Twenty-one years of London Underground, Overground, and bus fares charted across every zone - from the launch of Oyster daily capping in 2005 to contactless fares in 2026. Toggle inflation adjustment to see what you are really paying.
Toggle inflation on the charts above to see the real picture. Nominal price rises often mask a very different story.
A Zone 1 peak single cost £1.70 in 2005 - equivalent to £3.10 today. The current fare is £3.10. Twenty-one years of apparent fare rises have done nothing more than keep pace with inflation. Turn on inflation adjustment above and watch the line flatten out.
A Zones 1-6 peak single cost a flat £2.10 in 2005 - about £3.83 in today's money. The current fare is £5.90. That is a real-terms increase of over 50%, driven by the 2008 switch to zone-graded pricing. Toggle inflation to see how outer zones diverge from inner zones after 2008.
The Zones 1-2 daily cap was £8.40 in 2014 - about £11.97 in today's money. TfL restructured caps in 2015 and the equivalent fell to £9.12. Commuters saw their real daily maximum drop by nearly a quarter. Switch to daily caps and toggle inflation to see the dramatic step down.
Single fares were frozen 2016-2020, then rose nominally from 2021. But high inflation in 2022-2023 outpaced every increase. A Zones 1-2 peak single cost £2.90 in 2017 (about £4.00 today) versus £3.60 now. In real purchasing power, fares are cheaper under Khan than when he started.
Between 2009 and 2016, a Zones 1-2 peak single rose from £2.20 to £2.90. Adjusted for inflation, that is a 13% real-terms increase - driven by above-inflation fare hikes of roughly 8% per year in 2011 and 2012. Toggle inflation to see how the Boris years stand out as the steepest climb.
An Oyster bus fare cost 80p in 2005 - about £1.46 in today's money. At £1.75 now, it is genuinely more expensive in real terms, but the Hopper fare (unlimited transfers within one hour) makes bus travel far better value than the headline number suggests. Cash was abolished on buses in July 2014.
All fares shown are Oyster and contactless pay-as-you-go (PAYG) fares, not cash or paper ticket prices. Before zone-graded pricing was introduced in 2008-2009, Oyster PAYG had a simple two-tier structure: a Zone 1 fare and a flat cross-zone fare for any journey touching Zone 1 and at least one other zone. Cash single fares were higher and zone-graded throughout.
Fare data has been compiled from official sources including TfL press releases, Mayoral Decision documents (MD2047 through MD3028), London City Hall fares advice PDFs, and the consolidated TfL fares advice 2008-2012 published by the Greater London Authority.
Inflation adjustment uses the ONS Consumer Price Index (CPI, 2015=100). Annual average CPI values are used to convert historical prices to 2026 equivalent values. The 2026 CPI value is estimated from the latest available monthly data. The formula is: adjusted price = nominal price × (CPI 2026 ÷ CPI original year).
2005-2007: flat cross-zone fares. Before zone-graded PAYG launched in 2008, all cross-zone Oyster singles touching Zone 1 cost the same (£2.10 peak, £1.30 off-peak) regardless of how many zones you crossed. This is why zones Z1-2 through Z1-6 start at the same price.
2008: off-peak spike for outer zones. When zone-graded pricing was phased in during 2008, TfL temporarily removed off-peak discounts for most journeys, meaning all fares became "standard" (peak) rate. This shows as a sharp spike in off-peak charts for longer journeys. Off-peak fares returned with new zone grading in January 2009.
2015: daily cap drop. Daily caps were restructured from One Day Travelcard prices (set high to protect paper ticket revenue) to 20% of 7-Day Travelcard prices. This caused an overnight drop - for example, the Zones 1-2 cap fell from £8.40 to £6.40.
2016-2020: flat line on singles. TfL single fares were frozen for five consecutive years. Daily caps continued to rise because they are linked to Travelcard prices set by train operating companies.
Bus cash: ends mid-2014. Cash fares on London buses were abolished on 6 July 2014. The bus cash line stops at 2014 for this reason.
A Zone 1 peak single fare has risen from £1.70 in 2005 to £3.10 in 2026 - an 82% increase in nominal terms. However, adjusted for inflation, this is roughly the same in real terms. Cross-zone fares have risen more steeply: a Zones 1-6 peak single has gone from £2.10 (flat rate) to £5.90, though zone-graded pricing was only introduced in 2008.
It depends on the zone. Zone 1 fares have roughly tracked inflation since 2005. Outer zone fares have risen faster due to the introduction of zone-graded pricing. Daily caps fell dramatically in 2015 when they were restructured from One Day Travelcard prices to 20% of 7-Day Travelcard prices.
Daily capping on Oyster cards was introduced on 27 February 2005, described by TfL as a "world first". Initially, caps were set at 50p less than One Day Travelcard prices. In 2015 caps were restructured to 20% of 7-Day Travelcard prices, resulting in a significant reduction.
The largest percentage fare increases were in 2011 and 2012 under Boris Johnson, when fares rose approximately 8% each year. The largest structural change was in 2008-2009 when zone-graded PAYG pricing replaced the flat-rate system.
Before 2015, daily caps equalled One Day Travelcard prices. In January 2015, TfL restructured caps to 20% of the 7-Day Travelcard instead. The Zones 1-2 cap fell from £8.40 to £6.40, and the Zones 1-6 cap fell from £15.80 to £11.70.
TfL single fares were frozen from 2016 to 2020. However, daily caps continued to rise every year because they are linked to Travelcard prices set by train operating companies with mandated RPI increases. So while the fare per journey was frozen, the maximum daily spend still went up.
Ken Livingstone actively cut fares to drive Oyster adoption - a Zones 1-2 peak single fell from £2.10 to £2.00 in nominal terms and dropped around 12% in real terms. Boris Johnson saw the biggest real-terms fare rises, driven by the introduction of zone-graded pricing and above-inflation increases of roughly 8% per year. Sadiq Khan froze single fares from 2016 to 2020, then was forced into RPI-linked rises from 2021. Despite nominal increases, high inflation from 2022-2023 means Khan-era fares have actually fallen around 10% in real terms.
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