Conquering the London Tube

For millions of people public transportation is the main mode of getting around, especially in large cities like New York, Chicago, Paris, and of course London! But for so many other people, the subway/underground/tube is something completely foreign to them...I am one of those people. The ONLY time I had rode in a subway before going to London was once in San Francisco in midday. To say the least, it wasn't overwhelming. Do you know what seems to be overwhelming? The London Tube! I was absolutely terrified of this system when I realized how much we were going to be relying on this. But with some basic research beforehand, and some quick lessons once we were in London, Mike and I had the tube mastered by the end of our trip. Hopefully these tips will help you as well!  

So first off, if you have a smart phone get the Tube Map app by mXdata LTD. I referenced this in a previous post as well but it really is an amazing tool! If you're really unsure about the best way to get from Point A to Point B, this gives you the option of plugging in your location and destination and then gives you the best options using the tube or different public transport combinations to get you where you want to go without much difficulty. If you don't have a smart phone, check out the Transportation for London page. This will give you lots of other useful resources as well.


The next thing is two-fold; mind the gap & stand to the right! First, "Mind The Gap" isn't just a cute British saying, they mean it! When getting on and off the subway there is (of course) a gap between the platform and the subway car. It's not bad when you're not toting a huge piece of luggage around, or pushing a stroller (or Pram as the Brits call it), but when you are it makes things a bit more challenging. What doesn't help...Londoners don't mess around when it comes to getting somewhere! If you take your time getting off or on the car you're bound to have a couple people push their way through to keep going with their day. Honestly, the better you get at efficiently hoping off and on the subway, the better off you'll be when it comes to not being jostled about like a ping pong ball at the final table tennis round at the Olympics. Second, 'Stand to the right' refers to going up and down the escalators in and out of the tube stations. It's the general rule of thumb that if you're going to ride the escalator then you stand to the right,but if you're going to climb the escalator to speed up the process (which most Londoners do), then you use the left side of the escalator. I'm not sure if this applies to other cities as well but let me tell you it works wonderfully!

Lastly, get an Oyster card, or travel card (which is what we did). I actually would recommend getting a travel card if you're not going to be staying in London for a long period of time (but there's a catch, keep reading to the end of the paragraph). Here's my reasoning behind this. The Oyster card has to be loaded with money, each trip costs you money, and once you've used that money up it has to be reloaded. (Just for reference, using your Oyster card from Victoria Station to Piccadilly Circus will cost 2 pounds 10 pence.) The travel card, on the other hand, is for a set amount of days and you can use any public transport as much as you possibly can in that set period of time. The reason I would recommend this to people who are "doing the tourist thing" is because you are bound to take the wrong line at some point or another, or get off too early, or too late. I have to say, we didn't have this happen a lot, but it did happen enough that I would have started tallying up all the money we had wasted if we had Oyster cards instead of travel cards. Remember that catch I mentioned earlier? Well, turns out you can load a travel card onto an Oyster card! Best of both worlds! Why you ask? Well the downfall to the wonderful travel card is it's a flimsy piece of cardstock-like paper, similar to a movie ticket, which doesn't hold up well after a week of use. Now you can load it onto the credit card looking Oyster card and not worry about ruining the magnetic strip and having to get an attendant to get let in or out of the station. Here's the link to more Oyster card information: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/19799.aspx.

Hopefully now that I've given you some tips on 'The Tube,' you'll be more able to use it with ease. Because honestly, it's one of the most London-y things to do while you're there! And remember...

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

Mike & Alicia