Getting home after midnight in London is usually simple: a night bus, a Night Tube train on Friday or Saturday, or a black cab you can pay for by card. The one thing that causes real trouble is getting into a car whose driver has walked up to you on the pavement, because a minicab picked up that way carries no valid insurance and no licence to take you anywhere.
London does not shut down at midnight. Roughly 50 bus routes run through the night every night of the week, five Underground lines and one Overground line run all night on Fridays and Saturdays, and black cabs work the whole city around the clock. What changes after dark is not whether you can travel, but how many choices you have and how carefully you need to pick between them.
Our guides to London night buses and the Night Tube explain how each of those services is laid out. This page is about the decision itself: what is running at the hour you are actually standing on the pavement, how to tell a legal cab from an illegal one, what a late journey costs, and what to do when something goes wrong.
Late-night travel at a glance
- Night buses
- Every night, all year. A journey costs £1.75, and £1.85 from 1 November 2026
- Night Tube
- Only on Friday and Saturday nights, covering five Tube lines and the Windrush line
- Black cabs
- 24 hours. Minimum fare £4.40; all must accept contactless with no surcharge
- Minicabs
- Must be booked in advance through a licensed operator or app. Never accept one that approaches you
- Daily fare cap
- Runs 04:30 to 04:29, so a 01:00 journey counts against the previous day
- To report something
- A text to British Transport Police on 61016; dial 999 if it is urgent
What is actually running at 23:00, 01:00 and 04:00
The honest answer changes hour by hour, and it changes again between a Saturday and a Tuesday. This is the shape of a normal week.
| Time | Monday to Thursday, and Sunday | Friday and Saturday |
|---|---|---|
| Around 23:00 | Tube still running; last trains from central London begin around half past midnight | Same, and the Night Tube lines simply keep going |
| 00:30 to 01:00 | Last Tube trains have gone or are going; night buses take over | Night Tube, night buses and cabs all available |
| 02:00 | Night buses and cabs only | Night Tube: Victoria, Central, Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines, and the Windrush line |
| 04:00 | Night buses and cabs; the first early-morning services begin soon after | Night Tube runs until the normal service starts |
Two details are worth planning around. First, last Tube times are not the same at every station, and the last train on your line may leave the centre earlier than you think; our guide to first and last Tube trains explains how to check yours. Second, the Night Tube does not serve every station on those lines, so a journey that works at 18:00 may need a bus for the final part at 02:00.
If you are heading for an airport rather than a hotel, the calculation is different again, and there are specific coach and bus services built for it. See late-night and early-morning airport transport before you book an early flight.
The minicab rule that matters more than any other
London has two kinds of licensed car for hire, and the difference is a legal one. A black cab, properly called a taxi, can be flagged down in the street or picked up at a rank. A minicab, properly called a private hire vehicle, cannot. It must be booked in advance through a licensed operator: by phone, through an app, or at the counter of a licensed minicab office.
Transport for London's advice is blunt: always book your minicab. A driver who approaches you outside a bar or a station and offers a ride is not operating legally, even if the car looks ordinary and the driver is friendly. The insurance on that journey is not valid, and TfL has no record that you were ever in the car.
This is the single most common way visitors get into difficulty late at night in London, and it is entirely avoidable. Book before you leave the venue, wait inside until the car arrives, and check the details on your phone against the car at the kerb.
A car that offers you a ride at 02:00 is the one to refuse. Touting for business in the street is an offence for the driver, and the ride is uninsured for you. Walk to a rank, get on a night bus, or book through an app instead.
Checking a driver, a car and an operator in under a minute
TfL publishes an online licence checker that covers private hire drivers, vehicles and operators. You put in the licence number and it tells you whether the licence is current. It works on a phone, and it takes seconds.
These are the checks worth doing before you get in:
- A booked minicab should match the registration, make, colour and driver name that your booking shows. The driver should already know your name and destination; you should not have to tell them.
- The driver's licence must be on display in the vehicle, with a photograph.
- A black cab carries a licence plate on the back of the vehicle, a meter that starts at £4.40, and a working card reader. There is no extra charge for paying by card.
