Identifying child fare concessions available for your children
Child fares on London’s Underground and buses are very complicated and fragmented.
Ticket regulations and prices are reviewed on an annual basis and regularly child fare rules and options are modified.
This page tries to explain as simply as possible the situation for your child, together with some workarounds to get around some of the restrictions.
Your children could benefit from free travel, but on the flip side, if you’re not prepared, you might end up paying full adult prices. It’s definitely a good idea to get a clear understanding of the situation.
Free and reduced child fare entitlement by age band
Under-5s
Children under five can travel free at any time on all public transport without a ticket as long as they are accompanied by an adult with a valid ticket.
Children 5-10 years old
Under-11s can travel free at any time on London’s buses and trams without a ticket.
Up to 4 children under the age of 11 can travel free at any time on the Tube, London Overground and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) when accompanied with a paying adult.
Unaccompanied children between 5 and 10 must have a valid 5-10 Zip Oyster Photocard for free travel. (Ah yes, the Photocard we’ll come back to these further down the page).
On trains in the London area run by the national railways children between 5 and 15 require a child ticket. Most visitors do not use train services run by the national rail companies as they are essentially commuter services from the suburbs.
Which national rail companies run trains within London?
The visitor is finding it increasingly difficult to understand which surface rail lines within London the national rail companies run and which offer free travel to 5-10 year olds.
Very crudely speaking, if your overground train (not Underground train) runs from Paddington, Marylebone, Fenchurch Street, London Bridge, Blackfriars, Charing Cross, Waterloo or Victoria it will almost certainly be a national railways train.
For visitors, the national rail runs the most popular trains within London, which are Waterloo to Hampton Court and Waterloo or Paddington to Windsor.
Children 11-15 years old
Unaccompanied children aged 11 to 15 years must get an 11-15 Zip Oyster Photo card to travel free on buses and trams and at child rate on Tube, DLR and London Overground services using an Oyster card (see Oyster Photocard section below).
You can buy child rate Travelcards and single one-way child tickets on the Underground, railways and DLR, but not the buses.
For most visitors staying in London for 2 weeks or less with children between 11 and 15 the ticket of choice is an adult Oyster card loaded with a Young Persons Discount.
The Young Persons Discount has its own section further down the page.
Children 16-17 years old
In the UK you become an adult when you are 16. However in London it is possible to get child fares by getting a 16+ Zip Oyster photocard.
It is very similar to 11-15 Oyster Photocards, but you cannot use it to buy 1 Day Travelcards.
For short-term visitors, for most it is not a realistic option because of the expense and time required to obtain an Oyster ID Card – you’ll just have to accept your child is an adult while in the UK.
Student 18+ years
If you are studying at a recognised educational establishment in London that is registered for the scheme and you are residing in London you can apply for a Student 18+ Oyster ID card.
This enables you to get 30% discount off bus and Travelcards of 7 days or longer.
The Young Visitor Discount – for children between 11 & 15 in London less than 15 days
The Oyster ID Card required by children between 11 and 15 to get child rate fares on Oyster is for most short-term visitors not a realistic proposition.
The cost, hassle and time to process the ID card is just not worth the effort. The Young Visitor Discount scheme has been created as the answer for short-term visitors who have children between 11 and 15.
The Young Visitor discount gives 50% of adult-rate pay-as-you-go fares on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services for up to 14 days and gives your child a daily cap half that of an adult.
After 14 days the discount will expire and the Oyster card will charge full adult rate fares.
You can set the discount on both regular Oyster Cards and Visitor Oyster cards.
For more information visit our Oyster Card page.
Add the Young Visitor Discount
You can only set the Young Visitor Discount onto Oyster Cards and Visitor Oyster Cards at:
- Any Underground station (including Heathrow Airport).
Staff members will be present in the ticket hall near the ticket machines. Simply reach out to one of them to add the Young Visitor Discount to your Oyster card. - Visitor or Travel Information Centres
(Gatwick & Heathrow Airports, Liverpool Street, Euston, Paddington and King’s Cross Railway Stations and Piccadilly Circus Underground Station) - Victoria Station National Railways Ticket office
- Transport for London (TFL) Rail station ticket offices
To get the Young Visitor Discount:
- You and your child must be together at the ticket office when asking for it to be set
- One adult can get the Young Visitor Discount set for up to four children
Child Rate Oyster Cards & Oyster Photo ID Cards
The Oyster ID Card is no real problem if you are a London resident with a young child. Take a little time for the initial registration process to get your Oyster Photocard and that’s your passport to free and half price public transport until you are an adult. When you want a child travel product, just produce your Oyster Photocard.
For visitors it’s a lot of hassle and expense to procure an Oyster ID Card and often it’s too late when you do find out the hoops you have to jump through to get child fares via the Oyster Photocard.
If you are a short-term visitor the probable solution is the Young Visitor Discount detailed in the section above or one of the work around solutions detailed in the section below.
First of all, the recurrent question from visitors – my child has got a passport with his/her age on it, isn’t that good enough as ID? I’m afraid the answer is no, you need London’s unique Oyster Photocard, nothing else.
How do I get an Oyster Photocard?
If you are a resident of London, it’s quite straightforward. Get a form from your local Post Office and fill it in, then return to the Post Office with the fee, a passport size photo, plus birth certificate or passport and you should get it in 2 weeks.
If you are resident in the UK then you have to do the process online, you’ll get the Photocard within 4 weeks.
If you live outside the UK you must apply at least four weeks before the date you want to collect the Zip Oyster Photocard and select which London Visitor Centre to collect it from (they do not send it to your home address). You can apply up to three months in advance of your chosen collection date.
Oyster ID Cards cost between £10 and £20 depending on the ID card required.
Other child rate work around options
Other ways of obtaining child fares other than Oyster ID Cards and the Young Visitor Discount are:
- You can purchase children’s single journey tickets for journeys on the Underground, DLR, and trains but not the buses.
Note these are the most expensive child rate fares available. - You can purchase a 1 day child Travelcard on demand, without ID – although Oyster fares are cheaper.
- Purchase children’s 7 day Travelcards from national railway station ticket offices without Oyster ID Cards. As a rough guide if you travelling in London 5 or more days in any 7 then a 7 Day Travelcard works out cheaper than Oyster Pay As You Go.
- If you do not have a railways ID card you will need to provide a passport size photo and they make this up on the spot free of charge. Railway stations in the centre of London with railway ticket offices include: Paddington, Marylebone, Euston, King’s Cross, St Pancras, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Waterloo and Victoria. You cannot buy 7 day Travelcards from the railways at any airport station.
Transport for London Visitor Shop
Purchase 7 Day Child Travelcards without any photo ID online from the TfL / Visit Britain online shop and have them delivered to your home, including overseas. There is a delivery charge.
Previously asked questions on child fares in London
At present we are unable to maintain the discuss service but you can contact us using the Contact Us link at the bottom of each page. We have decided to leave the answers here as they are useful for many of the questions we receive. If you cannot find an answer to your question, we’ll be happy to hear from you.