London Underground Child Fares – Tube Ticket Prices 2025

Are children free on the London Underground?

Children aged under-11 (with an adult) – Children under the age of 11 can travel for free on the London Underground, London Overground, DLR and TFL Rail with no time restrictions, as long as they’re accompanied by a fare-paying adult (up to a maximum of four children per adult). They don’t require a tube ticket.

They might also be able to travel for free on some National Rail services (the overground trains that head outside London), but each train company has their own rules about age limits and timings, so you need to check with them first. Generally speaking under 5’s usually get free travel on the train, but only if they’re not taking up a seat required by a fare-paying passenger. Children aged between 5-15 might be charged a half-price train fare.

Children aged under-11 (without an adult) – Children aged between 5-10 travelling without any adult supervision can only travel for free if they’re carrying a 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard. (Tourists might wonder why 5-10 year-olds are allowed to travel unaccompanied on the tube, but it’s not unusual to see primary school children go a few stops on the Underground.)

Do children get cheap fares on the tube?

Children aged between 11-15 – Children aged between 11-15 can pay a child rate on single fares and child travelcards if they have an 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard. They also get a cheaper child price on single fares if the Young Visitor Discount has been applied to their Oyster card.

We always recommend that people use the Young Visitor Discount if they’re staying in London for less than two weeks, because the children’s photocards cost money, which will almost certainly wipe out any savings you’ll make.

Children aged between 16-17 – Children aged between 16-17 can pay child rates on single fares and travelcards with a 16+ Zip Oyster photocard.

What is the Young Visitor Discount?

If you have a child aged between 11-15 and are staying in London for less than two weeks then you should forget about buying a Zip Oyster photocard – you’re much better off taking advantage of the Young Visitor Discount which entitiles them to half-price fares on the London Underground for a maximum of fourteen consecutive days.

All you have to do is buy your child a regular London Oyster card or Oyster card for visitors (but not a travelcard), load some credit onto it, and then ask a member of TFL staff to apply the ‘Young Visitor Discount’ to it. You can usually find one standing behind the ticket barriers in the ticket hall. Unfortunately it’s not possible to do this online beforehand – you can only do it in person once you arrive in London.

You can do it at a London Underground station, a National Rail station (within London) or one of the Visitor Centres at Heathrow airport, Euston station, King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Piccadilly Circus or Victoria. (Note: You won’t find any manned ticket windows in London Underground stations anymore, because they’ve all been phased out. The only place they have windows these days are National Rail stations.)

Be aware that your child must be with you when you do it (up to a maximum of four children per adult), and the staff member might ask for proof of age if they look over 15 – so make sure you’ve got their passport handy, or some other form of age-related ID.

Your child can then carry on using the card exactly like a normal Oyster card – tapping it down on the same yellow readers that adults do – and the computer will automatically charge them the Oyster card child rate. Once the fourteen days are over any remaining credit will still be on the card, but the computer will revert back to charging adult tube fares again.

Can a child use contactless on the train?

There are no contactless fares for children. If your child is lucky enough to own a bank card then they can use it, but the computer will just charge them a normal adult tube fare instead. That’s because the chips on bank cards don’t carry any information about your age, so the computer has no way of knowing they’re a child.

Can a child use a passport as proof-of-age?

Having to stump up £10 to £20 puts a lot of people off buying a Zip Oyster photocard, and they wonder whether they can just prove their child’s age with a passport instead. It’s a nice idea, but unfortunately it’s not allowed. The only way of getting a cheap child fare on the London Underground is with a Zip Oyster photocard.

What is a Zip Oyster photocard?

5-10 Zip Oyster photocard – Kids under the age of 11 already get free tube travel if they’re accompanied by a fare-paying adult, but if they need to travel alone then they’ll have to get hold of a 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard beforehand.

5-10 Zip Oyster photocards cost £10 each, and expire the day before your child’s 11th birthday.

