than Travelcards). A few years later the Travelcard and Capitalcard were merged and rationalised, greatly simplifying use for passengers. From this beginning, various automated fare collection schemes were developed, culminating in the Oyster card and now contactless – bank cards (either in plastic or held on smart phones & watches). It is still the envy of everywhere else in the UK.
Paper v electronic fares
On TfL services, Oyster and contactless aim to replace paper tickets, but for a whole host of reasons, paper tickets remain, both for single journeys and for Travelcards which are sold for Day and various longer durations. They are also available for all combinations of Zones (now 1-9) and, crucially, as addon to tickets brought for rail travel from outside London. As an example, a Day Travelcard can be added to a ticket from, say, Milton Keynes Central to London giving unlimited Zone 1-6 travel. This is effectively a ticket from Milton Keynes to the boundary of Zone 6. To be clear, this also includes the Zones 1 – 6 Travelcard.
What withdrawing the Day Travelcard would have meant
If implemented, TfL would no longer sell, issue, or accept any Day Travelcards covering Zones 1-9, including:
- Group Day Travelcards
- Weekend Travelcards
- London Family Travelcards
- Discounted Day Travelcards purchased using National Railcards.
- Add on Travelcards to tickets from stations outside London – although this is formally a decision for the Train Operators.
Probably most important, TfL would continue to sell, issue and accept weekly and longer-term Travelcards.
Who would have been affected?
Despite the Mayor stating that there would be no impact with the withdrawal of Day Travelcards, as stated in the Mayor’s Question Time response above, there would in fact be a number of impacts to many passenger groups:
- Customers travelling in a single day can use pay as you go (PAYG) on TlL services, if they have a contactless or Oyster card. TfL claim that the cap process available with PAYG will mean that overall cost is no higher. But Oyster and contactless are not the same. Contactless is useful for adult fares, whereas Oyster can have all sorts of discounts – Railcard and various discounts for disadvantaged Londoners applied to them – see below. However, Oyster cards cost £7 to buy, which can be a lot on a fixed income.
- Customers could buy paper single/return tickets to travel on TfL services. Note that such tickets are much more expensive than Oyster/contactless fares on the Tube, and can be more expensive on National Rail. One Day Bus & Tram (combined) Passes are available for £6.00.
- Customers travelling from outside London would have to pay for their journey to a London train station and then use PAYG or buy paper tickets to travel on TfL services. This will increase cost unless they break their journeys, with consequent delay, at a boundary station.
- For child tickets, customers travelling from outside London could apply in advance for a Zip card or get the Young Visitor discount set on an Oyster card. Both of these options give discounted PAYG fares. More on this later.
- Although customers who use a National Railcard to buy a discounted Day Travelcard would no longer be able to do so, they would still be able to add their Railcard to a registered Oyster card to get the same discounted day travel.
Essentially, the affected are those who don’t have bank cards, children from outside London who will need to purchase a suitable Oyster card, and those whose bank cards won’t co-operate with the contactless system, like some foreign visitors. London Travelwatch pointed out much of this in its input to the consultation – summarised below. All these points and consultation feedback were subsequently covered in the Mayor’s Decision document’s equality statement, but no mitigations were proposed by TfL other than those fare channels which have a cost.
Moreover the Mayoral Decision ignores all this, as it states:
“TfL is effectively under-funded by the Travelcard Agreement at a total cost of approximately £40m a year. As a result, this proposal is estimated to generate approximately £40m per year for TfL, which will form part of the additional revenue mandated by Government for TfL to achieve.”
That said, it seems curious that TfL has managed to find just £9m to ensure that period (ie non-day and weekend) Travelcards are retained. It is stated that some 15m Day Travelcards are sold each year at a ‘loss’ of £40m. Period Travelcards attract discounts and it seems unlikely that there are significantly fewer of these than Day Travelcards, so do all the ‘losses’ add up?
On 24 October 2023, TfL struck a deal with the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train operating companies, to retain the one-day Travelcards. Unfortunately, to cover the cost of this deal, the price of Day Travelcard will increase by three per cent in March 2024, on top of the annual fare increase.
