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Is there an all-day metro pass in London?

For example in Tokyo, Japan there's an all-month metro pass and there's also one in Cologne, Germany.

Does London also have something similar? I have heard of Oyster, but it's pay as you go, and usually those all-day or all-month passes have greater value. I will be traveling extensively by metro and tram and perhaps also buses.

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  • You want an Oyster valid for a day/week/month/year. See the canonical.
    – Gayot Fow
    Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 21:48
  • 2
    The short answer is "yes but you might be better off using something else". Have a look at travel.stackexchange.com/questions/80309/… or travel.stackexchange.com/questions/67052/… (It's not a duplicate of the question about the "London pass", that's some sort of travel + entry to tourist attractions offer.)
    – djr
    Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 21:58
  • When you say you will be traveling "by metro", do you mean the Underground? Locally, "metro" also refers to inner suburban heavy rail services, primarily south of the Thames, which have a different pricing structure than the Underground. Mentioning "metro and tram" in one sentence makes it especially ambiguous, because Tramlink connects to heavy-rail metro services in several places, but only meets the Underground in Wimbledon at the extreme west end of its network. Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 23:53
  • By metro I mean the Underground or the Tube.
    – Wade Tyler
    Commented Jan 4, 2017 at 0:21

1 Answer 1

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Is there an all-day metro pass in London?

There are several options for unlimited one-day travel on the London Underground including:

  • Oyster
  • Visitors Oyster (buy before arriving in UK)
  • Contactless cards or phones
  • One-day "Travelcard" ticket

Oyster

Oyster cards have a cap on charges. This means you really don't have to worry at all about what tickets to buy to get the best deal.

Visitor Oyster cards can be bought in advance from outside the UK so that you can arrive in the UK with a ready-to-use Oyster card without having to queue up (stand in line) anywhere. There is a non-refundable £3 fee (unlike ordinary Oyster which have a £5 refundable deposit). There are other benefits, mostly of limited interest.


Capping

What is capping?

Capping is a feature of pay as you go which allows you to make a number of journeys in a single day but limits the amount you pay for your travel. Each time you make a journey, you are charged a fare. Once the total cost of all your fares reaches a certain amount you won't have to pay for any more journeys for the rest of the day. This is called a cap.

If you make a lot of rail journeys or a mixture of rail, bus and tram journeys in one day within Zones 1-9, pay as you go with daily capping is better value than buying a Day Travelcard. If you make a lot of bus and tram journeys, pay as you go with daily capping is better value than buying a One Day Bus & Tram Pass.

To benefit from capping, you must touch in and out on every journey using the same Oyster card (touch in only on buses).


Contactless

I believe you get the same benefits by using a regular contactless credit/debit card or phone. Capping also applies. There should be only one transaction fee per day regardless of the number of journeys.

Both Apple and Android payments should also benefit from daily and weekly capping.


Travelcard

The main alternative to the above is a one-day travelcard which offers unlimited travel within London for a fixed price. I believe this is significantly more expensive than Oyster or contactless.

e.g something like £12.30 instead of £6.60 a day. For offpeak travel in some zones (e.g. 1-6) the difference can be negligible.

For groups of 10 or more people travelling together there are travelcard group options. I think individual Oyster/Contactless are still cheaper and arguably more convenient.


Further information

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  • The caps and travelcard prices are listed here: content.tfl.gov.uk/adult-fares-2017.pdf - they are considerably (as much as £6) cheaper than the corresponding travelcard.
    – Tom H
    Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 22:42
  • @RedGrittyBrick What about group traveling, what are the options? Also are there any differences between Oyster and Visitor Oyster?
    – Wade Tyler
    Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 22:53
  • @Wade: Oyster vs Visitor Oyster. See TfL: Group Travelcards (but I believe multiple individual Oyster cards will be cheaper) Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 23:13
  • It's probably worth stressing that the group travelcards are for groups of 10 or more people.
    – Tom H
    Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 23:26
  • @TomH thanks for picking that up, I'll update answer Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 23:28

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