- If anything does not match, do not get in. Cancel and rebook. You will lose a few minutes, not your evening.
Our guide to black cabs, minicabs and Uber compares the three in detail, and finding a black cab covers where the ranks are and how hailing works.
What a journey home really costs after midnight
Public transport is barely more expensive at night than by day, and cabs are considerably more. These are the figures for September 2026.
| Option | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Night bus | £1.75 per journey | £1.85 from 1 November 2026. Daily bus cap £5.25, then £5.55 |
| Night Tube, Zone 1 to 2 | £3.00 to £3.10 | Night fares are always charged at the off-peak rate |
| Black cab, 2 miles | £12.60 to £20.20 by day; more on the night tariff | Minimum fare £4.40. Booking by phone or app adds up to £2 |
| Black cab, 4 miles | £21 to £31 by day; more at night | A surcharge of £4 applies at set times over Christmas and New Year |
One rule catches people out. Your daily pay-as-you-go cap does not begin at midnight: it starts at 04:30 and closes at 04:29 the following morning. A journey you make at 01:00 on Saturday is charged against Friday's cap. If you travelled a lot on Friday and hit the cap, the ride home at 01:00 may cost you nothing at all. If Friday was a quiet day and Saturday is going to be busy, it is the reverse.
The Hopper fare also works at night: within an hour of touching in on a bus, further bus and tram journeys cost nothing extra on the same card. Two night buses to get home is therefore one fare, not two. Our guide to Oyster and contactless explains how the capping is calculated.
Your phone is your ticket, and a flat battery is expensive
If you tap in with a phone and the battery dies before you tap out, you have an incomplete journey. On National Rail services in the contactless area, an incomplete journey is charged at a maximum fare of £30.40. On the Tube the figure is lower, but still well above what the trip should have cost, and a maximum fare never counts towards your cap.
The same phone is holding your minicab booking, your map and your hotel address. Three habits remove most of the risk:
- Carry a small power bank if you are out past midnight. It costs less than one maximum fare.
- Use the same card or device all evening. Tapping in with a watch and out with a phone counts as two different journeys, and both are charged as incomplete.
- Keep a plastic Oyster or bank card as a backup, and screenshot your hotel address and the nearest cross street. A screenshot works on a phone at 3%; a map application often does not.
Our round-up of the apps worth having in London says which are genuinely useful after dark, including TfL Go for live departures and the official TfL journey planner for the night network.
Walking the last stretch
Most late journeys end with a walk of five or ten minutes, and this is the part that most repays a little thought. London's main roads are lit, busy and have other people on them well past midnight; the residential back streets that a map application prefers are neither.
Choosing the slightly longer route along a main road is a reasonable habit at night, and the Legible London street maps on their dark pillars are placed on exactly those routes. Keep your phone in a pocket rather than in your hand near the kerb, which is where phone snatching from mopeds and bicycles happens; our guide to how safe London is explains how that theft works and what the police figures actually say.
If you are travelling with a wheelchair or another mobility aid, the night network has its own quirks around staffed stations and working lifts. Our guide to London transport in a wheelchair covers what to do when a lift is out of service, including late in the evening.
When the last train has gone and you are still out
It happens. The useful thing to know is that being out at 02:00 on a Tuesday, when there is no Night Tube, is not an emergency in London. The night bus network runs every night, and a bus to a large interchange such as Trafalgar Square, Oxford Circus, Victoria or Liverpool Street will connect you to another one heading in almost any direction.
Trafalgar Square in particular acts as the hub of the night bus network, in the way that a mainline station acts as a hub by day. If you do not know which single bus goes to your hotel, getting to Trafalgar Square and changing there is almost always possible, and the Hopper fare means the change is free.
For somewhere warm to wait, the late-night food places in Soho, around Brick Lane and near the big stations stay open well past the last train; our guide to late-night food in London lists them. Coaches to other cities leave through the night from Victoria Coach Station, whose ticket office opens at 07:00 but whose departure gates operate around the clock.
