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GETTING IN AND AROUND LONDON

London Underground is what Americans know as a subway (however don’t
be mislead over here a subway is foot passage under a street to the
other side!!) called the Underground.  

The Underground is very simple and user friendly however there are a
few things that will help you get around like a pro.  Each “line” has a
colour and a name.  Sometimes these can be confusing such as the
Northern line goes in the direction of south as well as north and the Victoria
Line has Victoria Station as a stop as well as many other destinations.  
Each line that has a colour and name also has end stops.  Each line
goes two directions at a time - North and South or East and West, however
there are also tricks here in the Circle line does actually go in a circle
so it’s clockwise and counter clockwise.  

The first thing to do is find out what the nearest tube station is to
your accommodation or where the mainline British Rail train terminates.  
For anyone living in West Wickham is Charing Cross  (East Croydon &
Bromley South are both fast trains to Victoria!).  Once you’ve found your
nearest tube station you should plan from this point.  Find out which
line it’s on and then decide where you’re going (duh!!!) take the tube
line in the direction (North, South, East or West) that you want to go.  
All the stations have the name of the line and a colour-coded bar above
it.

For Example if your closest tube station is Victoria (and you get there
via British Rail –Mainline) and you want to go Oxford Circus you take
the Victoria Line northbound two tube stops (you get on at Victoria and
stay on the tube at Green Park and get off at the next stop) Oxford
Circus.  

London is broken into zones.  The central part of the city is Zone 1
and then the rest form concentric (like a doughnut) circles around each
one till Zone 6 (I live in Zone 5).  You can get tube passes called
Travel Cards for Zones 1&2 or Zone 1-4 or Zone 1,2,3,4 & 5 and Zone 1-6.  
It’s valid from 9:30am until the last tube of the day and is also good
on buses and mainline trains (on stops within the correct zone).  The
travel card is good M-F 9:30am on and the weekend (Sat/Sun) is anytime as
well as Bank Holiday’s.  There are weekly passes and the like (a three
day pass is also available) but you have to staying long enough to make
it worth while, feel free to ring and check.  The tickets are sold at
stations during counter operating hours or at Newsagents (little shops
with Newspapers and sodas and stuff) with the underground symbol (the
red circle with the line through it).  If you catch a flight really
early you might need a more expensive LT Card (rather than the Travel
Card) which is valid before 9am –check how you’re going to the
airport.  

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