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When travelling on public transport in London you have several ticket options. You can either pay a cash fare, use a pre-paid Oyster card or buy a paper travel card. The price of your journey depends on which ticket type you choose, which zones you travel in and what time you travel at. Oyster cards always offer the lowest fares.
The reusable pre-paid plastic travel card for single journeys, 1-day, 7-day, 1-month, 6-month or 1-year travel passes.
If you plan to use several forms of transport to get around London, for example buses AND tubes, or if you think you'll make more than 1 return journey per day, it's usually cheaper to get a travel card.
If you don't want to use an Oyster card or travelcard when travelling in London, or simply haven't had time to pick one up yet, you can pay cash for each single journey.
The price of your Oyster, travel card or single cash fare may vary depending on the time of day.