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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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