Figuring out the "Tube" system

Oh fine. Yeah, I admit it. I'm one of those poor helpless souls that get lost at the drop of a hat. So trying to figure out all of those lines on the Tube map had my dyslexic brain in a tizzy.

Enter http://www.tubeplanner.com/search/result?from=Marble+Arch&to=King%27s+Cross+St.+Pancras&go=Go which I found I forget exactly how, but it involved multiple redirects on several different websites. LOL I played it safe and bookmarked it as soon as I found it.

You choose a starting point. Then you choose an end point. Hit search. Then it provides you with easy directions ... which line to take and where to make the transfer, how much time the route will take, and what fare zone you will be in/crossing. I feel much better about using the Tube with this thing to help me out.

Thanks for sharing this.

Was just in London two weeks ago.

Love the underground.

Also love to walk this beautiful city.

If only they could drive on the right side of the road. Just kidding. LOL.

Keith

Thanks! I think that site will come in very handy.

For getting around London you need to look on the TfL, Transport for London website which gives you all the information you need about getting around London.

All my foreign friends find travelling around London is easy, especially on the Tube. I hate the tube, would rather take the bus any day, but the Tube is convenient and easy to manoeuvre.

I get by fine with just a tube map. :p

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/standard-tube-map.pdf

The important thing to bear in mind is that although the map has won awards for simplifying a very extensive & complicated system and has become the model for metro maps across the world, it's not to-scale and isn't even geographically-correct.

So use it only for navigating the system.

Use a regular tourist map to find the nearest tube stations to your start & finish point. Or most London attractions, hotels, even restaurants, name their nearest tube station.

Having established where you want to join & leave the system, use the tube map to figure the best route on the tube.

For those unused to the system, best is often the one with fewest changes.

Lines are colour-coded, in the stations just follow signs with the correct colour code & name of the tube line. When you get to that line, signs will split between trains going in either direction. It's useful to have noted the end-station (terminus) of the train that you want because that's shown clearly at the top of the sign, but intermediate stations are shown too.

You can pick up tube maps anywhere in London, tourist maps usually include a tube map, and there are big maps throughout the stations.

Station names can be seen from inside the trains and the route / station names are displayed at eye-level in the carriages, so you can watch your progress & be ready to get of at your station.

There are also helpful loudspeaker announcements - here are some that you won't hear ;) :

The tube is daunting at first, but you soon get the hang of it.

Mind the gap

JB :)

I actually find the tube easy to use.

Now with that said, our only challenge was figuring out how to work the machine to purchase the ticket. Yes, I kid you not.

I am curious as to why taking the bus is recommended over the tube.

Keith

I am curious as to why taking the bus is recommended over the tube.

We used to take the tube everywhere when in London, but in recent trips have been using buses more and more. A couple of advantages:

-Walking: it sounds strange, but really there's a lot of walking in those underground stations vs staying at street level and hopping onto a bus. As my mom's knees have gotten worse, the walking has become more noticeable, and using our Oyster cards we don't have to worry about what ticket to buy for the bus, so it's easy to just hop on whatever's passing and switch if necessary;

-View: we have taken to combining our need for transport from A to B with some sightseeing, via creative routing - for example, going from Waterloo station to Oxford St. via Tower Bridge (find a map, and you'll see how creative that routing is :D).

Keith

The reason I prefer the bus to the tube is because it is often less crowded and you can see where you are going.

Depending on which station on the Tube, it can be a long walk along the tunnels before you get to the platform. In the summer it is unbelievably hot. I have quite a few friends in London who prefer to take the bus, so I'm not unique.

However, during the rush hour the Tube is normally the quicker mode of transport.

Thanks Twickenham and London Tower, maybe next time we'll try the bus. We love to do a lot of walking in London so we do as much as we can on foot. We just took the tube the one time this time around. Never thought about the bus but we'll try it just to al so get some nice views as you both mentioned.

Keith

Hotel front desks usually have tube maps.

We use both buses and tubes and handy dandy taxis and more recently Uber too.

For getting around London you need to look on the TfL, Transport for London website which gives you all the information you need about getting around London.

1. It gives only one routing option for any journey, when there are often several different options, each with their pros and cons.
2. Reversing the route sometimes produces a completely different routing, with no apparent rhyme or reason.
3. The suggested routings are sometimes inexplicable (eg suggesting two changes where there's a better route with only one change).
4. The routings suggested appear to take no account of practical matters such as the ease of changing between lines and therefore sometimes suggest making a change at a point where it makes no sense to do so (eg District --> Piccadilly at Gloucester Road instead of Barons Court).

