Let's read TfL's press release marking the anniversary:
The Mayor’s Hopper fare, which allows unlimited bus and tram journeys in London for the price of a single journey when made within an hour of the first journey, is ten years old this weekend.
First launched on 12 September 2016, the fare is automatically given to anyone who uses pay as you go with a contactless bank payment or Oyster card. Initially only allowing one extra bus and tram journey within an hour, the scheme was expanded to allow unlimited journeys within an hour on 31 January 2018.
More than 100 million ‘hops’ were made in its first year, and since it launched, more than 1.43bn ‘hops’ have now taken place across London – making it easier and more convenient for people to travel by bus or tram.
The Hopper fare also applies to discounted rate fares, such as those made using a Bus & Tram Discount Photocard, Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount card, or Care Leavers Oyster Photocard.
The success of the 'Hopper' over the last decade has helped encourage people across London to switch from their cars to public transport - supporting the Mayor's wider work to clean up London's air and improve the local environment. The 'Hopper' is also of particular benefit to Londoners on lower incomes, who rely on bus services more to get around, as well as those with pushchairs and small children.
This summer, the Mayor also launched the Weekend Hopper, which allowed customers who travelled on a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday Monday to make unlimited bus and tram journeys for the price of a single journey. Across the eight weekends that the offer ran for, 6.8 million customers ‘hopped’ aboard, saving people £15 million.
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A Look Back at Sadiq Khan’s 2016 Manifesto Commitments
Sadiq Khan’s 2016 manifesto laid out clear transport priorities:
A MODERN AND AFFORDABLE TRANSPORT NETWORK
London’s transport has always been a big part of my life – my dad drove the number 44 bus. And more recently, I served as a Transport Minister in the last Labour Government, working on schemes such as Crossrail. But above all, like most Londoners, I’ve relied on it throughout my life to get me around. We can’t afford to let the cost of travel become a barrier to work. That’s why it’s vital we put a hold on the rocketing fares of the last eight years.
London’s transport infrastructure is at the heart of our city’s economy. But the short-termism of the past has left growth in demand outstripping growth in capacity. Meanwhile, Londoners already struggling to afford housing and household bills face some of the highest public transport fares in Europe.
We live in a world-class city, and my ambition is to create a transport network which offers commuters a world-class and affordable experience. To ensure this happens, I’ll personally chair Transport for London, working with businesses and boroughs to plan the transport capacity we need for London’s future, while modernising TfL, turning it into a more efficient, and more profitable public sector organisation.
We can learn much from the example set by publicly owned transport companies in France, Germany and the Netherlands which run services commercially in other cities and countries – including our own. I will use the savings and profits that a modernised TfL delivers to continue investment in new capacity on our network while keeping fares down.
Keeping fares affordable
Londoners currently pay some of the highest public transport fares of any major city. For many, that means less money for food, to clothe their children or heat their homes. This is why I am committed to freeze fares for the next four years. I’ll turn the corner on the soaring fares of the last eight years, while pay growth catches up.
I will:
• Freeze all TfL fares and charges for the Mayor’s cycle hire scheme for four years
• Introduce ‘The Hopper’ – a new one-hour bus ticket allowing unlimited changes within an hour, so that a £1.50 single ticket pays for a full journey.
• Continue to support both Oyster and contactless payment card methods and ensure fare structures remain equal so that nobody is disadvantaged by choosing either payment method.
• Guarantee the Freedom Pass and the over-60s Oyster card, along with all other existing concessionary fares schemes.
FUNDING THE FARES FREEZE
My plan to freeze transport fares will be funded by making TfL a more efficient and profitable operation, not by cuts to spending on better services and more capacity.
TfL is a vast organisation, and does many things well. But it is also inefficient and flabby – spending hundreds of millions of pounds each year on agency and consultancy fees, failing to implement shared procurement and functions between its surface and underground transport divisions, and allocating public money to Boris Johnson’s vanity schemes such as the cable car.
The current Mayor has avoided challenging TfL to make the savings which other public sector organisations have been forced to make over recent years.
I will reverse that approach.
I will:
• Merge engineering functions within TfL – ensuring shared procurement and office functions save millions each year.
• Deliver major efficiency savings within TfL - cutting duplication
and waste and reducing the overuse of consultants and agency staff. TfL spent £383 million on consultants and agency staff last year – a figure which I will aim to halve.
TfL will explore the generation of new income streams by:
• Establishing a trading arm that can run bus and other local transport services and sell TfL’s expertise, at home and abroad. The revenues it makes will be used to keep fares down in London just as foreign state- owned transport firms currently take profits made here to subsidise their services.
• Put spare TfL land to better use, retaining ownership while building affordable and market homes, as well as commercial space, generating a long-term and secure revenue stream. And I will end Boris Johnson’s practice of using Londoners’ money to fund expensive vanity projects – such as the cable car and the failing ‘new Routemaster’ buses.
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By contrast, Zac Goldsmith’s 2016 election manifesto focused heavily on protecting concessionary fares and taking on TfL efficiencies, offering no proposals for fare restructuring or a transfer mechanism.
