a) London – Getting Around
London has one of the largest urban transport networks in the world with integrated bus, rail, river and road systems spanning the city’s 32 boroughs.
b) Modes of Transport
Visitors can avail the following modes of transport to move around in London.
London Underground – The Tube
Is a rapid transit system operating in deep level tube lines and sub-surface lines and the total length of the tube network is 402 kms.
The network became known as the ‘tube’ in the early 20th century. This is an abbreviation of the nickname ‘the two penny tube’ conceived by newspaper ‘Daily Mail’ which was given to the Central Line as the journey fare was two pence when the line became functional.
The London Underground is divided into 9 zones and Central London is covered in zone 1. There are in total 11 tube lines, most of which connect the suburbs to Central London.
Metropolitan line opened in 1863 A.D. and is the oldest underground line in the world.
The tube’s world famous red circle logo known as the ‘roundel’ first appeared in 1908 A.D.
The classic diagrammatic underground map designed by Harry Beck inspired by electric circuit diagrams was first published in 1933 A.D.
During World War II, at the peak of London blitz, about 177’000 Londoners were sheltering in the underground’s deep level stations every night and by the end of the war there were over 22000 beds installed in the underground stations.
The ‘District Line’ serves 60 stations, ‘Piccadilly line serves 52 stations, ‘Northern Line’ serves 51 stations and ‘Central Line’ serves 49 stations.
The phrase ‘mind the gap’ originated on the Northern line in the year 1968 A.D. featuring the voice of sound recordist Peter Lodge.
In 1969 A.D. Queen Elizabeth II was the first reigning monarch to take the tube when she took the inaugural ride on the Victoria line.
The total number of carriages in the underground’s fleet is 4134, the average speed of the train is 33 kms. per hour.
There are 426 escalators in the underground stations, the total number of lifts are 164 and the total number of stations currently served are 270.
Tube service is available from 5 A.M. till midnight.
Each year over 1 billion journeys are made on the London underground.
London Overground
Is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. It is an orbital network which has amalgamated six existing train lines -‘The East London Line, ‘The North London Line’, ‘Watford DC’, ‘GOBLIN’, ‘The West London and The South London Line’ thus forming a vital part of London’s transport network.
Established in 2007, it took over silver link metro routes.
Coloured orange on the map it now covers 112 stations on 9 routes across ‘Greater London’ and the county of ‘Hertfordshire’ serving 23 of London’s 32 boroughs.
DLR (Docklands Light Railway)
Opened in 1987, is an automated light metro system serving the ‘Docklands’ area of East London.
Coloured turquoise on the map, the Dockland light railway reaches north to Stratford, south to Lewisham and west to Tower gateway and Bank.
The ‘DLR’ has 38 kms. of tracks and serves 45 stations.
The ‘DLR’ played a critical part in carrying passengers during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.
It also runs additional shuttle from ‘Canning Town to Prince Regent stations’ when major exhibitions take place at the ExCel exhibition center.
‘DLR’ currently is London’s first and only driverless train system of its kind. It is part of the London fare zone system.
London Tram link
Tram service in London has had a long evolution and there have been two separate generations of trams in London, from 1860 to 1952 A.D. – where first trams were horse drawn, then came steam trams and in early 20th century the electric trams were introduced.
Trams were not in use for over four decades since 1952 A.D. and were reintroduced in 2000 A.D.
Today the tram network has 28 kms. of track, 34 trams in the fleet and 39 stops.
It also serves 7 national rail stations and more than 50 bus routes.
Tram services operate from ‘Croydon to Wimbledon’, ‘Beckenham Junction’, ‘Elmers End’ and ‘New Addington’.
More than 29 million passengers availed tram services in 2016/17.
London Buses
A subsidiary of ‘Transport for London’ manages bus services within Greater London servicing the areas of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey.
The fleet consists of 8600 buses, operating on 700 routes covering 19000 bus stops.
For fostering a more cleaner environment, of its total fleet London buses has 2000 hybrid buses out of which 73 are electric and 8 buses are fueled by hydrogen emitting nothing but water in the air.
London buses carry 6.5 million passengers every weekday.
London buses are colored red since early 20th century for them to stand out in the crowd while the roof of the buses are painted white to deflect the sun’s heat in summer.
London River Services
Is a subsidiary of ‘Transport for London’ and operates and manages leisure oriented tourist services and commuter services on the River Thames in London.
The Thames river is used as a waterway for public transport.
Travelling by river is a great way to get around London where passengers beat the traffic and enjoy fantastic views of the city.
Six river bus routes run from 22 piers. The services run from early morning until late evening.
All ‘Thames Clippers boats are wheelchair accessible and ramps are used to board the boats.
Visitors can use ‘contactless’ or ‘Oyster pay as you go’ cards however top up services are not available at river bus piers, so passengers need to ensure they have enough credit beforehand in their cards to avail this service.
Speedboat tours of London are getting increasingly popular with tourists. These tours are conducted on ‘R.I.B. – rigid inflatable boats’, ‘Thames Rockets’ depart from London Eye pier and the ‘Thames Jet’ departs from the Westminster pier.
Visitors can also explore London by water on a hop-on-hop-off Thames River cruise sightseeing tour between Westminster, London Eye, Bankside, Tower of London and Greenwich piers.
Visitors can purchase London Explorer Pass valid for 1 day with tour durations from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
Emirates Airlines Cable Car
Take to the air on London’s only cable car and enjoy a truly unique experience in East London.
Opened in 2012, it is operated by ‘TFL – transport for London’
The cable car crosses the River Thames between Greenwich Peninsula and Royal Docks to the west of ExCel offering a unique view of London. The ride is 10 minutes per way and in rush hours, the speed of cable cars are increased so it takes 5 minutes per way.
The cable car is based on mono cable detachable gondola. It crosses the river at a height of 300 feet.
The cable car has a maximum capacity of 2500 passengers per hour in each direction.
There are a total of 36 passenger gondolas of which 34 are in use at any one time with a maximum capacity of 10 persons per gondola.
London Black Cab
Is an icon of London city.
All drivers in order to qualify as a driver for black cabs must first pass ‘The Knowledge’ – a London geography exam which entails mastering 320 basic routes, all of the 25000 streets that are scattered within those routes and all the landmarks within a 10 kms. radius of Charing cross. Usually it takes about 2 to 4 years to complete this course.
These cabs stand out distinctly due to their black colour and shape. The cabs available for hire have a light at the top displaying the word ‘Taxi’ and once it is hired, the light is switched off.
The black cabs accept only cash or credit card payments.
Licensed Private Hire Vehicles
Cover a wide range of services ranging from mini cabs to chauffeur driven limousines.
These cabs need to be pre-booked and price and payment for the service pre agreed upon.
Bicycles For Hire
Launched in 2010, this is an environment friendly public bicycle hire scheme in London.
The scheme now covers 100 kms. in London and is the largest bicycle hire scheme in Europe with over 13000 bicycles and 800 docking stations where the bicycles can be picked and dropped.
Casual users have to use credit or debit cards in a docking station to get the bicycle released for use.