Retention of the Day Travelcard brings a sigh of relief for the disabled (including railcards with companions), and people who lost or had stolen their cards or smartphones. Various other groups will also continue to benefit, including overseas visitors, Railcard holders, the digitally excluded, as well as to enthusiasts that wish to spend a day riding the trains within the Travelcard Zones without getting penalised by the Oyster/contactless PAYG maximum fare.
That 15m Day Travelcards are sold each year demonstrates the importance of this fare media, most of all to the disadvantaged. There does not appear to be a digital replacement on the horizon that covers the multitude of users, at the same cost to travellers.
This piece forms the second in a growing series on ticketing changes and digitisation that started with the aforementioned mainline Rail Ticketing in a post-Covid world. We will next look at DfT’s Project Oval ticketing scheme for England’s South-East.
Many thanks to CLondoner92 for his help in this article.
Not all railcards can be applied to Oyster cards- for instance, the Network Railcard. I don’t have the numbers to hand, but I think I calculated that for me, if I travelled into London on a weekend and travelled around enough to hit a Z1-6 cap, my fare for the day would have effectively increased by over 50% compared to the then current price of a Super Off-Peak Day Return with Z1-6 travelcard and NSE discount.
Paragraph: The full Mayoral Decision, rationale, facts, and advice can be read here.
This link is broken
[Fixed, cheers. LBM]
Not sure what you mean in the first sentence when you say that digital payment ‘does little for those like the elderly’ . I guess from the rest of the sentence that you mean that ‘the elderly’ who travel on TfL services are less likely to use contactless or Oyster than those below whatever age one becomes ‘elderly’. I’d be interested to find out more about the evidence for this, and indeed what sort of age group you’re talking about.
@A reader
By ‘the elderly’ I meant those seniors who are on fixed incomes, not technically comfortable with smart phones or with digital payment technologies, But, your question does highlight how vague the phrase is, so I shall rewrite it. LBM
Of course, a very high percentage of elderly Londoners have a Freedom Pass, which is digital, being Oyster based. The proposed withdrawal of day travel cards would have had no impact on them.
Many of the drawbacks of withdrawing Day Travelcards could be addressed given time and a positive attitude, in much the way that the ULEZ expansion could have been made far more palatable without significantly undermining its impact. The rushed Day Travelcard proposal now withdrawn was I think a combination of a negotiating tool by TfL and political posturing by the Mayor.
Two things
theguardian.com: this very week, “Over-70s are UK’s most online adults after twentysomethings, survey shows: According to figures from the Office for National Statistics detailing how different Britons report spending their time, the 70-plus age group is second only to those in their 20s when it comes to the average amount of time using a computer or device as a primary activity (separate from working or watching streamed video).”
My mum’s 83 and she’s no problems with her mobile for all any any tasks. The talk of her being in a “disadvantaged group” is laughable.
However, the non-availably of one-day-Travelcards using contactless is annoying for anyone wanting to do a Tube- or Overground-challenge. I did the latter (0607 Stratford, Romford, Upminster, Barking, Gospel Oak, Willesden Junction, Watford Junction, Euston, Kentish Town, Kentish Town West, Dalston Kingsland/Junction, New Cross, New Cross Gate, Crystal Palace, Sydenham, West Croydon, West Croydon, Clapham Junction, Richmond, Willesden Junction, Clapham Junction, Shoreditch High Street, Liverpool Street, Enfield Town, Edmonton Green, Cheshunt, Tottenham Hale, Walthamstow Central, Chingford, Hackney Downs, Hackney Central, Stratford 1837) and it blew the mind of the Contactless system because of the timeouts it caused (you have 20 minutes+ 20 minutes per zone). With a Travelcard this wouldn’t have happened…
You have the fare simplification/reduction process the wrong way round. The Labour Party won the 1981 GLC election with a policy of fare reductions leading to fare free travel, as set out in it’s manifesto, “A Socialist Policy for the GLC”. A possible move to a flat fare or a zonal system was only mentioned in passing as one of a number of options for implementing the policy of lower fares.
My 70+ technically challenged mother is currently frustrated with the cursor on her smartphone when she is typing messages on Facebook Messenger. She swears its moving on its own.