11-15 Zip Oyster photocard – Kids over the age of 10 years 11 months, and under the age of 16 on the 31st August, can get themselves an 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard for £15 and benefit from cheap tube fares and child rate travelcards.

If your child is currently 16 but was aged 15 on the 31st August just gone, then they can still get one because it doesn’t actually expire until the 30th September in the year following your child’s 16th birthday.

16+ Zip Oyster photocard – 16-17 year-olds can get cheap London Underground fares and child rate travelcards with a 16+ Zip Oyster photocard.

16+ Zip Oyster photocards cost £20 and expire on the 30th September in the year following your child’s 18th birthday.

Where can you get a Zip Oyster photocard?

There’s only one way to get a Zip Oyster photocard – the child’s parent or guardian has to order it from the TFL website.

The adult will have to set up an account in their own name, and then verify the child’s age using the details printed on a machine-readable passport. If they don’t have the child’s passport available then they’ll have to print off a form and take it to their local Post Office instead. They will also need to upload a digital colour photo.

If you want the photocard posted to a UK address then allow for four weeks delivery. You can also pick it up from one of the Visitor Centres at Heathrow, Euston, King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Piccadilly Circus or Victoria when you arrive in London.

How do you top-up a Zip Oyster photocard?

To top-up a Zip Oyster photocard the parent or guardian has to log into their TFL account (which they would have created when they bought the card).

They can also switch on the handy ‘auto top-up’ feature by selecting ‘Add an existing card’, and then entering the 12-digit number printed on the back of the child’s photocard. This will automatically draw another £20 or £40 from the adult’s bank account every time the child’s credit drops below £20.

Note: If the child is under the age of 11 then they’ll be entitled to free tube travel, so there’s no need to put any credit on it.

Is it worth getting a Zip Oyster photocard?

We don’t recommend child photocards for foreign tourists on a short stay because they cost too much money – the purchase fee of £10 to £20 will probably wipe out all the savings you’d make. It’s also a hassle having to order it online and then picking it up once you arrive in London.

Tourists are much better off buying an Oyster card instead, and then paying for child tube tickets with a Young Visitor Discount attached to it.

How do you use a Zip Oyster photocard on the train?

Using a child’s Zip Oyster photocard on the train is really no different to an adult using a regular Oyster card. All you have to do is load it up with some credit beforehand, and then they child taps them down on the same yellow readers that adults do. The computer will then deduct the correct fare and open the gate.

Note: There’s no need to do load it up with credit if your child is under-11, because they get free tube travel – but they still need to tap it down, because that’s the only way of opening the gate.

What is a 16-25 Railcard?

A 16-25 Railcard (also known as a 16-25 Young Persons Railcard or Student Railcard), entitles you to ⅓-off train fares if you’re planning on using some National Rail trains to places outside of London. Given how expensive train tickets are these days it will probably pay for itself after three or four journeys.

Make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully though, because it doesn’t apply to all journeys on the London Underground. If you’re travelling on the tube then all you really get are cheap tickets for off-peak single fares on Oyster, a discount off the Oyster daily price cap, and some money knocked-off the cost of a zone 1-9 one day travelcard when bought together with a National Rail ticket outside of London.

You might also find that you’re subject to a hefty minimum fare when travelling between 4.30 AM and 10 AM on Monday to Friday, which will probably render it useless for daily commutes on London transport.

If you’re interested then check out their website at railcard.co.uk

How do children get through the ticket barrier?

A child under the age of 11 doesn’t need a ticket when they’re travelling with an adult, so lots of people wonder how they’re going to get their children through the barrier.

All you have to do is look for the extra-wide gate that’s always provided for wheelchair users and people carrying bulky bags. If you use that gate then there will be plenty of space to walk your child through by your side.

If your child doesn’t get through in time then just find a member of TFL staff behind the gate who will use their own TFL pass to swipe them through. (Bear in mind that they might ask for proof of age if your child looks over 11.)