A Zone 1 Tube trip costs £3.10 at peak and the day is capped at £8.90. Journey times from Maida Vale, Pimlico and Paddington, plus Heathrow and Gatwick fares.

Almost all of Westminster is in Zone 1, and almost nobody who lives here needs a season ticket in the way a commuter from Kent does. The question that actually comes up is narrower: what does a single trip cost, what will a whole day cost if you make five of them, and how long does it take to get from Maida Vale or Pimlico to where you are going.

Every price below is the 2026 adult rate published by Transport for London, and every journey time is what TfL’s own journey planner returns for a weekday morning. Prices changed in March 2026 and TfL updates them each year, so check before you rely on a figure that matters.

What it costs

A pay as you go single wholly inside Zone 1 is £3.10 at peak and £3.00 off-peak. If your journey crosses into Zone 2, which most of Maida Vale, Queen’s Park and St John’s Wood does, it is £3.60 at peak and £3.10 off-peak. Peak means 06:30 to 09:30 and 16:00 to 19:00, Monday to Friday and not on public holidays. There is a useful exception: a journey from a station outside Zone 1 into Zone 1 between 16:00 and 19:00 is charged as off-peak, so coming home into the centre in the evening does not cost you the peak rate.

The cap is where the money is. Whatever you tap, you will not be charged more than the daily or weekly cap for the zones you used.

Adult pay as you go caps and Travelcard prices, 2026, Transport for London
ZonesDaily capMonday to Sunday capMonthly TravelcardAnnual Travelcard
Zone 1 only£8.90£44.70£171.70£1,788
Zones 1–2£8.90£44.70£171.70£1,788
Zones 1–3£10.50£52.50£201.60£2,100
Zones 1–4£12.80£64.20£246.60£2,568
Zones 1–6£16.30£81.60£313.40£3,264

Two things follow from that table. Zones 1 to 2 cost exactly the same as Zone 1 alone, so a Maida Vale or Queen’s Park resident who only travels into the centre pays no more over a week than someone in Pimlico. And the daily cap is reached on the third peak journey, so a day of errands across the borough costs £8.90 however many times you tap.

Buses are separate and much cheaper. A single is £1.75, and the Hopper fare gives you unlimited bus and tram journeys within an hour of touching in for that one fare. At weekends it goes further: the Weekend Hopper gives unlimited bus and tram travel for the whole of Saturday and the whole of Sunday, each day for the price of a single £1.75.

How long it takes

These are the fastest results TfL’s journey planner returned for a Wednesday morning departure at 08:30, with the peak pay as you go fare.

Journey times from Westminster stations, weekday 08:30, TfL journey planner
FromToTimeRoutePeak fare
PimlicoVictoria2 minVictoria line£3.10
St John's WoodBond Street5 minJubilee line£3.60
WestminsterLondon Bridge5 minJubilee line£3.10
Bond StreetLiverpool Street7 minElizabeth line£3.10
PaddingtonOxford Circus8 minBakerloo line£3.10
VictoriaKing's Cross St Pancras9 minVictoria line£3.10
PaddingtonLiverpool Street10 minElizabeth line£3.10
Maida ValeOxford Circus12 minBakerloo line£3.60
Bond StreetCanary Wharf14 minElizabeth line£3.60
Queen's ParkOxford Circus15 minBakerloo line£3.60
PaddingtonCanary Wharf17 minElizabeth line£3.60

The Elizabeth line is what changed this borough’s geography. Bond Street to Canary Wharf in 14 minutes and Paddington to Liverpool Street in 10 are numbers that did not exist before 2022, and they are the reason W2 and W1 now function as commuter postcodes for the City and Docklands rather than just the West End.

The four main line termini

Westminster contains four of London’s main line stations, and between them they reach most of southern England. This is what each one actually runs, from TfL’s own station data.

Westminster's four main line termini and the operators that use them Diagram of four terminus stations. Paddington: Great Western Railway, Elizabeth line, Heathrow Express, west and Thames Valley, Heathrow Terminal 5 in 30 minutes. Marylebone: Chiltern Railways, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Birmingham. Victoria: Southern, Southeastern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, Sussex, Kent and Gatwick Airport in 31 minutes. Charing Cross: Southeastern, south east London and Kent. Four main line termini, four different halves of the country Operators listed at each station by Transport for London, checked 9 August 2026. Paddington · W2 Great Western Railway, Elizabeth line, Heathrow Express West Country, Thames Valley, Reading, Bristol, South Wales Bakerloo, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines Heathrow Terminal 5 in 30 min on the Elizabeth line Victoria · SW1 Southern, Southeastern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express Sussex, the Kent coast, the Brighton main line Victoria, Circle and District lines Gatwick Airport in 31 min on Southern Marylebone · NW1 Chiltern Railways Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Birmingham Bakerloo line Charing Cross · WC2 Southeastern South east London, north and west Kent Bakerloo and Northern lines Euston, King's Cross and St Pancras are in Camden, not Westminster, despite the Euston Road addresses.
Which terminus you live near is the single biggest thing about getting out of London from Westminster. It decides whether the west, the Midlands, Sussex or Kent is the easy direction.

