London City Guide

Public transport

Operator. Transport for London (TfL) is the authority and operator of the core network made up of the Tube, Elizabeth line, London Overground, DLR, buses and tram. Since 2024, the London Overground has been split into six separately named lines, Liberty, Lioness, Mildmay, Suffragette, Weaver and Windrush, instead of the single orange line as before. Older maps do not yet show this split. National rail lines within London, such as GWR, Southern, Southeastern or Thameslink, fall under the same TfL pay-as-you-go fare, but are run by the respective train operating companies.

Network. Eleven Underground lines, the Elizabeth line, Overground, buses and the DLR. Pay contactless with a bank or credit card; no separate ticket needed.

Modes of transport. Underground (Tube) · Elizabeth line · London Overground · DLR · Buses · Tram (Tramlink, Croydon) · Thames ferry (River Bus) · National suburban trains

Operating hours. TfL defines the operating day uniformly from 4.30 am to 4.29 am the next day for fare and capping purposes. TfL does not publish a single overall time for the first and last train on each line, this information sits in the line-specific timetables. Overnight, between the end of regular service and the start of the early service, only the Night Tube lines and the Night Overground continue running, see night service.

Night service. TfL's Night Tube runs only on the nights of Friday into Saturday and Saturday into Sunday, and only on five Underground lines, Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria, plus the London Overground's Windrush line as the Night Overground. All other lines and stations stop running as on an ordinary night. Night Tube and Night Overground journeys are always charged at the off-peak fare.

Buying tickets. For pay as you go, it is enough to tap your own contactless bank or credit card, or your smartphone, on the yellow card readers when boarding and alighting, no ticket needs to be bought for this. Anyone who wants a physical Oyster card instead pays a one-off £10.50 am for the card, available from ticket machines and ticket offices at almost all Tube stations, most Overground and Elizabeth line stations, and online. Credit can be topped up at the same places, online, or in the TfL Go app. A Visitor Oyster Card that can be ordered in advance also costs £10.50 am plus postage and comes preloaded with £10 to £50 credit, available only outside London through the official Visitor Shop, VisitBritain, at Gatwick and Stansted airports, or on the Eurostar train.

App and payment. The official TfL Go app is used to top up Oyster credit, view journeys and daily spending, and manage your account. Payment at the readers is made directly by tapping a debit or credit card bearing the contactless symbol, or via smartphone/smartwatch using Apple Pay and Google Pay. It is important to always use the same card or device when boarding and alighting, otherwise the journey is not matched correctly and the fare cap does not apply.

Which ticket. A separate day ticket is not needed with a contactless card or Oyster in pay as you go, TfL automatically calculates the cheapest price and applies a daily cap. For Zone 1 and for Zones 1-2, this stands at £8.90 in 2026, regardless of whether you travel at peak or off-peak, because in these two zones the peak and off-peak caps are identical. The weekly cap (Monday to Sunday) for the same zones is £44.70. For Zones 1-6, the daily cap is £4.30 pm, the weekly cap £81.60. By comparison, an Anytime Day Travelcard for Zone 1 costs £16.60 and is practically never worthwhile for contactless travellers, because the pay-as-you-go cap is cheaper.

Fare zones. Almost all the sights lie within Zone 1, with a trip to Greenwich or Kew Gardens reaching into Zones 2-4. For a 2- to 3-day visit, the Zone 1 or Zones 1-2 fare is generally enough.

Tip. In a group, tap each card separately or one person pays the cap for everyone.

Links

• TfL Fares overview
• Tube and rail fares, caps and Travelcards
• Bus and tram fares
• Contactless and Oyster account
• Pay as you go explained
• How fare capping works
• Visitor Oyster Card
• Where to buy tickets and Oyster
• Night Tube
• Single Fare Finder
• Network map

Getting there

Main station

Location. London has more than a dozen terminals instead of one main station. Which one depends on direction. St Pancras for the Eurostar, King's Cross for the north, Paddington for the west.

Long-distance trains. St Pancras International is London's station for international long-distance rail. Eurostar connects directly to Paris, Lille, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, with further destinations such as Bruges or Ghent reachable with a change. The other long-distance directions are spread across other terminal stations depending on the part of the country, as already described for St Pancras/King's Cross/Paddington/Euston.

Opening hours. Ticket office at St Pancras International Mon-Fri 5.45 am-11.15 pm, Sat 6 am-11.15 pm, Sun 7.15 am-11.15 pm. TfL's fare traffic day generally runs from 4.30 am to 4.29 am the next day, exact first and last train times differ by line and station.

Airports

Local quirks

• The Overground has had six separate line names since 2024. On maps and displays, the London Overground is no longer shown uniformly as Overground, but runs under six separate names, Liberty, Lioness, Mildmay, Suffragette, Weaver and Windrush. Anyone looking for the old orange line will instead find six differently coloured lines that together make up the same network.
• In the city centre you pay the same at any time of day. In Zone 1 and Zones 1-2, the daily cap for contactless payment is exactly the same at peak times as off-peak, £8.90 either way. Only travelling beyond Zone 2 means paying noticeably more at peak times than off-peak.

Good to know

Currency

GBP £

Emergency number

112

Plug type

G

Time zone

Europe/London

Driving

left

Speed limits. built-up areas 30 mph (48 km/h), outside towns 60 mph (96 km/h), motorway 70 mph (112 km/h)

Limits are given in mph, not km/h, and rethinking the speedometer takes some concentration at first. In Wales, the default within built-up areas has been 20 mph instead of 30 mph since September 2023, a separate value just for that part of the country. On single-carriageway rural roads without an additional sign, the speed drops from 70 to 60 mph, indicated only by a small circular sign with a diagonal line through it, easy to miss.

Tipping. Ten percent in restaurants, and a service charge is often already on the bill. In pubs you order at the bar and do not tip.

Tolls. Motorways are free. Charges apply at individual bridges and tunnels such as the Dartford Crossing and Mersey Gateway, usually paid online afterwards.

Access restrictions. London charges a congestion fee plus the ULEZ for older vehicles, both camera-enforced. Other cities have Clean Air Zones. Not paying gets expensive.