The Hopper fare was introduced in September 2016, allowing bus and tram passengers to take one extra journey for free within 60 minutes of tapping in. Two years later it was extended to allow unlimited journeys within an hour, saving Londoners even more money and enabling some pretty lengthy one-fare journeys. Over a billion Hopper journeys have been taken since...
...but never by me. I've always had a Travelcard and these let you ride buses for free, hence the delights of the Hopper have always been hidden and unnecessary. However I currently find myself in a nomansland between the expiry of my last Travelcard and the arrival of my 'free travel forever' 60+ card, a brief window when a Hopper might actually be useful. So I thought I'd use my ordinary Oyster and set myself two Hopper-based challenges - how far can I get and how many buses can I ride?
Hopper Challenge 1: Starting from Bus Stop M, escape London by bus for one fare of £1.75
Several TfL buses cross the Greater London boundary, so all I have to do is catch one before my 60 minutes from Bow elapses. So how to start? Of the buses that serve Bus Stop M the 488 is only going one more stop, the 108 terminates in Stratford and the 276 grinds to a halt around Newham Hospital, so not them. The only solution is to ride a 25 or 425 all the way to Ilford and then pick up a bus to the Home Counties there.
0h00m Board a 25 at Bus Stop M. £1.75 deducted. My hour long-countdown begins.
0h01m We sail through the Bow Roundabout now that the roadworks and lane closures are finished, hurrah.
0h03m We're neck and neck with a 425 along Stratford High Street. At some stops we get all the passengers and it overtakes, then at the next stop it gets all the passengers and we overtake.
0h08m Mass exodus at Stratford bus station. It'd be quicker to get the tube where I'm going, but not cheaper.
0h13m There are multiple sets of roadworks between here and Ilford, mostly related to the addition of segregated cycle lanes. We also have to duck out the way at one point to let an ambulance pass through. If we don't get to Ilford in time I can't use my Hopper and this challenge collapses, plus my journey will cost twice as much. These are not worries you have with a Travelcard.
0h20m We've reached Forest Gate, and so far the 425 driver has overtaken us three times.
0h27m Four times.
0h30m At Little Ilford Lane the traffic's looking really slow going the other way, but we're progressing fine.
0h32m Alight at Ilford Hill and walk round the corner to stop H outside Ilford Station (0h34m)
There are now three different bus routes I can catch to exit London, the 150 to Chigwell Row, the 167 to Loughton or the 462 to Limes Farm Estate. Grrr, all of these buses are at least 9 minutes away... but in good news that's well inside my time window so I should be fine. However it's worth pointing out that a Hopper connection can totally fail if the second bus doesn't turn up in time, so it's often a fare saving that requires a massive lump of luck on your side. OK, bus two...
0h46m Board a 462 outside Ilford station. £0.00 deducted. After nine years that's my very first Hopper, kerching!
0h56m We've reached the Gants Hill roundabout and are about to head off on a tour of the backstreets. The 462 is a proper twiddlybus, a guided tour of all sorts of Redbridge streets not normally seen.
1h00m As my hour expires I'm on Longwood Gardens near the shops. A magnolia is in full bloom in someone's front garden.
1h02m Technically a Hopper fare is valid for 62 minutes, not 60, in case the clocks on buses aren't quite accurate. But there are no other bus routes here I could switch to anyway.
1h05m Barkingside High Street is busy and takes away most of our passengers.
1h07m Now for a swoosh past Fairlop station and Fairlop Waters Country Park, a scenic diversion the 462's been taking since 2016.
1h14m After threading through Hainault we finally cross the Greater London boundary at the top of Manford Way. The first stop in Essex is just outside Grange Hill station, but I'm continuing to the terminus for extra value for money.
1h21m I've ridden alone with the driver round the loop road on the Limes Farm Estate. The last stop is at Amanda Close, technically only five metres outside the Greater London boundary but that totally counts. I have escaped London using the Hopper fare and spent only £1.75. I'm just 7 miles from home but it's been a 13 mile journey to get here, and I've paid only 14p a mile.
Limes Farm is a fascinating place, a large 1960s council estate built for Chigwell Urban District and accessed via a single road. It's both spacious and green but also well past its best, with oddly-shaped flats, one drab Londis and a few intervening attempts at regeneration. It deserves a full blogpost one day but not now, I have one more challenge to tackle on the way home.
Hopper Challenge 2: How many buses can I ride in an hour?
This is the fun one, a chance to make multiple hops on as many buses as possible, just because I can. I'm not expecting to beat the record, whatever that is, but I am hoping to reach double figures. Geoff Marshall managed 25 buses back in 2017 and a City Monitor reporter rode 28, but that was taking advantage of a longer grace period. Originally TfL allowed 70 minutes for one Hopper fare but during the pandemic they cut the buffer from ten minutes to a less generous two so I've only got 62 minutes to try to max out.
Obviously if you were trying to make a high-tap journey you wouldn't start here on the outskirts of London, you'd find somewhere bus-packed like Waterloo Bridge or the Walworth Road and shuttle back and forth. But Barkingside High Street is served by six different bus routes and the road south of Gants Hill by nine, so if I head back towards Ilford I reckon I have a very good chance of amassing a decent total. I'll start not far from where I alighted the 462, marginally back in London outside Hainault station.
0h00m Here we go, a 247 to Barkingside, start the clock. If I stay on to Barkingside High Street there should be lots of buses to switch to. Checks app... bugger, no buses for the next ten minutes. This may be a road served by six different routes but I have unintentionally launched into a bus desert. Well this is rubbish. And I can't go back and start again because my Hopper is valid for another 50 minutes.
0h17m OK, I'm going to catch a 167 in the opposite direction, one stop back north, just to fill the time.
0h24m Sigh, you wait all this time and then three southbound buses come at once. I'll pick the 128 and jump on that for one stop.
0h26m ...and then switch to the 150 that was coming up behind. I would switch again at the next stop but no further buses are due. Let's try again at the Gants Hill roundabout. Sigh, half time and I've only managed four buses so far.
0h37m It's still very gappy, even with eight routes to choose from. So gappy that I've had to catch the next 150 coming along behind.
0h43m Barely quarter of an hour left so I really need this 396. Don't look at me strange when I ding the bell after one stop.
0h44m This is more like it, straight onto the 128 behind.
0h46m And then a 462. Why wasn't I having this much luck earlier?
0h51m And for the last stop into Ilford here's a 179. That's nine buses so far, and four in the last ten minutes. I have time to catch one more and I need it to be a 25 or 425 that'll take me home.
0h55m Come on come on.
0h56m Please turn up before I hit the hour.
0h57m Eek this is getting close.
0h58m Oh thank goodness, a 25 and just in time. It means I managed 10 buses in the hour, which isn't bad after my disastrous opening 20 minutes.
1h01m It turns out I could have sneaked in an extra W19 just before my 62 minutes was up, but I wouldn't have known that for sure at the last stop so it wasn't worth the risk.
1h41m And I'm finally back at Bow Church where I can hop off for a cup of tea.
2h18m The 25 I was on finally pulls in at Holborn Viaduct. This means I could have enjoyed a 2¼hr journey all the way from the outskirts to the City for £1.75, confirming the Hopper's sometimes exceptional value. The Central line does this in 30% of the time but at twice the price.
In conclusion I have now used the Hopper and managed to get all the way from Bow to Essex on a single fare. I also used a Hopper to get home and rode ten buses in the process, which isn't a record but is still a very decent bit of card-bashing. If I'd done this seven years ago it would have been proper bloggage but instead it's old news, sorry. And never again.
