Latest news with #Elizabethline
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
How to save (or go for free) on a family day out this school summer holiday
A day trip begins with your journey to the attraction, and your savings can begin there, too, if you are using public transport. In London, up to four children under the age of 11 can travel free with a fare-paying adult on the tube, Docklands Light Railway, Overground and Elizabeth line. The kids don't require a ticket – they should be allowed through the gates by staff or can go through the larger gates with the paying adult. Children aged 11 to 15 get free or discounted travel with a 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard. A parent or guardian must apply for the card, which costs £16 and takes about two weeks to arrive. A Friends and Family railcard (£35 for one year) gets you a third off standard anytime, off-peak and advance adult fares, and 60% off child fares across the National Rail network in Great Britain. Some train companies – including Southeastern and Chiltern Railways – offer Kids for a Quid deals where children aged five to 15 can travel for £1 on a single or return journey off-peak when accompanied by an adult on selected journeys. Check whether the deal applies with a railcard as you often cannot use both. Travelling by train can also get you a discount when you arrive – National Rail's website lists 2 for 1 deals in London, and a mix of offers around Great Britain, including two for one at the Black Country Museum in the Midlands. National Express is running a 'kids travel free' promotion that finishes at the end of September. Up to three kids (to age 15) can go free with one adult using the code Kidsfree. Always try to book well in advance to get the best fares and avoid midweek peak times. Many of the most famous museums in the country remain free to enter for the main exhibitions. In London, the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern are some of the most prominent ones that do not charge. You may have to pay for specific exhibitions and many ask for voluntary donations. Bath Abbey, the National Railway Museum in York, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester and the Royal Armouries in Leeds are also free to visit. People who are on universal credit can often get cheap entry to museums or other attractions. The Cartoon Museum in London has adult tickets for £3 (normally £12) for anyone on universal credit or jobseeker's allowance. The Cutty Sark in Greenwich has £2 (normally £22 for an adult and £11 for a child) tickets for people on some benefits. Up to six people in a household can claim the cheap tickets. Edinburgh zoo offers tickets for £7. Adults on universal credit, pension credit or UK legacy benefits can get access to the Eden Project in Cornwall for £5, while children's tickets are £1 each. The Society of London theatre runs a 'kids' week' every year with 50 different shows taking part. One child aged 17 or under can see selected shows for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult. Up to two more children's tickets can be added at half price. There are no booking fees. The offer is available for selected performances until 31 August. Book through officiallondontheatre. There are also discounts available for shows such as MJ the Musical and Back to the Future through a summer theatre sale at LondonBoxOffice. If you want to see some Shakespeare, the Globe theatre in London has £5 'groundling' tickets for performances, although you will be standing. You can combine theatre with a picnic at the Grosvenor Park Open Air theatre in Chester, with tickets costing £20 to £58 with 20% off for the under-16s. You can bring your own food or buy some there. The Brighton Open Air theatre runs to 21 September and has children's and family tickets as well as concessions for the unemployed. If you want to get out of the sun, there are bargains on cinema tickets. Cineworld is running £1 Family Films where a different film is selected each week and tickets are priced at £1 each. Among them are The Wild Robot and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The Odeon chain is running kids' screenings every day of the holidays with tickets at £2.75 each. Many country parks offer free entry, although you may have to pay for parking. For example, Wendover Woods in the Chilterns has a wooden sculpture of the Gruffalo for kids to find as well as cycling and walking trails. Moors Valley Country Park and Forest in Dorset is free to enter and dog walkers can take part in a Wallace and Gromit-themed trail with games and challenges. The Earth Photo exhibition, which focuses on the environment and the climate crisis, runs to the beginning of September. Parking fees vary between parks. For example, Moors Valley charges £16.50 a day, while Wendover Woods charges £13. The Beamish Museum near Stanley in Durham tells the history of the region from the 1820s to the 1950s through immersive exhibits, and was recently voted the Art Fund museum of the year. It has family tickets (two adults and two kids) for £82, with access for a full year. If you travel to the museum on any Go North East bus, you can get a 25% discount on a standard individual admission. In order to cool down, lidos and community swimming areas can give some relief. The Clevedon Marine Lake on the Somerset coast is a tidal pool and gets filled with seawater from the Bristol channel every spring tide. Run by a charity, swimmers are asked to donate when they visit. If an attraction charges an entry fee, look out for family tickets and do the sums to get the best value. For example, the Sea City Museum in Southampton charges £42.50 for a family ticket for two adults and three children – it's cheaper than buying individual tickets for two adults and two children. It works out cheaper to buy individually if you are two adults visiting with one child. For one adult and three children there's another family ticket option costing £28.50. Prices for Legoland in Windsor start at £34 each – children under 90cm go free – if bought on the website in advance, compared with £68 if you walk up and pay. Chessington World of Adventures starts at £32 online or £66 in-person on the day. A Twice the fun ticket gives entry to two attractions for the price of one at Legoland, Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park or Alton Towers. Prices start at £32 if you visit Chessington first. Cadbury is running a promotion where you can get between 10% and 50% off entry for up to four tickets at Merlin UK attractions, which include Legoland, Sea Life and Thorpe Park, among others. Many attractions offer annual family tickets but again you will have to do the maths to work out whether the deal works for you. For instance, going to London zoo on an off-peak weekday for two adults and two children will cost £94.20. A silver membership (which gives unlimited visits) runs at £200. It offers entrance to Whipsnade, and with a peak-time visit there you will have paid for the membership.
