Children under 11 travel free on London's buses and trams, and free on the Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line when they are with a fare-paying adult (up to four children per adult). Visiting children aged 11 to 15 can get half-price fares with the Young Visitor discount on an Oyster card, while 16- and 17-year-olds normally pay adult fares.
London's transport is unusually generous to families, but the rules change at three ages: 5, 11 and 16. Below 11, most children need no ticket at all. From 11, they need a card of their own, and the cheapest way for a visitor is an Oyster card with a discount added by station staff. From 16, they are treated as adults unless they hold a special photocard.
The rules also differ between Transport for London (TfL) services and the train companies that run National Rail services, and river boats and airport trains have their own fares. This guide takes each age group in turn, then shows what a family day actually costs.
Children's fares by age (September 2026)
- Under 5
- Free with a fare-paying adult
- 5 to 10
- Free on buses and trams with no card; free on Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line with a fare-paying adult (up to 4 children per adult)
- 11 to 15, visitors
- Young Visitor discount on an Oyster card: 50% off adult pay as you go fares and daily caps for up to 14 days
- 11 to 15, bus fare with the discount
- 85p (rising to 90p on 1 November 2026)
- 16 and 17
- Adult fares, unless they hold a 16+ Zip Oyster photocard (£22 fee, 50% off)
- Oyster card for a child
- £10.50 card fee, not refundable
Under-fives travel free on almost everything
TfL says children under 5 travel free with a fare-paying adult. They need no ticket and no card, and they go through the ticket gates with you. The same is true on all river services, including the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers river bus.
On National Rail trains, under-fives travel free on most journeys, but National Rail advises checking with the train company. A child under 5 without a ticket may only use a seat that no fare-paying passenger needs (see National Rail's advice on train travel with children). If you want a guaranteed reserved seat for a toddler on a long-distance train, you have to buy a child ticket for them.
Photo: APK · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Ages 5 to 10: free with an adult, with a few conditions
This is the age group where visitors save the most, and where the fine print matters.
Buses and trams
Children aged 5 to 10 travel free on all buses and trams, even without an adult, and they do not need any card. TfL adds one condition: "unless they look older than 10". A tall nine-year-old may be asked for proof of age, so carry a passport or ID card for them. Our guide to riding London's buses explains how boarding and paying work.
Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line
A fare-paying adult can take up to four children under 11 free of charge on the Tube, DLR, London Overground and Elizabeth line. The adult touches in and out with their own card; the children simply go through the gate with them. If you are travelling with five or more young children, the second adult needs to pay a fare too. This free travel does not apply to Group Day Travelcards.
The child has to be with the adult. A ten-year-old travelling alone on the Tube needs a 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard to travel free.
Pack a passport for the tall ten-year-old. Staff and bus drivers can ask for proof of age when a child looks older than 10. A photocopy may not be accepted, so a passport or national ID card is safest. It is also what staff need to see if your child turns 11 during the trip and you want the Young Visitor discount.
The 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard
TfL sells a 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard for an administration fee of £11.50. It gives free travel on the Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line (except between West Drayton and Reading), free travel on most National Rail services that accept pay as you go, 50% off adult tickets on the river bus and a child rate on the London Cable Car.
For a visiting family, it is rarely needed. A child under 11 already travels free with you on almost everything TfL runs. The card is useful mainly if the child will travel alone, or if you plan several National Rail trips where the child's free travel is not otherwise guaranteed. The application is made online with a photo and the child's machine-readable passport, and TfL says non-UK passports are accepted.
Ages 11 to 15: the Young Visitor discount
At 11, a child needs their own card. Without a discount, they pay the full adult fare. For visitors, the answer is the Young Visitor discount.
Staff add the discount to a standard Oyster card or a Visitor Oyster card. It gives 50% off adult pay as you go fares and daily caps on buses, the Tube, trams, DLR, London Overground, the Elizabeth line and most National Rail services in London. It lasts for up to 14 days.
How to get it:
- Buy an Oyster card (£10.50 at any Tube station) or bring a Visitor Oyster card you ordered before the trip.
- Go to a staffed ticket office or help point at any Tube or London Overground station, some Elizabeth line stations, or a TfL Visitor Centre.
- Bring the child. TfL says the children must be with you when you ask for the discount.
- Add pay as you go credit, and let the child touch in and out with their own card.
