On This Day: January 7th 2008
TfL Unveils The Zip Card
On January 7th 2008 Transport For London (TfL) unveiled the Zip Card, a travel card giving Londoners aged 11-18 free and discounted travel across the city.
Text by Esta Maffrett | 07.01.22
The young person’s travel card is a saviour for most young people, getting around their city or up and down the country. Providing cheap travel, they give you the opportunity to stop relying on adults and take those first steps of independence away from home life. It is more than a discount, it is the beginning of freedom. Taking you to a sleepover, getting you up to that festival in a field and ensuring education is accessible to all. Railcards have changed their appearance over time from taped down photo booth images, printed plastic and now going mobile but their use has always stayed the same. Once you have one, a whole world of opportunities is opened up.
In 2020 it was announced that the government would cut the Zip Card for under-18’s as part of the conditions of a TFL bailout. A cut that would of course hit poorer households and ethnic minorities harder by reducing accessibility and opportunities for young people in the city. The petition ‘Zap The Zip’ was launched by Joshua Brown-Smith in the summer of 2020 and gained support across generations at lightning speed on social media. Young people shared stories online about how free travel had helped them, from getting home safe after dark to expanding their world outside of their borough and travelling to work for free whilst being paid a lower under-18’s wage. After pressure online and through Youth Parliament it was announced that the removal of the Zip Card would be delayed at first for a number of weeks and then months. By November 2020 after continued campaigning by young people, it was announced that the Zip Card and free travel for under-18’s would be protected. In the midst of a pandemic young people joined together to defend and preserve what was important to them, ensuring that not only themselves but future generations are part of a more accessible world.
We gathered a selection of young people’s travel cards submitted to the archive. If you have an old card or a story about the importance of free travel to your youth, submit to our website.
