What follows is my annual summary of TfL's fare rises, an analysis now in its 16thyear because having some historical perspective on this is important. Boris's years are in blue and Sadiq's in red.
Sadiq would like to have frozen fares, as he did in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2024, but the new government has forced his hand. We'll only help fund transport projects if you raise tube fares in line with National Rail fares, they said, so he's chosen to play the long game. Whitehall didn't specify anything about buses so he's left them unchanged. Overall the TfL fare rise works out at 3.7%, which is ahead of inflation at 2.3%.
Cost of a single central London tube journey
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Peak
£2.30
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.50
£2.80
£2.80
£2.90
Off peak
£2.30
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.50
£2.70
£2.70
£2.80
2025 sees another 10p on tube journeys around central London, an increase almost precisely equivalent to the overall increase of 3.7%. But it's 40p above what the fare was just three years ago, and also retains the price differential for peak and off-peak fares introduced in 2023.
n.b. These are PAYG fares for Oyster or contactless users. Those who insist on paying cash are now paying £7.
Cost of a tube journey from Green Park to Heathrow
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Peak
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.30
£5.50
£5.60
£5.60
£5.80
Off peak
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.30
£3.50
£5.60
£5.60
£5.80
This year's rise is 3.6% but follows a recent significant change. In September 2022 the Mayor announced that travel from Z1 to Heathrow would always be charged at peak rates, hiking prices on the Piccadilly line by £2 overnight. This was to keep central government happy by raising revenue but without overly impacting on the daily life of Londoners. The tube fare from central London to Heathrow will thus now be £5.80 at all times, but that's still massively cheaper than the £12.80 fare if you choose the convenience of Crossrail.
For travel to other stations in zone 6, not cash cow airports, the off-peak fare from zone 1 rises 20p to £3.80.
Here's where the financial pain is.
Off-peak fares outside zone 1
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
1 zone
£1.50
£1.50
£1.60
£1.80
£1.80
£2.00
2 zones
£1.50
£1.60
£1.70
£1.90
£1.90
£2.10
3 zones
£1.50
£1.70
£1.80
£1.90
£1.90
£2.20
4 zones
£1.50
£1.70
£1.90
£2.00
£2.00
£2.30
5 zones
£1.50
£1.70
£1.90
£2.10
£2.10
£2.40
As recently as 2020 all off-peak tube journeys in zones 2-6 cost just £1.50. Since then TfL's accountants have been sequentially distorting the fare scale to better reflect distance travelled, and this year have finally stretched each of the five fares to a different price point.
What's worse is that each of these five fares is rising by far more than the 3.7% baseline. An extra 20p for every journey across 1 or 2 zones equates to an 11% increase, for example Stratford to Canary Wharf or Wembley Park to Harrow. But for off-peak journeys across 3, 4 or 5 zones it's an extra 30p and that's more like a 15% increase. The unluckiest travellers are those travelling through three zones outside zone 1, for example Hammersmith to Hounslow or Camden to Colindale, who are about to be hit by a 16% fare hike! The longest suburban journeys now cost 60% more than they did four years ago, an increase that's both extortionate and deliberate.
Cost of a London bus journey
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
£1.45
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.55
£1.65
£1.75
£1.75
£1.75
Bus fares, by contrast, see no increase at all. The Mayor is often kinder to bus passengers because they include the poorest amongst the electorate, so they'll continue to benefit from his prolonged fare freeze. The daily cap for bus journeys remains £5.25 (i.e. three single fares).
The daily cap for tube journeys will however be increasing by an average of 4.6%. That's because fare caps have to cover the possibility that you might have ridden on a National Rail service, and rail fares nationwide are rising 4.6% this year. It's currently possibly to swan around zones 1-3 all day for £10 but next year that rises to £10.50.
Cost of an annual Z1-3 Travelcard
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
£1508
£1520
£1548
£1600
£1648
£1696
£1740
£1808
£1916
£2008
£2100
Travelcards also rise by 4.6% in line with National Rail fares. A weekly Z1-6 Travelcard, for example, rises by £3.60 to £81.60. The price of an annual Z1-3 Travelcard climbs to £2100, which is 24% more than five years ago. Only two versions of the One Day Travelcard are still available, a Z1-4 Travelcard for £16.60 (up 70p) or a Z1-6 Travelcard for £23.60 (up £1).
Here's a particularly sharp fare increase.
Cost of a single Dangle
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
PAYG
£3.40
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£4.00
£5.00
£6.00
£6.00
£7.00
Walk-up
£4.30
£4.00
£4.40
£4.50
£4.50
£4.50
£4.50
£4.50
£5.00
£6.00
£7.00
Cablecar fares are currently £6 per crossing, whether you use PAYG or walk up, but that'll be going up to £7 per crossing from March. A 14% annual increase is indicative of a Mayor squeezing tourists for every pound he can get. However for those who take a round trip the return half's not going up so it'll be £13 to go there and back. Regular Dangleway users should note that a carnet of 10 tickets will be increasing in price for the first time in 10 years, from £17 to £19, but that's still a mere £1.90 per crossing.
Dangleway aside, the serious pain in 2025's fare increases is being borne by those who travel by tube or train outside zone 1. That'll be why the text of the Mayoral press release focuses so heavily on central London, so as not to shine a spotlight on what's going on beyond.
