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Using London Public Transport - Underground, Buses & Travel Passes

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This article is aimed at the independent traveller contemplatinga visit to London and eager to use London's excellent publictransport system as their main mode of transportation. A simpleguide to using the buses and trains and perhaps moreimportantly, the vast array of ticketing options. The London public transport system is for the leisure visitor,one of its great assets and opportunities. An organisationcalled Transport for London coordinates the various transportoptions on offer, namely buses, underground railway, overgroundrailway, Docklands light railway and river transport. Thisnetwork covers the whole Greater London area with acomprehensive network of services. The only airports within thisarea are Heathrow and London City Airports. The area is organised in six circular zones which ripple outfrom the centre. Nearly all the places visitors want to travelto and nearly all hotel accommodation is in Zones 1 and 2,though Heathrow is in Zone 6. For the sake of simplicity we willfocus on this inner area, zones 1 and 2. Public transport hereis dominated by the London Underground and London's famous redbuses. You cannot board any bus or train without pre-purchasing aticket. The single fare on a bus is a flat fare however far youtravel. The London Underground fare is determined by the numberof zones you travel through on a journey. You can switch trainsbetween the various lines within any single journey. AtUnderground stations there is always a manned ticket office andautomatic ticket machines. At bus stops there is a ticketmachine where you can purchase bus tickets. All underground lines and bus routes operate between about 05:00and 24:00. There is also a worthwhile network of night buses,especially in the centre of London which for the night owl areboth frequent and comprehensive enough to be of real value. Nearly all travellers on London's public transport system do notpay for individual journeys though. Instead one of themulti-trip passes is used. The fares set by Transport for Londonmake it much cheaper to purchase one of these cards than to payindividually for each journey. For the visitor the easiest placeto purchase any of the passes is a London Underground ticketoffice or a local retail ticket point. You will see signs in thewindows of many shops, especially newsagents, advertising thatthey sell the range of ticketing options at the same price asfrom the Underground Stations. The most popular option for the visitor to London is the one dayor three day Travelcard. This covers all public transportoptions within set zones. The


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Heathrow Express train is notcovered by the pass. For the vast majority of visitors to Londonthis means a Zone 1 & 2 Travelcard. During weekdays there aretwo fare options, you have to pay significantly more if yourTravelcard is used before 09:30 during the week. Children, (lessthan 16 years old) travel free on the buses. You can alsopurchase a Travelcard for children for just 1 pound sterlingcovering all zones. If you purchase a Travelcard for just zones1 & 2, you can use it for the buses on all zones. On buses you just show your card to the driver as you board. Ifyou board one of London's long single deck 'bendy' buses get onthrough any entrance and be prepared to show your ticket forinspection. Hit squads of inspectors descend on a bus sealingall exits and will demand a valid ticket to be shown. On theUnderground you will have to insert your ticket into a barrieron entering and exiting stations to gain entry and exit. You will also see many references to the 'Oyster Card' scheme.These are really aimed at residents of London. You will seeyellow pads on buses and at the ticket barriers at UndergroundStations. Oyster Cards are credit card sized cards that can beelectronically loaded with electronic money or a season ticket.For example you can load say 10 GBP onto your card, when youswipe that card to gain access to a bus the fare isautomatically deducted from the 10 GBP value on your card. Thebig attraction is the sizable discounts on individual journeyspurchased this way. Most Londoners will have season ticketswhich are also held in the Oyster Card. The product mostattractive to visitors is the 7 day Travelcard. You cannotpurchase a 7 day Travelcard without having an Oyster Card. The feature of Oyster Cards which discourages most visitors,especially overseas visitors, is the fact you have to pay a 3GBP refundable deposit for an Oyster Card. When you no longerrequire the Oyster Card you hand it in and fill in a form. Youdo not receive any money there and then, instead a sterlingcheque is sent to your home address at a later date. Current fares and maps are available at the url's listed below. The following pages detail current fares, maps and pictures ofusing London's public transport system. London Underground - Fares, Maps and Travel Passes LondonBuses - Fares, Maps and Travel Passes About the author: Bob Handford is an expert about his city, London and is theowner of the website London Hotels Toolkit that aims to provide practical information for independentvisitors to London. You can contact Bob direct at the web site.

Written by: Bob Handford

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