London bus fares rise on 1 November: £1.85 instead of £1.75

The familiar £1.75 bus fare ends this week. From 04:30 on 1 November 2026 a single bus or tram journey in London costs £1.85, and the daily cap rises from £5.25 to £5.55. The Mayor signed the decision back in July: the bus fare had been frozen seven times in a row, and there will be no eighth.

How much a London bus costs before and after 1 November

The rise averages 5.7% across buses and trams. Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line fares do not change on 1 November — those were adjusted separately, back in March.

The one hour rule: what the Hopper fare actually is

The Hopper is not a separate ticket and there is no button to press. It is a rule that applies by itself: for one hour after your first touch in, every further bus and tram journey costs nothing. The hour runs from the first touch, not the last.

Three conditions, without which it will not work:

• Touch in with the same card, phone or watch every time. A different card starts a new fare.
• If your Oyster goes into a negative balance after the first journey, the Hopper does not apply. Top up within the same hour.
• A Tube or rail journey inside that hour is charged at its own fare — but the bus hour keeps running.

Daily and weekly caps: the most you can be charged

Even after fifteen boardings in a day, you will not be charged more than the daily cap — £5.25 now, £5.55 from 1 November. The cap applies automatically; there is nothing to claim. The Monday-to-Sunday week is capped separately: a 7 Day Bus & Tram Pass costs £24.70, rising to £26.10.

The arithmetic is simple: three journeys in a day already hits the ceiling. The fourth and everything after it that day is free.

Five ordinary routes that replace the tour bus

A hop-on hop-off sightseeing ticket starts at £32 per adult for a day, £39 at full price, and from £36.99 for the 24-hour version with a river cruise. It shows you exactly the streets that ordinary red buses run along for £1.85. The difference is the audio guide and the open roof.

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Five routes that cover almost all of ceremonial London, checked against the live TfL route network on 27 October 2026:

• Route 11, Fulham to Waterloo: Sloane Square, Victoria station, Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square, Big Ben, the riverside opposite the London Eye.
• Route 24, Pimlico to Hampstead: Victoria, Horse Guards on Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road, Camden Town.
• Route 148, Camberwell to White City: Elephant & Castle, Westminster Bridge, Victoria, Hyde Park Corner, Park Lane, Marble Arch, Lancaster Gate, Holland Park.
• Route 26, Hackney Wick to Victoria: Liverpool Street, the City, St Paul's Cathedral, Ludgate Hill, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall.
• Route 453, Deptford to Marylebone: Elephant & Castle, Waterloo, Whitehall, Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street, Oxford Circus, Baker Street.

One more worth adding: route 78 crosses Tower Bridge, and from the top deck you see the bridge from the inside — a view no £32 tour bus offers.

A correction to the advice going round social media. "Tap once and ride all five routes in an hour" does not work. Route 148 alone takes about an hour and a half end to end, and the 453 longer still. One Hopper hour is enough for two or three changes in the centre, no more. But you do not need the full loop in an hour: the daily cap makes any number of buses free after the third journey. It is the cap, not the Hopper, that turns a city bus into a full day's sightseeing — for £5.55 instead of £32.

How to pay, and where people lose money

• London buses have not taken cash since 2014. Contactless card, phone, watch or Oyster only.
• On a bus you touch in on boarding only. There is no touch out, and no second tap "just in case" — that is a new fare.
• If you also used the Tube that day, the £5.55 bus cap no longer applies on its own: a combined zonal cap is used instead, and it is higher.
• Every tap and every cap applied is visible in your TfL online account for that card. That statement is what you use to dispute an incorrect charge.

What to do before 1 November

Nothing. Your card and Oyster keep working and the new price applies automatically. A 7 Day Bus & Tram Pass bought before 1 November runs out its term at the old price, with nothing extra to pay.