As noted, child fares for non-London residents are a particular annoyance without Travelcards. I don’t see why it would be difficult for TfL to allow a child discount to be applied to a specific contactless card rather than having to go through the process of issuing a Zip card and maintaining a PAYG balance. Having some sort of linked account would also enable a Railcard discount to be applied using contactless too. Presumably some solution will be needed before contactless is rolled out more widely
>>”…children from outside London who will need to purchase a suitable Oyster card…”
This isn’t entirely true; 5-10 year olds with an accompanying adult (and in practice, any slightly older children that can pass for younger!) can travel free on all TfL services without needing any sort of ticket. And if a 5-10 year old needed to travel across London to a National Rail destination where this didn’t apply, one would expect a child point-to-point fare would be available if a travelcard no longer was.
11-15 year olds are more of an issue, certainly, and I agree it would be useful to be able to add the Young Visitor Discount to a bank card rather than having to pay £7 for an Oyster, but given the zone 1-2 off peak 11-15 cap is just £1.70 compared with the £7.60 child day travelcard, the Oyster card option still saves money on day 2.
>> “Period Travelcards attract discounts…” (etc)
What discounts? I can’t follow the logic of this section.
It seems to me that period travelcards are predominantly used by commuters making two journeys a day. They’re priced on this basis (ie free weekend/extra evening travel is the bonus) Day travelcards on the other hand are popular for tourists and other visitors much more likely to be making multiple journeys on TfL services all day long. If you want to claim TfL numbers “don’t add up” please show some evidence, or at least a narrative with more depth than one that assumes both products are used in the same way.
Forgive me, but I sense a strong air of antipathy towards the mayor and TfL within this article, along with an absence of the normal political balance and factual slant I expect from LR – the current UK government has made no secret of its anti-London politics; yes Khan has postured, but so has Westminster by slashing TfL’s income, and there’s political point scoring on both sides going back to 2016.
Even before the Day Travelcard, there was the “Red Bus Rover”, which certainly existed as far back as 1961, if not earlier.
I used one, several (many?) times in that period to access steam loco sheds, to get photograpahs of those then-rapidly-disappearing machines.
[Snip – off topic. LBM]
@Paul
I suspect that the problem of allowing anyone to “say” they are a Child for Oyster discounts is a matter of proof. I suspect TfL staff at the listed locations (most Tube stations, our Visitor Centres, Victoria National Rail station ticket office) have been trained to do this.
I suspect the date-of-birth for the expertly of said discount is rather critical or TfL deems somewhat impracticable to do online, given the easy abuse of such a card. That Channel 5 show “FARE DODGERS – AT WAR WITH THE LAW” showed that as I recall.
One station I use is Twford – where contactless can be used, but not Oyster. The daily contactless cap for Twyford takes a LOT of searching for, and turns out to be the same as the (undiscounted) travelcard. But contactless doesn’t allow the Network Card discount to be used. The idea of leaving the new Lizzie Line after the boundary to tap in and having to wait for the next train (and the same on return) was clearly absurd – especially with the improved limited-stop GWR service. So I’m glad the travelcard has been reprieved, and quite unfussed by a slight hike in price if the revenue share was wrong before. It’s quite clear the contactless / Oyster setup needs polishing to remove these fairly significant cost traps for the unwary – but probably quite hard to do.
@Paul
There was no intent to favour or slight either the Government, TfL, or Mayor Khan in this article. We do criticize both the Government’s forcing the funding cut to TfL, and the TfL/Mayor proposal to eliminate the Day Travelcard. As we have shown, Day Travelcards are quite popular, and necessary for various passenger groups. Our goal is always to stay above the political point scoring. LBM
@Julian Dyer
“But contactless doesn’t allow the Network Card discount to be used”
I live in Stratford in Zone 2/3 so my Network Card I use the other way. However, it often bumps into the “minimum fare £13” issue (Monday to Friday). For example, a Network Card return to Chelmsford is £13 (from £18.20, 28%) so you have to go as far as Colchester to see an actual “advertised” discount fare of 33% £22.35 (from £33.90, 33%).
