Transport for London
The Tube, buses, trains and fares. Line closures, price rises, how payment works and what to do when a train stops.
Articles on this topic: 14
Getting home after midnight in London: what runs at night and what it costs
The Night Tube runs only on Friday and Saturday nights, and not along the whole line — only specific sections. On every other night it is the bus: N-prefixed and 24-hour routes cover the city roughly from 23:00 to 06:00, seven nights a week. Here is which lines run, where they end at night, what a journey with changes costs, and what changes on 1 November.
London Tube closures this weekend, 3–4 October: Victoria shuts on Saturday evening, Jubilee closed to Canary Wharf both days
The Victoria — Brixton section is closed from 7.30pm on Saturday until 10am on Sunday — exactly over the evening and the morning. The Jubilee does not run between Green Park and Canary Wharf on either day, the DLR loses Shadwell — Tower Gateway on Sunday, and Acton Main Line on the Elizabeth line is shut overnight. Line by line, with times and alternatives.
Cheap train tickets in Britain: a third off fares, and the money back when the train is late
A Railcard costs £35 a year and pays for itself in two or three journeys: it takes a third off most fares, and linked to an Oyster card it cuts off-peak London travel by 33%. Here are all nine railcards with prices, the £12 minimum fare rule before 10am, split ticketing (it is legal), Advance tickets, and Delay Repay — compensation from 15 minutes late, claimable within 28 days.
Victoria line severe delays, Circle running again: London Underground today, 2 October
Updated at 08:20. The morning has flipped: the Circle line, suspended by a points failure at Gloucester Road, is running again, while the Victoria has gone into severe delays after a track fault at Brixton. Buses and six rail operators are accepting Victoria tickets. District severe delays now only Barking to Upminster. What to take instead, and what tonight looks like.
London Tube and TfL closures in October 2026: the Piccadilly line stops entirely at Halloween, and no Tube to Heathrow on 17–18 October
TfL has published its planned closures calendar. The headline: the Piccadilly line does not run at all on 31 October and 1 November, and on 17–18 October the Hammersmith to Heathrow and Uxbridge section is shut — so there is no Tube to the airport twice this month. South London trams stop for nearly a fortnight, the Northern line skips Burnt Oak for two weeks, and this coming weekend the Jubilee is closed between Green Park and Canary Wharf. Here is the whole month, weekend by weekend.
From the airport into the city: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton — train, tube or bus, what it costs and where to buy tickets
Part two of our guide to Britain's airports. The golden rule of London transfers: the express is fast and expensive, the ordinary train or tube is two to three times cheaper, and the bus is cheapest of all but hostage to traffic. The Heathrow Express costs £26 while the Tube from the same station charges an ordinary fare; the Stansted Express starts at £9.90 booked ahead; the Luton DART is £4.90 for a 4-minute ride. All four big airports plus London City: what to take by day, what at night, where to buy tickets — and why your bank card already is one.
Lost property and seized goods in the UK: where finds are stored, where unclaimed items go, and whether they really sell for pennies
A legend every immigrant has heard: somewhere there is a warehouse where forgotten suitcases and seized goods sell for pennies. We checked the primary sources — it is half true. Transport finds are kept for three months (TfL at Baker Street; Heathrow charges £5 to £25 to return an item), and unclaimed property genuinely is sold afterwards, but at official auctions open to anyone. 'Customs confiscate' offered on social media is always a scam. The whole chain: timescales, addresses, prices and the reseller's taxes.
Where to live cheaply in London: boroughs with rents from £1,500 — 2.4 times below Kensington — and what you trade for the price
Average London rent has passed £2,300, and Kensington sits at £3,690. Yet the map has boroughs where the average let is £1,500-1,700 and a house costs £376,000 against London's £550,000 — ONS figures from summer 2026. An honest guide to the affordable belt: what life there really costs, whether the shops are truly 'half price', and what exactly you pay with — time, the view from the window, and more.
'Russian taxi' in London cheaper than Uber: the saving is real — but only if the dispatcher holds a TfL licence
Russian-language chats are full of 'dispatch services': call, give your flight number — and a Russian-speaking driver meets you at the airport for less than Uber. You genuinely can save this way, with one caveat the size of the law: in London, any minicab is legal only when pre-booked through a TfL-licensed operator. A car without such a booking is, in TfL's own words, 'uninsured, unsafe and illegal'. Here is how to check any dispatcher in a minute, and what a legal ride from Heathrow costs.
Bus fares in England fall to a £2 cap from 1 January 2027 — and how to check your route
The Department for Transport reported on 25 September that children made 14.5 million free bus journeys in August. The same release confirmed what matters next: from 1 January 2027 a single bus ticket in England outside London will cost no more than £2, down from today's £3. Here is what applies now, what you have to apply for, and who travels free all year.
Parking fines in the UK: how to appeal a PCN for free — and why a private ticket is not a fine
A council penalty charge notice in London costs £160 or £110, halved if you pay within 14 days; outside London the cap is £70. A private company's notice is not a fine at all but a contract invoice: capped at £100, with up to £70 added for debt recovery. Both can be challenged free of charge, but the deadlines are strict: 14 days to the council, 28 days for formal representations, 28 days to the tribunal.
London on Sunday 13 September: what is free and what you pay for
Open doors across the city, a free wellness festival at Wembley, Korean barbecue in the Olympic Park, classic boats by Tower Bridge and the Hampton Court gardens. Here is what cost money that day and what did not.
Car owners in Britain: tax, charging zones, parking, buying, scrapping and the truth about “free” cars
How much road tax costs and why electric cars now pay too, ULEZ and the Congestion Charge, where to park without a fine, how to buy and sell safely, how to scrap and get paid, and why “free abandoned cars” is a myth. With the real cheap options.
Transport in Britain: how to pay less, concessions and what to do when it breaks down
Contactless and caps instead of tickets, the bus Hopper, off-peak, a Railcard for a third off, free travel for residents and what to do during strikes. With links to TfL and National Rail.