Back to blog Just a few days after Sadiq Khan became Mayor of London, he made his first transport policy announcement. The ‘Hopper’ fare will go into effect in September across all TfL London Buses. The new system will allow passengers to use two buses for the flat price of £1.50 if they use both of them within the hour. The fare would apply to both Oyster and Contactless users. The ‘Hopper’ fare will mean huge savings for anyone using multiple London buses every day. But this is just a first step as Sadiq Khan’s original plans were a little more ambitious. During his election campaign he proposed a ‘Hopper’ fare that would allow unlimited travel on London buses within a 60 minute window. Transport for London has said that the technology to allow for unlimited bus transfers doesn’t currently exist. However, they hope to upgrade the ticketing technology in 2017 with the possibility to introduce the unlimited ‘Hopper’ fare in 2018, which will be fantastic news for frequent bus users. Right now a single journey on a London bus will cost just £1.50 but if you get off the bus and get on another, your Oyster or contactless card will be charged another £1.50. However there is a daily cap of £4.50 when using pay as you go on Oyster or contactless.
Mr Khan said, “My dad drove the number 44 bus and transport in London has always been a big part of my life.

The cost of a fare in London has risen for eight years in a row and now that I’m mayor I am determined to prevent the cost of travel from becoming a barrier to work.”

The ‘Hopper’ fare has some similarities to the transfer system that is in place on the TTC in Toronto. If you are making one continuous journey but need to change between bus, subway or streetcar, you can collect a transfer ticket to save you paying the fare again. These tickets can either be collected from automated machines in the subway or from the Operators on the buses and streetcars. It’s a nifty system that can potentially save passengers a lot of money in the long run.

We can’t wait to see the ‘Hopper’ fare in action this September. But what do you think? Will this be a big money saver? Find us on Facebook or Twitter and let us know.

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