And the 10am thing I can get around by using Contactless to get to a border station (Farringdon for the Thameslink core to Brighton £14.25 not £21.60, Paddington for Oxford £20.95 not £31.80) so I can start my trips at a more reasonable time and still get a good discount even though I have to pay £2.80 each way to get to Zone 1 on the Liz.
There is an odd time period from 0928 when the TfL Off-Peak starts to 1000 when Network Card discounts start where it’s cheaper to use Contactless: Stratford International to St Pancras International is £6.80 before 0928 and 1600 to 1900 so £4.70 Contactless, but National Rail tickets are £7.70 each way, Anytime Day Return £13.60 or Off-Peak Day Return
£11.60 (from 09:31).
The only way to use a Network Card here is to book a train after 10:00 and make sure it’s a long way off, say Feniton via Waterloo (£62.50 from £94.70) but such trips are always going to be outside the current “Contactless area”.
Not mentioned is that Travelcards are transferable. Made ‘illegal’ several years back but still a ‘loss’ in revenue. With unstaffed periods there is no one picking up tickets with remaining validity left at the barriers.
@Brian
TfL provide limited info about the “Young Visitor Discount”. They only state the child has to be present when it is applied – presumably so staff can confirm it is for a child. Nowhere suggests that ID proving the child’s age is required. I suspect staff are given some discretion and would request ID if the “child” definitely looks over 15. This would be similar discretion to that applied at the gateline when a child ticket/travelcard is used (for those that don’t know, child tickets of all types show a yellow indicator on the gate).
I’m also assuming that “Young Visitor Discount” gives the child the same fares as an 11-15 zip card, including caps; this would make the most sense but it isn’t explicitly stated anywhere.
For children arriving at gatelines accompanied by adults I know from experience that challenges are rare, even on London NR services where 5-10 year olds supposedly need a zip card for free travel. I suspect most 11-12-13 year olds with parents would be waved through. Revenue protection officers might have different ideas but I really can’t see them demanding ID from a tourist family with a ticketless 12 year old, especially as they probably wouldn’t have any on them anyway.
For the record – my young son has a zip card which we use all the time, and I don’t advocate any kind of fare evasion, but I’ve seen other families stretch the rules as I’ve described.
If the child is travelling with a middle-aged adult, they’re unlikely to get challenged. However my sister-in-law looks very young for her age – in her late 30s she’s still assumed to be early 20s. She was regularly asked to prove her son’s age from when he was 5 and she was 25, and checked to ensure he had a ticket for trains – whereas my eldest is the same age (now 15) and I’ve never been asked once, even when transporting her child!
Many children will be in the company of older siblings rather than parents, and be subject to more scrutiny, not to mention how many 14-15year olds get accused of being older and using someone else’s card.
It would be useful to know which stations most paper tickets are issued at – I’m assuming ones outside London? I doubt the number of Travelcards getting transferred and illegally used by someone else is significant – while it was common to return home in zone 3 in 2005-8 and be asked for finished-with Travelcards (or offered one for £1), that vanished when Oyster became dominant. The number of people going into London for an evening from outside the zones, from one station, must be so small it wouldn’t be worth someone trying to sell on paper tickets. Contactless still enables people to pass cards to family members or friends, to enable them to use a card in the evening where the daily cap has already been reached.
@Hessie
I’m sorry but I can’t imagine why anyone would ask to prove a 5 year old’s age. No 5 year old looks 16, or even 11.
What you say would make more sense if this was when her son was under 5 and travelling on NR services without any ticket, and her being challenged to prove that he was actually under 5. My son was a large lad at 3 and 4, to the extent where we often even bought a child ticket for him so he was entitled to a seat.
I travel from outside London and always buy a rail ticket with day Travelcard added, with my Network Railcard discount. The cost of adding a Travelcard like this is less than a single contactless Tube journey, so why would I do anything else? I don’t actually care whether I have a paper ticket or it’s all done digitally; the important thing is the overall price, and there is no way to buy this type of ticket digitally at present.
We still live in a very London-centric country and withdrawing Travelcards for people travelling in by train seemed rather unfair, increasing costs for people who don’t live in London but who wish to access national institutions, services, culture, work, etc. I was therefore pleased to hear that they are being retained.