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I was reading a Fares and Tickets FOI (https://foi.tfl.gov.uk/FOI-3904-2425/Book%201%20Fares%20and%20Tickets%20-%20March%202025_Redacted.pdf) and looked at the Hopper Fare section.
I found the wording of some bits rather interesting, such as:
A Hopper fare will also apply if customers make a rail or river journey between the first and second bus or tram journey, as long as both tram or bus touches are within the 60 minutes
This seems to imply that if someone did, within 60 minutes, Bus – Bus – Tube – Bus, the last bus journey would be charged at the full fare. Is that actually the case?
I also started to wonder what happens if an Oyster user makes more than 8 bus journeys sequentially. I assumed that the Hopper Fare works by the validator checking if there was a bus journey started within the last 63 minutes, and if there is it would add the journey but at £0.00.
Since Oyster only stores the last 8 journeys on the card, would it begin charging again for the 9th bus, or is the data about bus touches stored elsewhere on the card than the travel history? If that is a problem, it seems like something the backoffice reconciliation might resolve automatically for non-discounted cards, but I suppose it could present an issue for discounted cardholders.
Hi David,
I think there is some confusion there going back to the early days when the hopper only gave you one free journey. It doesn’t matter what order the touches are, buses and trams will still be free within the hour.
As for journey history, it’s not involved. The time of the first bus/tram touch is stored separately until it times out and the next bus/tram touch gets charged and replaces it. I know this because youtubers Geoff and Hugo did 25 in 60 minutes just after the facility was introduced. Hugo in fact went on to do 27 while the actual time allowed was 70 minutes, but that has since been reduced to 62.
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