On the Elizabeth line, TfL lists staffed points at stations including Paddington, Canary Wharf, Ealing Broadway and Woolwich, with limited hours (typically 10:00 to 15:00 on weekdays). A Tube station is usually the easier place to do it. The full list is on TfL's 11-15 fares page.
With the discount, a Zones 1-2 daily cap drops from £8.90 to £4.45, and a bus journey costs 85p instead of £1.75. On 1 November 2026 the child bus fare rises to 90p, along with the adult fare increase to £1.85.
The Oyster card fee pays for itself in two days. A 13-year-old without the discount pays the full adult cap of £8.90 a day in Zones 1-2. With the discount, the cap is £4.45. After two days of full travel, the saving of £8.90 has almost covered the £10.50 card, and every day after that is pure saving.
Why a contactless card is not the answer for this age
Contactless bank cards and phones only ever charge adult fares. There is no way to add a child discount to them. If your 12-year-old uses a parent's spare contactless card, they pay the full adult rate. Our comparison of Oyster and contactless payment covers this in more detail.
The 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard for longer stays
There is also an 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard, mainly designed for London residents. It gives free buses and trams and child-rate fares on the Tube, DLR, Overground, Elizabeth line and London Cable Car. The fee is £16.50, and the application is made online with the child's passport; TfL says any machine-readable passport, including a non-UK one, is accepted. It usually arrives within two weeks. For a visit of more than 14 days, when the Young Visitor discount runs out, it can be worth considering. Check the delivery and collection options on TfL's site before you apply from abroad.
Teenagers aged 16 and 17
At 16, a young person pays adult fares on TfL services unless they have a 16+ Zip Oyster photocard. That card costs £22 and gives 50% off adult pay as you go fares. TfL says 16- and 17-year-olds living outside London or outside the UK can apply, but free bus travel is only for London residents.
For a short holiday, the £22 fee plus the time needed to apply usually makes it poor value. Most visiting teenagers are better off paying the adult fare with their own contactless card, which is capped at £8.90 a day in Zones 1-2. If they are 16 or older and plan to use UK trains a lot, a 16-25 Railcard is another option: overseas visitors can buy one online, and it can be added to an Oyster card for one third off off-peak pay as you go fares.
What a family day on the Tube costs
The difference between the age groups is easiest to see with real numbers. Here is one day of sightseeing in Zones 1 and 2, with enough journeys to reach the daily cap, for different families.
| Family | What they pay | Total for the day |
|---|---|---|
| 2 adults, children aged 4 and 8 | 2 × £8.90 cap; both children free | £17.80 |
| 2 adults, children aged 9 and 12 (Young Visitor discount) | 2 × £8.90; 9-year-old free; 12-year-old £4.45 | £22.25 (plus a one-off £10.50 Oyster card) |
| 2 adults, children aged 9 and 12 (no discount) | 3 × £8.90; 9-year-old free | £26.70 |
| 1 adult, 5 children aged 5 to 10 | Only 4 children can travel free with one adult | Check the fare for the fifth child, or bring a second adult |
Caps are the same at peak and off-peak times in Zones 1-6, but individual fares are lower off-peak. If you only make two or three short journeys, you may pay less than the cap. The guide to London's travel zones explains how fares grow with distance.
Airport trains and National Rail services
Children's free travel is a TfL rule. On trains run by the rail companies, different rules apply, and they vary.
- Elizabeth line and Piccadilly line to Heathrow: these are TfL services, so children under 11 travel free with a fare-paying adult. The adult pays the full fare (£15.50 from central London on the Elizabeth line, £5.90 on the Piccadilly line).
- Heathrow Express: the operator says children aged 15 and under travel free with a paying adult. For a family of four, this can make the 15-minute express cheaper than it first looks; our Heathrow to central London comparison sets out every option.
- Southern trains to Gatwick: Southern offers £2 tickets for children travelling with an adult. See our guide to Gatwick and its rail links.
- Other National Rail journeys: children aged 5 to 15 get 50% off most tickets, including Advance and Off-Peak fares. TfL says under-11s travel free on "some National Rail services" with an adult, but the official fare decision says a Zip card is needed on train-company services. Check your journey before you go.
Beyond the edges of pay as you go, you need a paper or e-ticket anyway. Trains to Windsor, for example, do not accept Oyster or contactless, so buy child tickets for our Windsor Castle day trip. The guide to buying UK train tickets explains Advance and Off-Peak fares.
