The best form of travel in central London
If you want to make a longer journey than just walk around the city, the best way is almost always the 150 year-old underground. Cars and buses may be viable options at times, but they always have the risk of getting stuck in traffic. Most of the 270 underground stations are located on the northern side of the Thames, and the network is made up of 11 lines.
The tube travels every few minutes through the city on multiple different lines, depending on the time of day. The lines are color coded to make travel easier. This is one of the things that makes the London underground map so well known.
What does it cost?
The cost of travel depends on the area you travel to and from. Most of central London belongs to area 1, where a journey for adults costs £4.90 when using cash. With an Oyster card the same trip costs £2.40. Airports (Heathrow and Gatwick) are in area 6, where a one-way journey outside of rush hour costs £8.30.
A couple tips on travelling
London is a busy city with a lot of busy people. Most of them use too much time on travel to work and want to minimise the time they spend on the underground. Although most people are kind, you should keep the following in mind:
- you can stand on the right side of the escalator, but the left side is meant for walking up
- when the train stops, you shouldn’t stand in front of the doors
- you should let people out of the train first before entering
- try and avoid traveling between 7:30-9:00 and 16:30-18:00 (peak hours)
- some tubes will be very hot during warm weather, especially the Central Line
Tube line colours
To make it easier to travel, the tube lines are colour coded. The following table shows the lines and their colours.