While London’s public transport system is a boon for navigating our expansive city, the costs can rapidly accumulate, sometimes even dissuading us from certain journeys. However, there are methods to economise.
From linking a railcard to your Oyster card to hopping on multiple buses within an hour for a single fare, there are numerous tricks to keep your travel costs down.
But one pass surpasses them all, offering holders unlimited free travel on buses, the Tube, DLR, Trams, Overground, and the Elizabeth line – essentially, anywhere on Transport for London’s (TfL) network.
This golden ticket is known as the TfL Freedom Pass, and there are several ways to acquire one, provided you meet certain criteria. There are two types of Freedom Pass.
The first is the Older Person’s Freedom Pass, which allows holders to travel for free on TfL services from 9am on weekdays and anytime at weekends and bank holidays. To qualify, you simply need to reside in a London borough and be of state pension age (currently 66 for both men and women).
You can apply online here. The second type is the Disabled Person’s Freedom Pass, which offers free travel at any time on TfL services.
To be eligible, you must reside in a London borough and have an eligible disability. Eligible disabilities include:
- People who are blind or partially sighted
- People who are profoundly or severely deaf
- People without speech
- People who have a disability, or have suffered an injury, which has left them with a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to walk
- People who do not have arms or have a long-term loss of the use of both arms
- People who have a learning disability that is defined by TfL as ‘a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind which includes significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning’
- People who, if they applied for the grant of a licence to drive a motor vehicle under Part III of the Road Traffic Act 1988, would have their application refused pursuant to section 92 of the Act (physical fitness) otherwise than on the ground of persistent misuse of drugs or alcohol.
However, in exceptional circumstances, London boroughs may have the power to issue Freedom Passes to disabled individuals who do not meet one of the statutory eligibility criteria.
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