Contactless in London

Yes, on nearly everything — and what changes from mode to mode is how you tap. On the Tube, the DLR, the London Overground, the Elizabeth line, the River Bus and the London Cable Car you touch in and touch out on the yellow readers, even when the gates are standing open. On buses you touch in only, and on trams you touch the reader at the stop before you board; touching out on either can cost you money rather than save it. On the trains beyond TfL, and on the one coach that takes a tap, it depends on the operator. Use your own card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay or a Fitbit or Garmin — and use the same one all day, because a journey opened on one card and closed on another never closes.

The cap is what makes tapping the cheapest way to pay. Inside Zones 1–2 the day stops charging at £8.90, and buses and trams have a ceiling of their own at £5.25 across the two together. That covers the Tube, the DLR, the Overground, the Elizabeth line, most National Rail inside the pay-as-you-go zones, and the buses and trams. It does not cover the river: Uber Boat by Thames Clippers takes a contactless touch in and touch out at the pier and states plainly that river journeys are not capped. Nor does it cover the airport expresses.

On the trains the differences are worth money. Thameslink and Greater Anglia both want a touch in and a touch out, and a missed one is charged as an incomplete journey at a maximum fare of up to £30.40, which never counts towards a cap; travelling with no valid ticket at all can bring a Penalty Fare of £100 plus the fare, reduced to £50 if you pay within 21 days. Greater Anglia's Stansted and Southend airport stations sit outside the London cap area, so those journeys are ordinary singles that cap nothing. Heathrow Express is a flat £26.00 contactless single, outside pay-as-you-go altogether. East Midlands Railway takes contactless to Luton Airport Parkway at the ordinary rail fare — and stops there: the Luton DART shuttle on to the terminal is a separate £4.90 tapped at its own barriers, and going through them without a valid ticket carries a £25 penalty fare under the DART's own byelaws.

The two coaches disagree with each other. Arriva's Greenline 757 takes a contactless tap on the reader on board as you get on, at its own commercial fare that no TfL cap touches. National Express sells at the coach station, at a Payzone shop, online or from the driver, and has nothing on the vehicle to tap at all. So pick one card or one device and stay on it, touch in and out everywhere except a bus or a tram, touch out even when the gate is open, and register that card at tfl.gov.uk — it is optional, and it is what lets you claim a wrong charge back.

Yes, and it is the cheapest way to ride the Tube. Touch your contactless card, phone or watch on the yellow reader at the gate on the way in, and touch it again on the way out — always both, always the same card or device, and even when the gate is standing open. The fare is worked out from the zones you crossed, and inside Zones 1–2 the day stops charging at £8.90.

The touch out is where it goes wrong. If you never touch out, TfL cannot work out what your journey was and charges a maximum fare instead; it does not publish that as a fixed figure, because it depends on the journey and the zones. If the gap between your touch in and your touch out runs past the maximum journey time set for that trip, you are charged two maximum fares rather than one. A maximum fare never counts towards the cap — but it can be claimed back within 8 weeks of the journey, and a severe delay can trigger that refund without your asking.

The DLR, the London Overground and the Elizabeth line work identically and share the same fares and the same cap, so a journey across all four is one fare. Register the card or device at tfl.gov.uk before you travel: it is optional, and it is the thing that lets you see your journeys and get a wrong charge put right.

Yes, and it takes one touch. Every London bus has a yellow reader by the doors: touch your contactless card, phone or watch on it as you get on, and that is the whole transaction. There is no touch out on a bus — touching the reader again as you leave risks paying twice rather than saving anything — so nothing can go wrong at the far end. One touch pays a flat £1.75, and every further bus or tram you board within 60 minutes of it is free.

Buses and trams have a ceiling of their own, £5.25 across the two of them together in a day, which is separate from the £8.90 Zones 1–2 cap that the trains run on. It builds on the card rather than on you, so use the same card or device for every touch: switch to the phone halfway through the day and the two halves never add up. Trams work the same way, except that the reader is at the stop and you touch it before you board rather than on the tram.

One coach here takes a tap too: Arriva's Greenline 757 from Luton has a reader on board that you touch as you get on, though that is its own commercial fare and counts towards nothing. Nothing on a London bus takes cash and the driver has no ticket to sell, so touch once as you board, keep the same card in the same pocket all day, and let the £5.25 ceiling do the rest.