River boats and the Cable Car
Children love the river, but the boat fares work differently from the Tube. On the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers river bus, children aged 4 and under travel free (up to two per ticket holder) and children aged 5 to 15 pay half the adult fare. There is a catch for pay as you go: to be charged the child rate when touching in, the child needs a Zip Oyster photocard or an Oyster card with the Young Visitor discount. Each passenger needs their own card. Buying child tickets in the operator's app or online is the simpler route for younger children. Our guide to the river bus covers routes and fares.
River journeys do not count towards the daily cap, so they are an extra cost on top of your Tube spending. Most sightseeing cruises set their own child ages; TfL notes that some treat 4-year-olds or 16-year-olds differently.
On the IFS Cloud Cable Car (London Cable Car) across the Thames, a child one-way ticket costs £3.50 and a child round trip £6.75, against £7.00 and £13.50 for adults.
Paper Travelcards for children
For most families, pay as you go with caps is cheaper than paper tickets. There are a few exceptions:
- Group Day Travelcard: for groups of 10 or more travelling off-peak, Zones 1-6 costs £11.00 per adult and £5.50 per under-16. Note that under-11s do not travel free on a Group Day Travelcard.
- Discounted Off-Peak Day Travelcard: children aged 5 to 15 can get a discounted Off-Peak Zones 1-6 or 1-9 Day Travelcard when travelling with an adult who buys one using certain railcards, such as the Family & Friends Railcard. Everyone must travel together.
- Child Travelcards online: TfL says child Travelcards for 11- to 15-year-olds can also be bought online.
Our page on Travelcards and railcard discounts explains when a paper ticket beats the cap.
Practical tips for travelling with children
A few habits make family travel smoother and cheaper.
- One card per person from age 11. Two people cannot travel on one card, and cards should not be passed back over the gate.
- Every card touches in and out. A child's Oyster card that is not touched out is charged a maximum fare, and that does not count towards the cap.
- Avoid the rush hours with a pushchair. Peak hours are 06:30 to 09:30 and 16:00 to 19:00 on weekdays. Trains are much easier with a buggy outside those times, and single fares are cheaper too.
- Use step-free stations. All Elizabeth line stations and all DLR stations are step-free, and many Tube stations are not. Our guide to step-free routes around London helps you plan with a pushchair.
- Buses are a good sightseeing option. Under-11s ride free, you see the streets, and the Hopper fare gives adults unlimited bus journeys within one hour for a single fare.
The Young Visitor discount stops after 14 days. It is added for up to two weeks. On a longer stay, the card goes back to adult fares without warning, so note the end date and ask staff to check it, or look into the 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard before you arrive.
For ideas on what to do once you are there, see our family guide to London, the family days out and experiences section, and our advice on where to stay with children.
Frequently asked questions
Do children travel free on the London Underground?
Yes, if they are under 11 and travelling with a fare-paying adult. Each adult can take up to four children free on the Tube, DLR, London Overground and Elizabeth line. Children under 5 always travel free with an adult. From age 11, children need their own card and pay a fare.
How much does the Tube cost for an 11-year-old visitor?
Without a discount, an 11-year-old pays the adult fare. With the Young Visitor discount on an Oyster card, they pay half the adult pay as you go fare and half the daily cap, so £4.45 a day in Zones 1-2. The discount is added free by station staff, but the Oyster card costs £10.50.
Can my child use my contactless card?
No. Each person needs their own card for every journey, and contactless cards always charge adult fares. Children under 11 do not need a card on TfL services when they travel with you. For children aged 11 to 15, an Oyster card with the Young Visitor discount is cheaper.
Do children need proof of age on London transport?
Not usually, but TfL says children aged 5 to 10 travel free on buses and trams "unless they look older than 10". Carry a passport or ID card for older-looking children. Staff also need to see the child in person to add the Young Visitor discount.
Is the Heathrow Express free for children?
Heathrow Express says children aged 15 and under travel free with a paying adult. Check the current terms on the operator's website before you travel. On the Elizabeth line and Piccadilly line to Heathrow, children under 11 travel free with a fare-paying adult.
Sources
- Transport for London - Free and discounted travel (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard and Young Visitor discount (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Bus and tram fares (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Visitor Oyster card (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - River fares (checked September 2026)
- National Rail - Train travel with children (checked September 2026)
- Mayor of London - MD3517 July 2026 fare changes (checked September 2026)