Getting to the airports

Airport journeys from Westminster termini, TfL journey planner, adult pay as you go
RouteServiceTimeFare
Paddington to Heathrow T5Elizabeth line30–31 min£14.60
Paddington to Heathrow T5Heathrow Express21 min£26.00
Victoria to GatwickSouthern, peak31 min£19.20
Victoria to GatwickSouthern, off-peak32 min£10.70

Heathrow Express saves nine or ten minutes for £11.40 more. It is also the one service from a Westminster station that is not included in daily caps or Travelcards, along with Southeastern high speed, so a Heathrow Express fare sits on top of whatever else you spend that day.

There is no off-peak saving on the Elizabeth line to the airport. TfL charges peak fares on every Tube and Elizabeth line journey to or from Heathrow that starts, ends or passes through Zone 1, which from Paddington is all of them.

The Gatwick numbers are the ones worth planning around. The same Southern train costs £19.20 in the morning peak and £10.70 in the middle of the day, for a journey that is one minute longer. Gatwick Express runs the same corridor from Victoria at a separate, higher fare.

Which line serves your bit of Westminster

  • Marylebone and Fitzrovia (W1H, W1U, W1W): Bakerloo, Jubilee, Central, Circle and Hammersmith & City at Baker Street, Bond Street and Oxford Circus. Everything is Zone 1.
  • Paddington and Bayswater (W2): Bakerloo, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and the Elizabeth line, plus Lancaster Gate and Queensway on the Central line. Zone 1, with the west of W2 shading into Zone 2.
  • Maida Vale and Warwick Avenue (W9): Bakerloo line, Zone 2. Twelve minutes to Oxford Circus.
  • St John’s Wood (NW8): Jubilee line, Zone 2. Five minutes to Bond Street, which is also an Elizabeth line station.
  • Queen’s Park (W10 and NW6): Bakerloo line and London Overground, Zone 2.
  • Pimlico, Victoria and Westminster (SW1): Victoria, Circle, District and Jubilee lines. Zone 1 throughout, and Pimlico to Victoria takes two minutes.
  • Mayfair and Belgravia (W1K, SW1X): Green Park, Hyde Park Corner, Bond Street and Marble Arch. Zone 1.
  • Soho and Covent Garden (W1D, W1F, WC2): Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road. Zone 1, and often quicker to walk.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a Tube journey in Westminster?

£3.10 at peak and £3.00 off-peak for a journey inside Zone 1, which covers most of the borough. From Maida Vale, Queen’s Park or St John’s Wood you are crossing into Zone 2, so it is £3.60 peak and £3.10 off-peak.

What is the daily cap for Zone 1?

£8.90, and it is the same for Zones 1 to 2. The weekly Monday to Sunday cap is £44.70.

Is a Travelcard worth it in Westminster?

Only if you travel most days. A monthly Zone 1 to 2 Travelcard is £171.70 and an annual is £1,788. The Monday to Sunday cap of £44.70 gets you the same coverage without committing, so the Travelcard is really a question of whether you want the annual discount, which works out at roughly £34.40 a week.

How long does it take to get to Heathrow from Paddington?

About 30 minutes on the Elizabeth line for £14.60, or 21 minutes on Heathrow Express for £26.00. The Elizabeth line runs from the same station and is included in your journey history; Heathrow Express is not included in caps or Travelcards.

Which London main line stations are in Westminster?

Paddington, Victoria, Marylebone and Charing Cross. Euston, King’s Cross and St Pancras are all in Camden, even though they feel central.

When is peak on the Tube?

06:30 to 09:30 and 16:00 to 19:00, Monday to Friday. Everything else, including all day at weekends and on public holidays, is off-peak, and so is any journey into Zone 1 from outside it between 16:00 and 19:00.

Related

Sources

  • TfL adult fares 2026 and TfL Tube and rail fares for all caps, Travelcard prices and the note that Heathrow Express and Southeastern high speed sit outside the caps.
  • TfL journey planner for every journey time and single fare quoted, queried for a weekday departure at 08:30 on 12 August 2026 and for a 13:00 off-peak departure, checked 9 August 2026.
  • TfL station information for the operators and lines listed at Paddington, Victoria, Marylebone and Charing Cross.

Fares change, usually in March. Check the TfL pages above before you budget on a figure from this page.