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Yahoo
Bold new design rolling out on buses, Tube and trains across London
A bold new design is rolling out across London's transport system. Transport for London (TfL) is marking its 25th anniversary with new vehicle wraps across eight services, including a zero-emission bus, DLR train, Jubilee line train, Elizabeth line train, tram and IFS Cloud Cable Car cabin. The wraps celebrate key milestones from the past 25 years, such as the launch of the Oyster card in 2003, the full accessibility of London's buses in 2005, and the opening of the Elizabeth line in 2022. TfL launches poster campaign and public photo call for anniversary year (Image: TfL) Seb Dance, deputy mayor for transport, said: "I'm really looking forward to seeing these new designs first-hand on our transport services. "TfL's landmark 25th anniversary this year is a great opportunity to reflect on just how much our transport network has evolved and transformed in recent years, serving millions of Londoners and visitors to our city each and every day. "The mayor and I are committed to doing all we can to invest in and improve our network further, so it is fit for future generations and the next 25 years." The special wraps feature the phrase - 'Making every journey matter for 25 years' - and incorporate a 25th anniversary roundel. This symbolises TfL's contributions to economic growth, job creation and housing, as well as its efforts to make London's transport system safer, greener and more accessible. The designs appear on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), Elizabeth line, IFS Cloud Cable Car, London Overground, London Trams, London Underground, a zero-emission bus, a taxi and Santander Cycles. They will remain in place until the end of the year. Additional anniversary activities throughout 2025 include a 'then and now' photography exhibition, a poster competition for young people aged 11 to 18 and a campaign inviting the public to share their transport memories from the past 25 years. Andy Lord, London's transport commissioner, said: "London's transport network has played such an integral part in the city's growth over the last 25 years, with new services and improvements unlocking new parts of the capital and enabling more people to benefit from public transport, helping the city prosper. "We're excited to launch these special designs across a number of our services for the first time to mark the occasion, whilst also looking ahead to the next 25 years and all the improvements we have in the pipelines, such as those to make our network as accessible and inclusive as possible." TfL has outlined a series of actions aimed at making the network more inclusive, including its 'Equity in Motion' customer inclusion strategy, which launched last year. The plan contains more than 80 actions to improve accessibility across the network. Recent step-free upgrades include Knightsbridge station and the Bakerloo line entrance at Paddington. Schemes are also under way at Colindale, Leyton and Northolt. TfL has also established the Inclusive Design Centre for Excellence to support inclusive design across the network. The anniversary designs are featured on posters across the transport system, with four new TfL 25th anniversary posters launching at the end of July. These will highlight the TfL Travel for Life schools programme, the fully wheelchair-accessible bus fleet, the first air-conditioned Tube train on the Metropolitan line and the Cycle Hire scheme. TfL is also inviting the public to share their photos and memories from the network's 25-year history.
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- The Guardian
Number of city rail commuters in England and Wales surpasses pre-Covid levels, figures show
The number of rail passengers travelling into cities in England and Wales has now overtaken pre-Covid levels – but changing work and travel patterns have eased overcrowding since then, official statistics show. Almost 1.9 million people took trains into cities on a typical weekday last autumn – the highest figure since the records were first collated in 2010. However, there were about 13% fewer passengers arriving during the morning peak than in 2019. Arrivals into every station in London grew in the 12 months to autumn 2024, with particularly rapid growth at Paddington and Liverpool Street stations, both served by the Elizabeth line. The data suggests the line, fully opened in 2023, has taken the pressure off other trains, with overcrowding in the capital down from 2019 levels. However, trains into Birmingham are now matching London for the squeeze on commuters. Five separate Thameslink and West Midland train services were now the most overcrowded according to the Department for Transport, with the 7.30am Bedford to Three Bridges having an 184% load factor – or almost twice as many passengers as seats – when it reached London St Pancras station. Southwestern and Chiltern services made up the rest of the top 10 most overcrowded trains recorded by the DfT. The DfT figures allow for standing capacity on many London commuter services, with almost one in four passengers standing on arrival in the morning. It found that average overcrowding – or 'passengers in excess of capacity' – on midweek (Tuesday to Thursday) morning arrivals had increased slightly in the last 12 months to 1.6%, a figure now matched by Birmingham, with Bristol and Sheffield ranking as the next most crowded stations, after rapid growth in rail commuting last year. The total for cities outside London remains below pre-pandemic levels, at about 660,000 daily arrivals compared with 730,000 in 2019. The DfT said while directly equivalent statistics on crowding were not available, British rail passenger numbers appeared to be recovering faster than those in France, Germany or Italy, with growth of 9% last year compared with 5-7% in the three biggest EU economies. Public transport campaigners heralded the figures as underlining the return of rail, after the industry struggled during the pandemic as well as subsequent industrial unrest. Ben Plowden of Campaign for Better Transport said: 'Gloomy predictions for the future of rail at the time of the pandemic have proven wrong: rail is back in a big way, boosting our economy, keeping workers moving and saving our streets from gridlock. 'The fact that passenger arrivals are up while overcrowding is down is partly due to the huge success of the Elizabeth line. With more bold projects like this we could transform cities and improve daily life for vast numbers of people. An expanded rail network combined with more affordable fares could really bring about a rail revolution.'
