London City (LCY)

Paying by contactless

• Adults can pay for the DLR by touching a contactless bank card, or a phone or watch with Apple Pay or Google Pay, on the yellow reader as they go into the airport’s DLR station and again at the end of the journey.
• Each person travelling on contactless needs a separate card or phone, but a phone or watch counts as a different card from the bank card linked to it, even on the same account, so one parent can pay for two people, one touching in with the card and the other with the phone.
• Use the same card/phone every time, and keep your phone charged, or you risk overpaying.
• Hold only one card or phone to the reader, and keep other cards away from it, or the reader may charge the wrong one.
• Many cards from abroad work, but your bank may charge an overseas transaction fee, and a phone linked to a non-UK card sometimes doesn’t work, so carry the card itself as well.
• Contactless only charges adult fares, so see Children’s tickets below for what children pay.
• If you use the same card or phone all day, Transport for London’s (TfL’s) daily cap stops your fares at £10.50 for Zones 1 to 3 (London City is in Zone 3).

Children’s tickets

• Up to four children under 11 travel free with each paying adult on the DLR, Tube and Elizabeth line, and they don’t need a ticket or card.
• Children aged 11 to 15 pay the adult fare by contactless (£3.30), or half fare with TfL’s Young Visitor discount on an Oyster card (£1.65 to central London off-peak), which lasts up to 14 days.
• Staff at any Tube or London Overground station, at some Elizabeth line stations and at TfL’s Visitor Centres can add the Young Visitor discount to an Oyster card or a Visitor Oyster card while the child is with you, for example at Canning Town, the first Tube station on the way into town.
• An Oyster card costs £10.50, which TfL doesn’t refund, so for a single trip into town an 11 to 15-year-old pays less on the adult fare, but over a few days the discount saves more than the card costs, because it also halves their daily cap to £5.25.
• Young people aged 16 and 17 pay the adult fare unless you applied before your trip for a 16+ Zip Oyster photocard (£22), which halves their fares, or they already have a 16-25 Railcard on an Oyster card, which takes a third off off-peak fares.

Paying at the airport

• Adults pay £3.30 to central London on the DLR by contactless or Oyster, or £3.90 if they touch in between 6.30am and 9.30am on a weekday.
• The DLR station is joined to the terminal, so you can walk straight there after collecting your bags, and it has ticket machines and a staffed ticket office.
• The machines sell paper single (one way) tickets and Day Travelcards and top up Oyster cards, and they take cash as well as bank cards.
• The ticket office is open from 7am to 9pm on weekdays, 7am to noon on Saturdays and 11am to 9pm on Sundays.
• Staff at the ticket office sell Oyster cards (£10.50 each, which TfL doesn’t refund).
• TfL doesn’t sell Visitor Oyster cards at the airport or anywhere else in London, but an ordinary Oyster card works the same way for travel.
• The DLR ticket machines’ start screen has flags for switching from English to Français, Deutsch, Español, Polski, Italiano, Svenska or Nederlands.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• You don’t need to book the DLR ahead, or use Trainline or any other booking app, because contactless or Oyster covers the whole trip into town, and TfL doesn’t sell DLR single tickets in advance.
• TfL’s Visitor Shop can post Visitor Oyster cards to you before you travel, for £10.50 per card plus postage, with £10 to £50 of credit on each, and they’re useful for anyone without a contactless card that works in the UK.
• The free TfL Go app plans journeys, tops up Oyster cards and shows your journey history.

Tickets to avoid

• DLR fares and tickets are valid on any train, so you pay nothing extra if your flight is delayed, but the last direct train to Bank leaves at about 12.15am, or 11.15pm on Sundays (see the timetable).
• A paper single (one way) ticket from the ticket machines costs £7 to central London, more than twice the £3.30 you pay by contactless or Oyster.
• Paper Day Travelcards also cost more than contactless or Oyster, which stop charging once you reach the daily cap.
• Don’t buy Oyster or Visitor Oyster cards for under-11s, who travel free, or for adults whose contactless card or phone works, because each card costs £10.50 and TfL doesn’t refund it.

Paying at the airport

• Black cabs at the rank outside the terminal run on the meter, and every one must take contactless cards, with no extra charge for paying by credit or debit card.
• Black cabs also take cash. Tipping is up to you, but 10% is standard.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• You don’t need to book a black cab, because only black cabs can be hired at a rank without a booking.

Things to avoid

• Don’t get into a minicab you haven’t booked, including one whose driver comes up to you, because unbooked minicabs are illegal and uninsured for passengers.

Paying at the airport

• Uber and Bolt show the price in the app before you book a car, and so does Freenow for its Ride cars, but black cabs booked through any of the three run on the meter (Uber adds a £2 booking fee), unless Freenow offers a fixed fare for your trip.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• Uber lets you reserve a London City pick-up up to 90 days ahead and cancel free up to 60 minutes before the pick-up time.

Things to avoid

• Don’t get into a minicab you haven’t booked, including one whose driver comes up to you, because unbooked minicabs are illegal and uninsured for passengers.
• If the driver or the car’s number plate doesn’t match your booking confirmation, don’t get in, because it isn’t safe.