Bus and tram fares in London will rise by 10p from 1 November, bringing the long-running fares freeze to an end.
Transport for London confirmed this morning that the adult bus and tram fare, including the Hopper fare, will increase from £1.75 to £1.85.
Fares for eligible concession card holders will go up by 5p, while the daily bus and tram cap will rise by 30p to £5.55.
Tube and rail fares are unaffected for now: caps on Underground and rail journeys, along with Travelcards, will remain unchanged until March 2027.
The increase equates to a 5.7 per cent rise — almost double the current 3.1 per cent rate of inflation — and marks the first increase in London’s bus and tram fares since 2023.
TfL defends the increase
Announcing the rise, TfL said: “We remain committed to ensuring that London’s public transport network is both affordable and accessible for all Londoners.”
“Revenue generated from fares plays a vital role in supporting the continued operation, maintenance and improvement of services across the capital, helping us to deliver a safe, reliable and sustainable transport network for the future.”
The end of the freeze era
The rise closes the chapter on years of frozen bus and tram fares. After his predecessor Boris Johnson ended the transport subsidies London received from central government, Sadiq Khan’s fare freezes between 2016 and 2021 were seen by some commentators as contributing to the transport authority’s financial predicament — particularly when Covid caused a near-total collapse in fare income. Those first freezes cost around £640 million over four years.
Fares income is TfL’s single largest source of revenue, and the transport authority has been working towards long-term financial sustainability after a series of emergency government funding deals during and after the pandemic.
“Hard to take” for lower-income passengers
The increase had been trailed in July, when passenger watchdog London TravelWatch warned that “the inflation-busting increase… will be hard to take for passengers on lower incomes who depend on this form of transport, particularly when they are seeing the slowest ever bus speeds across the network or, in some cases, reduced service frequencies on their routes.”
The watchdog noted that London’s buses are running at their slowest speeds in more than a decade, as passenger journeys continue to decline.
“TfL faces an admittedly tough challenge in containing the level of subsidy supporting its bus operations, while at the same time providing attractive services which reverse the 25% fall in bus passenger numbers from their high point over a decade ago,” London TravelWatch added. “It remains to be seen whether TfL’s strategy will succeed.”
Some routes have already faced cuts, with Hackney Council urging TfL to rethink reductions as a consultation closed.
What passengers will pay
From 1 November, a single adult bus or tram journey will cost £1.85, with the Hopper fare — which allows unlimited bus and tram journeys within an hour — rising by the same 10p.
Passengers who hit the daily cap will pay no more than £5.55 a day for bus and tram travel, up 30p. For a commuter making a return bus journey five days a week, the rise adds £1 a week to travel costs — a little over £50 across a year. The increase also applies to journeys on London’s tram network in south London.
Motorists are facing rising charges too, with tolls for the Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels increasing under an inflation-linked rise.
What happens next
The fare rise takes effect on 1 November. Tube, rail and Travelcard prices remain frozen until March 2027, when the next fares package is expected.
