Getting around London: Oyster, contactless caps and railcards

If you've used Opal in Sydney or myki in Melbourne, you already know the basics. London just adds zones, peak times and a few traps that cost newcomers money.

The short version

• Tap the same card or phone in and out on the Tube, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR and most trains in London. On buses and trams you only tap in.
• Daily caps limit what you pay on pay as you go. In 2026 it's £8.90 a day for zones 1–2 and £16.30 for zones 1–6 [1].
• Buses are a flat fare with free transfers within an hour. From 1 November 2026 it's £1.85 a ride, capped at £5.55 a day [2].
• A 16–25 or 26–30 Railcard (£35 a year) can be added to an Oyster card for a third off off-peak pay as you go fares. Contactless can't carry it [3][4].
• Heathrow is in zone 6 and cheap by Tube. Gatwick is outside the zones, so pick your train carefully.

Zones, peak times and what a trip costs

London's rail network is split into nine fare zones, with zone 1 in the centre. Fares depend on which zones you travel through and whether it's peak or off-peak. Peak is weekday mornings and evenings. Off-peak is everything else, including weekends.

Tube and rail fares rose on 1 March 2026, but the daily caps were frozen [1]. A zone 1 single on pay as you go now costs £3.10 at peak and £3.00 off-peak [1].

Rail caps and 7-day figures are from TfL's March 2026 fares decision, where the seven-day caps match 7-day Travelcard prices [1]. Bus figures are from the November 2026 changes [2].

The caps include buses. Once you hit your rail cap for the day, extra bus trips are free too.

How the 7-day cap works

Contactless weekly capping runs Monday to Sunday, not any seven days. Start a new job on a Thursday and you'll pay daily caps until Sunday, then the weekly cap kicks in from Monday. It's still usually cheaper and simpler than buying a paper Travelcard.

Oyster or contactless?

Both use the same fares and caps. The choice comes down to discounts and convenience.

A warning about your Australian card

Your Australian Visa or Mastercard will work on the gates. But many Australian banks charge a foreign transaction fee, a percentage of every charge. TfL bundles a day's travel into one charge, which helps, but those fees still add up over a year. Switch to a UK debit card once you've opened a bank account, or use an Oyster card until then.

Card clash

Hold your whole wallet against the reader and it may charge a card you didn't mean to use. Two cards, two charges, no cap. Always tap with one card or one phone, and use the same one all day. Switching between your phone and the physical card counts as two different cards.

Five habits that save money

1. Always tap out on rail. If you forget, you can be charged a maximum fare, which can be far more than your trip.
2. Don't tap out on buses. You only tap in.
3. Travel off-peak where you can. The saving on every trip adds up.
4. Use the bus Hopper. Make a second bus or tram trip within an hour of first tapping in and it's free [2].
5. Check your journey history on the TfL app or website and claim back incorrect charges.

Railcards: a third off, if you add them to Oyster

Railcards are national discount cards for trains. The two that matter most for younger Australians in London are:

You can buy the 16–25 card before your 24th birthday and use it for three years [4]. Railcards carry some restrictions, including minimum fares for some morning journeys, so check the terms on the Railcard site before you buy.

To add a 16–25 or 26–30 discount to Oyster, show your railcard to staff at a Tube or London Overground station, at some Elizabeth line stations, or at an Oyster Ticket Stop [3]. You then get a third off off-peak pay as you go fares. You have to re-add it every time you renew the railcard [3].

The bigger win is often outside London. Weekends in Brighton, Bath or York are much cheaper with a railcard on advance tickets. Australians on a Youth Mobility visa (18–35) often get more value from the 16–25 or 26–30 card than from anything else on this page.

Buses, the Night Tube and cycling

Buses

London's red buses are cashless. Tap your card or Oyster when you get on. From 1 November 2026 a single fare is £1.85, up from £1.75 after a long freeze, and the daily bus and tram cap is £5.55 [2]. Bus-only commuters can save a lot, especially in outer zones where a direct bus beats a Tube trip into zone 1.

Night buses run all night on many routes. Look for routes starting with "N".

The Night Tube

On Friday and Saturday nights, selected Tube lines run through the night, including the Victoria, Jubilee and Central lines and parts of the Northern and Piccadilly lines. Off-peak fares apply. Check the TfL Go app before you rely on it, as weekend engineering works can change things.

Cycling and Santander Cycles

London has hundreds of docking stations for its public hire bikes, Santander Cycles. On pay as you ride you pay for 24-hour bike access, with each journey charged by the 30 minutes. Keep rides under the limit to avoid extra charges, and dock properly. TfL can charge up to £300 if a bike isn't returned or is damaged [5]. Memberships and e-bikes are priced differently, so check the current rates in the app.

Unlike most Australian cities, London has no compulsory helmet law for cyclists. Wear one anyway. The growing network of signed Cycleways helps, but central London traffic is intense.

Getting to Heathrow and Gatwick for flights home

Most flights to Australia leave from Heathrow. Some routes go via Gatwick, or you might fly out from there on a cheap European break.

Heathrow (zone 6)

1. Piccadilly line. The cheapest option on pay as you go, with normal Tube fares and caps applying. Slow (often around an hour from central London) but reliable.
2. Elizabeth line. Faster and roomier with luggage, and still on pay as you go. A Heathrow supplement applies, and TfL raised these supplements by 6% in March 2026 [1].
3. Heathrow Express. The fastest from Paddington, and by far the priciest. Book ahead for the best fares.

For a long-haul flight with two big suitcases, the Elizabeth line is the sweet spot for many people.

Gatwick (outside the zones)

Gatwick is in Sussex, well outside the London zones. Contactless and Oyster pay as you go are accepted, but the London caps don't cover the whole trip. Options:

• Thameslink or Southern trains from London Bridge, Victoria or St Pancras. Usually much cheaper than the Express.
• Gatwick Express from Victoria. Faster, but more expensive.

A railcard helps here too. Buy an off-peak ticket with your railcard discount rather than relying on pay as you go.

What's different from home

• Zones, not distance bands. Sydney and Melbourne price trips by distance or simple zones. London's nine zones and peak times mean the same Tube line can cost very different amounts.
• Caps across everything. London's daily and weekly caps cover Tube, rail, buses and trams together, and they work on contactless as well as Oyster.
• Peak pricing bites. The gap between peak and off-peak Tube fares is small per trip but adds up over a working year.
• Tap out on rail, not on buses. Forget to tap out on rail and you pay a maximum fare. On buses you only tap in.
• Concessions don't carry over. Your Australian seniors or student cards mean nothing to TfL. Look at UK railcards and TfL photocards instead.

New to the city and confused by the Overground's new line names? Ask in Cooee UK, our Facebook group for Australians in the UK. Someone's always happy to share the best route to Heathrow before a long haul home.

Sources

1. MD3464 March 2026 Transport for London fare changes – Mayor of London
2. MD3517 July 2026 fare changes – Mayor of London
3. National Railcard discounts – Transport for London
4. Railcards – National Rail Railcards
5. Santander Cycles: what you pay – Transport for London

Keep reading

• Moving to London from Australia: the complete guide
• Cost of living in London vs Sydney and Melbourne
• Opening a UK bank account in London: beating the address catch-22
• Sending money home without losing it to fees