London, England – The London Underground

By: Annie Mole

Essentials for First-Time Tubers

"Going Underground (I’m Going Underground),

where the brass band’s bare feet start to pound"

So said Paul Weller from The Jam in the classic song “Going Underground”. Well, you won’t hear many brass bands on the Underground. You’re far more likely to come across a couple of dodgy buskers with a tamborine and a kazoo.

However, if you’re travelling to London and doing it on a budget, sooner or later you are going to have to use The London Underground, or "the Tube" as it is commonly known. The Tube is the world’s oldest subway system and is a bit of a maze, even for those who use it every day. It has 275 stations with 3,988 tube carriages that carry on average 2.5 million passengers each day on 12 tube lines… phew!

Take heed of the following hints and tips though, and you should get around okay.

Getting Around the Tube

For some useful online tools for finding your way around the Underground, click here for a whole lot of handy online tools. These include an online tube planner, travel news from London Transport, and an online street map of London, so you can find the nearest tube station to your hotel or hostel, and much more.

Large maps of the Underground can be found everywhere – fortunately. The thing’s confusing enough as it is!
Image courtesy of Kent Anderson.

The Tube Map

This is essential if you’re travelling on the London Underground. You can pick up a pocket map from any tube station. Large maps are also dotted around virtually everywhere on the tube itself, including inside the carriages. Here’s how to make sense of it:

Get yourself acquainted with the lines/routes. Each one is a different colour. Main lines include District (Green), Jubilee (Silver), Northern (Black), Central (Red), Bakerloo (Brown), Piccadilly (Navy), Victoria (Blue), Circle (Yellow), Hammersmith & City (purple). If you ask for help, try to refer to the lines by name, as most Londoners don’t refer to them by the colours but by the name.
Try to remember that the tube map bears no resemblance to how far apart the stations are in reality. Many travellers fall into the trap of getting on at Leicester Square to travel one stop to Piccadilly Circus. Once you have gone up and down all the escalators and gone through barriers with your ticket, it is quicker (and nicer) to walk, as they are only five minutes apart by foot!
This map puts the tube map into perspective (unfortunately the text is tiny, cos the tube covers such a sprawling mass).
Look on the link here for a guide to finding the standard tube map online.

Getting to the Tube from Airports & Stations

Heathrow Airport is on the Piccadilly Line, and you can get into Central London on it in about 35-40 mins.

Gatwick Airport isn’t on the tube line. But you can get the Gatwick Express into Victoria station, which is on the Victoria, District and Circle lines.

Luton Airport also isn’t on the tube line. You can take a Thameslink train into King’s Cross station, which is on the Piccadilly, Victoria, Hammersmith & City, and Circle lines.

Mainline railway stations are all on the tube line too.

From the Eurostar you’ll arrive in Waterloo station, which is on the Northern, Jubilee and Bakerloo lines.

Victoria Coach Station is the major bus terminal for London if you’re travelling to or from other parts of the UK by bus. Walking distance from Victoria tube station, which is on the Victoria, District and Circle lines.

Fares & Tickets

If you’re staying in London for a few days it definitely makes sense to buy a Travelcard rather than buying your tickets individually for each journey. Not only is it cheaper in the long run, but it means you have to avoid queueing up to buy a ticket for every stap of your journey.

Make sure you get a travelcard that covers the whole of the journey you want to do. The Underground is split into six zones. Zone 1 is Central London, going out to zone 6, which isn’t really London at all but covers Greater London areas like Heathrow Airport (Middlesex), and Essex.

Look at the link here for the price of tickets and travel cards. And don’t get fooled into buying a Travelcard from the guys that hang around outside tube stations trying to sell them. It’s illegal!

If you’re buying a ticket from a shop or travelagent, make sure you’re really clear that it will cover all the areas you want to go to. You could pay a £10 penalty fare if the ticket doesn’t cover the zone you’re in. The tube officials stick to this policy pretty rigidly, and saying that you’re a tourist doesn’t work!

The London Pass is an excellent idea as well. You get a 6-zone travelcard, entry into 60 popular London attractions, free Internet access at Cyberia Internet cafés, discounts at restaurants and £5 of free phone calls. Click here for more details. If I was a tourist I’d do it.

Tube Etiquette

Finally, a few little tips to behaving correctly on the tube. Some serious, some not so… you decide!

Stand on the right on escalators. There are signs all over the place saying this, but you’d be amazed how many travellers stand on the left and get disgruntled regular commuters crashing into them when they’re running down or up escaltors on the left.
Carry your rucksack or bag in front of you on the escalator. It stops people nicking things!
Try not to travel during rush hour (8.30-10am and 5-6.30pm). The tube’s a whole lot nicer when it hasn’t got miserable rushed commuters in it!
Try not to look too much like a tourist! This means don’t smile, don’t talk and don’t laugh. Such things simply aren’t done on the London Underground!
Stand clear of the closing doors. They can give you a massive whack if they hit you.
Mind The Gap! You will hear this famous announcement a lot on the tube, and it refers to the gap between the train and the platform. This varies from a few inches to a foot at some stations!

"Going Underground"

One of the most comprehensive online guides to the London Underground (written by yours truly!). There’s all you could want and more on the London Underground, including celebrity spotting, books, films and TV shows about the tube, the famous tube travelling pigeons and other tube animals, notable fare dodgers, what to wear for a crease-free journey, buskers, unofficial tube etiquette and lots lots more. Check out GoingUnderground.net now.

Annie Mole is the author and webmaster of the award-winning online London Underground guide, "Going Underground". It was a Yahoo pick of the week and is also featured on Lonely Planet’s web site. Annie is not a trainspotter, but a real Londoner who wants to give people a fun insight into life on the tube and the sorts of characters and animals (!) you are likely to meet whilst travelling on it.

Back to London Guide