In short, it's not very good.

Keith

 

The reason I prefer the bus to the tube is because it is often less crowded and you can see where you are going.

 

Depending on which station on the Tube, it can be a long walk along the tunnels before you get to the platform. In the summer it is unbelievably hot. I have quite a few friends in London who prefer to take the bus, so I'm not unique.

 

However, during the rush hour the Tube is normally the quicker mode of transport.

Top Tip from a tube commuter (hopefully soon to be an ex-commuter:D:D)

In the summer, I use the surface lines (District - green; Circle - yellow; Metropolitan - purple; Hammersmith and City - orangey). Nearly all of these trains are now air-conditioned. The journey might be a bit longer but it is a helluva lot more comfortable.

One good thing about using the tube is that if you make a mistake and find you're going in the wrong direction or on the wrong line you can get off, go back, or change lines, without having to pay anything extra.

Top Tip from a tube commuter (hopefully soon to be an ex-commuter:D:D)

 

In the summer, I use the surface lines (District - green; Circle - yellow; Metropolitan - purple; Hammersmith and City - orangey). Nearly all of these trains are now air-conditioned. The journey might be a bit longer but it is a helluva lot more comfortable.

That's a good tip about the surface lines being air-conditioned - didn't realise that. Discovered how hot the tube can get when I finally made my 1st summer trip to London a few years ago, after always going in the spring...

Although, I have to say... on any tube map I've ever read, Hammersmith and City line is pink...

I agree. A quick play with the site posted by the OP shows that:-

1. It gives only one routing option for any journey, when there are often several different options, each with their pros and cons.
2. Reversing the route sometimes produces a completely different routing, with no apparent rhyme or reason.
3. The suggested routings are sometimes inexplicable (eg suggesting two changes where there's a better route with only one change).
4. The routings suggested appear to take no account of practical matters such as the ease of changing between lines and therefore sometimes suggest making a change at a point where it makes no sense to do so (eg District --> Piccadilly at Gloucester Road instead of Barons Court).

In short, it's not very good.

This :) It's really not very good. Database is out of date (still refers to East London Line, for example) and the algorithm does not take into account some very obvious real world issues - my 'fail' was a suggestion to change from Jubilee to Bakerloo at Waterloo heading to Paddington. TfL correctly suggests a Baker Street change, which is cross platform, as opposed to a very long walk at Waterloo.

Plenty of better options than this one, I'm afraid.

That's a good tip about the surface lines being air-conditioned - didn't realise that. Discovered how hot the tube can get when I finally made my 1st summer trip to London a few years ago, after always going in the spring...

 

Although, I have to say... on any tube map I've ever read, Hammersmith and City line is pink...

I was doing the colours from memory - it gets a bit confused, given I'm getting on a bit and I know the tube map well, so the colours are not my main guide. (just trying to help out our 'colonial friends; - Eh what don't you know!)

Besides - I'm a bloke - I don't do colours well ;).

JB and other tube map fans - there's a free app for phones with the tube map on it now too. https://www.mapway.com/apps/tube-map-london-underground/ Someone stole my purse with my little credit-card sized tube map in it, and I missed it for ages, but never got around to getting a new one. Now I have this, and it's even better, because I can make it bigger and avoid having to get my reading glasses out! :D

Don't bother installing additional maps, just use Google Maps, as that has all the public transport information for London built in. They also keep it up to date, so for example if a station is closed, they temporarily remove it from the map.

If you do want an App, the best is Citymapper, as that shows the cost of the various routes, as well as the live times.

 

If you do want an App, the best is Citymapper, as that shows the cost of the various routes, as well as the live times.

Hadn't heard of Citymapper. Looks great - thanks for the tip. :)

For getting around London you need to look on the TfL, Transport for London website which gives you all the information you need about getting around London.

 

All my foreign friends find travelling around London is easy, especially on the Tube. I hate the tube, would rather take the bus any day, but the Tube is convenient and easy to manoeuvre.

If more than one bus has to be taken to reach one's destination, I think that unlike on the Tube interchanging is not permitted and each individual journey has to be paid for. Correct?

If more than one bus has to be taken to reach one's destination, I think that unlike on the Tube interchanging is not permitted and each individual journey has to be paid for. Correct?

Correct (unless you have reached the price cap for the day).