London’s off-peak Friday travel trial starts today

Hospitality businesses in London are welcoming reduced travel fares on Fridays to encourage people back to the office on the quietest day of the week.

The Mayor’s three-month trial – named Let’s Do Fridays – hopes to encourage more people into London’s bars, restaurants, live music venues and theatres on Fridays.

From today, Tube and rail fares on pay-as-you-go with contactless and Oyster will be off-peak all day on Fridays until the end of May.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It’s clear that many people are still not coming into the office on Fridays compared to before the pandemic, which is having a major knock-on effect on our shops, restaurants, pubs and cultural venues.

“So as well as freezing fares for another year, we’re introducing this off-peak trial to get more Londoners back to the office on Fridays and to support the hospitality, culture and retail sectors as we continue building a better more prosperous London for everyone.”

London’s Night Czar, Amy Lamé, welcomed the move. She said: “We know the industry is facing huge challenges due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic, increased development, rising rents and business rates, staffing shortages due to Brexit, and the Government’s cost-of-living and cost-of-doing-business crisis.

“We’re committed to doing all we can to support our hospitality industry, and I’ve no doubt our Let’s do Fridays initiative will encourage even more people to come into London during the day and then stay on to make the most of everything our capital has to offer at night.”

The trial is funded by £24m which was been allocated from the Mayor of London’s recently approved budget, which will cover running costs and compensate TfL and rail operators for lower fares revenue.

Alex Williams, chief customer and strategy officer at TfL, said the trial will also help the organisation “better understand how targeted initiatives like this could encourage more people back onto public transport and into the office on a day that is currently quieter than other midweek days”.

Jeremy Joseph, owner of G-A-Y & Heaven Nightclub, said: “We need to see as many initiatives as possible to support our hospitality venues which our facing tough challenges – with duty too high, landlords increasing rents and the cost-of-living crisis. We need these new initiatives to get people back out, so I hope off peak Fridays will encourage people to stay out after work and into the early hours. London has some of the best venues and we need to be supporting all of them so London can thrive. Friday No Peak Travel = Peak Partying.”

Jeff Horton, owner of the 100 Club on Oxford Street, called the initiative a “much needed shot in the arm for the night time industry and for business in general”.

“Every bit of help is needed in encouraging people to visit our fantastic city more frequently in the evening as well as during the day,” he said. “Hospitality, in particular, needs this positive step as it continues to recover from Covid and the economic challenges we all currently face.”

Simon Champion, CEO at Boxpark Ltd, added: “We are delighted that the Mayor is introducing the Off Peak Fridays initiative. London’s hospitality sector is what makes London such an exciting and vibrant city and Friday nights are the lifeblood of London’s night time economy.

“We love that coming out to visit us has just become that much easier and we very much look forward to working with the Mayor and the Night Czar on all future projects to keep London as a world class night time city.”