Regional Influence: Greater Manchester’s Bee Network
London's Hopper fare paved the way for fare simplification in other regions, most notably in Greater Manchester following the introduction of bus franchising.
Andy Burnham’s 2024 Mayoral election manifesto pledged:
3. COMPLETING THE BEE NETWORK VISION
We will introduce a new simpler, flatter fairer fare structure from January 2025, further reducing the cost of travel for all of our residents in GM. The cost of an ‘anybus’ weekly will fall to £20 and a monthly by over £5 to £80.
We will work with Greater Manchester’s credit unions to create a new scheme whereby annual Bee Network passes – and the discount that comes with purchasing up front – are made available to people on lower incomes who would otherwise struggle to afford the initial outlay.
People will be able to get an annual pass by signing up to their local Credit Union and making weekly no-interest, repayments over the course of the year. This will significantly reduce the weekly cost of travel for many of our residents and increase the numbers of people who are able to benefit from everything our excellent credit unions have to offer.
By 2030, we will achieve a 100% zero emission bus fleet in GM – giving us the UK’s first integrated zero carbon public transport system at street level. We will improve the coverage of EV charging in all of our communities.
We will ensure that the introduction of the full Bee Network enables Greater Manchester to meet its legal obligation to achieve clean air compliance by 2026.
On 5 January 2025, with the launch of the fully franchised bus network, Greater Manchester introduced its own £2 Hopper fare across the Bee Network.
The Fate of the New Routemasters
To supplement this article, as Sadiq Khan is no fan of the New Routemaster bus:
In addition to it all, it has also been 10 years since conductors (customer assistants) for the three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemaster were withdrawn. Having hop-on, hop-off buses with conductors was a key 2008 manifesto commitment from Boris Johnson for a 21st-century Routemaster.
The first Friday of September 2016 marked the last day of conductors on the six routes that carried them: 9, 10, 11, 24, 38, and 390.
In August 2016, Sadiq Khan stated during Mayor's Question Time:
"The conductors on these routes have done a great job, but the New Routemaster routes that do not have conductors also operate effectively and I can no longer justify the £10m cost that could otherwise be invested in modernising the transport network. TfL is working with the bus companies to find conductors other opportunities within the transport industry so they can continue to play a part in keeping London moving"
Has Three-Door Open Boarding for NRMs Been a Success?
Although former Mayor Boris Johnson had scrapped bendy buses specifically to tackle fare evasion, the problem returned under open-boarding NRMs. Unfortunately, neither the Hopper fare nor the fare freeze proved sufficient to curb it.
TfL began rolling back open boarding with a front-door boarding trial on route 8 in 2019. Following interruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, full front-door boarding across the entire NRM fleet was completed by 5 September 2020.
Taking a look back at Sadiq Khan's 2016 Mayoral manifesto, it stated: "I will end Boris Johnson’s practice of using Londoners’ money to fund expensive vanity projects – such as the cable car and the failing ‘new Routemaster’ buses."
In November 2019, Mayor Khan confirmed that TfL had fulfilled its procurement obligations for the vehicles:
"Transport for London (TfL) procured the full allowance of 1,000 New Routemasters under its contract with Wrightbus.
TfL did not cancel further purchases as this contract had run its course. Like other manufacturers, Wrightbus has been competing for business from bus operators who buy and lease single and double-deck vehicles to fulfil commitments to run routes in London when they successfully tender for them."
You can read my 2020 article exploring why the NRM project ended, including how Boris Johnson encouraged bus manufacturers to adopt NRM design cues for standard double-deckers, most notably Alexander Dennis with the Enviro400 City.
The Future: Upgrading Ticketing and Cross-Boundary Integration
Despite the operational hurdles of the New Routemaster project, the Hopper fare has been an undeniable success. Looking ahead, TfL’s Oyster and contactless ticketing infrastructure, in place since the early 2000s, is due a major upgrade. This is set to become a reality following Indra Group’s appointment earlier this year on a seven-year contract to modernise the system.
Looking ahead, there is a strong case for expanding the Hopper fare beyond London's boundaries. Partnering with non-TfL operators, such as First Essex on their extended route B1 to Harold Wood, or the Fastrack Bus Rapid Transit network in Kent (operated by Go-Ahead London), would bring seamless Hopper ticketing to cross-border commuters.
Delivering this requires a financial agreement between bus operators and Home Counties local authorities to integrate regional bus fares with TfL's system.
The UK Department for Transport data shows contactless payments are on 95.8% of British buses, up from 38% in 2017. London leads at 99.3%, but Wales and Scotland have seen the fastest growth, both now exceeding 94%. The shift aims to improve boarding and journey reliability.
— CLondoner92 (@clondoner92.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
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Alternatively, as suggested in my 2023 proposal, creating a new regional transport body to oversee former Network SouthEast rail routes alongside Home Counties bus networks would solve this structurally, though it would demand significant political momentum and parliamentary legislation.
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