One-day London travelcards saved after industry campaign
Transport for London (TfL) has cancelled its plan to discontinue paper one-day Travelcards. This good news comes after a campaign from organisations including English UK and our subgroup Young Learners English UK.
TfL planned to axe the tickets as part of a cost-cutting exercise. London mayor Sadiq Khan said the Travelcard, used about 14m times a year, lost TfL £40m a year in fares.
As part of the deal, one-day Travelcards will become more expensive in 2024, with a one-off 3% levy on top of the annual fare rise.
Huan Japes, English UK's membership director had two meetings with TfL about the issue. He was delighted by the outcome. "We and YLEUK campaigned hard on this one. Taking junior groups into London for the day would have become much more challenging without paper tickets. We are very pleased with this outcome and pleased to have played a part in achieving it."
Lisa James of YLEUK said: "Young Learners English UK has been campaigning for the retention of weekly and daily Travelcards because of the costs, administrative burden and impracticality of the alternatives. We are delighted that TfL has seen sense. This will benefit all English UK members who bring groups of juniors and adults into London."
Reporting the story, the London Evening Standard quoted a source close to the Mayor who said all sides had reached an agreement. "There's been a lot of back and forth between TfL, Rail Delivery Group and Government in recent weeks and a good compromise has been found."
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