Alcohol, behaviour and the rules on TfL
Alcohol cannot be drunk, or carried in an open container, on TfL buses, trams and trains, inside bus and rail stations, or on tram platforms. The ban has been in place since 2008 and appears in TfL's Conditions of Carriage. Staff can refuse to let you travel, and the rules say you may be prosecuted. It applies just as much to a can carried out of a pub at midnight as to a bottle opened on a platform.
Smoking and vaping are not allowed anywhere on the TfL network either, including on open-air platforms. See our page on the alcohol laws and drinking outdoors for the controlled drinking zones that some boroughs operate.
Night bus drivers will wait for you to sit down. Bus drivers are trained to pull in close to the kerb, lower the bus and wait until passengers are seated or holding on before moving off. If you need a moment, say so as you board rather than after the bus has started.
Reporting something, and who to ring
Keep three numbers on your phone before you go out.
- 999 for any emergency, or 112, which works identically in the UK. Both are free.
- 61016 is the text number for British Transport Police, covering anything on the railway, the Tube included. Their non-urgent phone line is 0800 40 50 40.
- 0343 222 1234 for TfL, staffed 24 hours a day, for safety and service problems. TfL also has an online tool for reporting a safety incident or a crime.
Unwanted sexual behaviour on the network is reportable in exactly the same way, and TfL asks people to report it rather than dismiss it. If you leave something on a bus, a Tube train, a black cab or at Victoria Coach Station, our guide to lost property on London transport explains the process and the fees; something lost on a bus within the last 72 hours goes to the bus operator rather than to TfL. Our page on emergency numbers in London has the full list, including the number for the NHS advice line.
Planning an evening around the journey home
The simplest way to remove the problem is to decide how you are getting back before you go out, rather than at the point when you want to be asleep. Three questions do it: what night of the week is it, how far from the centre is the bed, and does anyone in the group need a step-free route?
A Friday in Zone 1 needs almost no planning. A Tuesday with a hotel in Zone 3 deserves ten minutes with the night bus map. If you are choosing between an evening at the theatre, a late museum opening and a club, the transport consequences differ sharply: theatre crowds leave around 22:30 when the Tube is still running, whereas a club night ends when almost nothing but buses and cabs is available. Our guide to London nightlife and our page on museum lates and evening openings both note their own closing times, and London at night has ideas for evenings that finish early enough to use the Tube.
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to take the Tube late at night in London?
On Friday and Saturday nights the Night Tube covers six routes: the Victoria, Central, Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines, together with the Overground's Windrush line. TfL staffs those stations for as long as the trains keep going. Ordinary city precautions apply: keep your phone out of sight near doors, and use the Help Points on platforms if you need staff.
How do I know if a minicab in London is legal?
A legal minicab has been booked in advance through a licensed operator, and the driver will already know your name and destination. The driver's photographic licence must be displayed in the vehicle, and TfL publishes an online licence checker for drivers, vehicles and operators. Any car that offers you a ride in the street is not operating legally.
How much does a taxi home cost in London at night?
Black cab fares run on a meter with a minimum of £4.40. As a guide, a two-mile journey costs about £12.60 to £20.20 on the weekday daytime tariff and more on the evening, weekend and night tariffs, and a four-mile journey about £21 to £31 by day. Booking by phone or app can add up to £2. Current fares are published by TfL.
Do night buses run every night in London?
Yes. Night bus routes, which carry an N before the number, run every night of the week including Sundays and through public holidays, unlike the Night Tube, which is limited to Friday and Saturday nights. A single journey costs £1.75, and further bus journeys within the hour are free under the Hopper fare.
Does the daily fare cap cover a journey after midnight?
The cap runs from 04:30 to 04:29 the following morning, so a journey made at 01:00 counts towards the previous day's cap. If you have already reached the cap during that day, the journey home in the small hours costs nothing extra, provided you use the same card or device throughout.
Sources
- Transport for London - Taxis and minicabs (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Licence checker (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Taxi fares (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Night Tube (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Capping (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Safety and security (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Conditions of Carriage (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - 999 and 112, the UK's national emergency numbers (checked September 2026)