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London Underground (Tube)

If you prefer not to use taxis, to get around central London you will probably find it quickest to take the Tube which covers the centre of the city and much of the immediate suburban area with a network of interconnecting lines.  The area to the north of the river is covered to a much greater extent than the area to the south. 

The London Underground has frequent services operating for about 20 hours each day with trains running every few minutes on most lines. The Circle line, for example, runs every eight minutes during weekdays and every 10 minutes off peak. Other lines are more frequent and the arrival times of approaching trains should be displayed on the platforms.  The Tube is the world’s biggest underground train system and services to most of the sought after residential districts in London are generally good.  If you decide to live within the network of the London Underground and wish to use this to travel to and from work, it will be worth your while checking the lines on which both your home and place of work lie to ensure that travel between them does not involve too complex a series of connections.  Using the Journey Planner which appears in all Underground stations and is available from all ticket offices, you can easily identify the best route to use from one location to another with the different ‘Lines’ marked by a colour coding system, e.g. the District Line is green, the Circle Line is yellow, the Central Line is red, and so on.

As a general guide to journey times, London Transport advise that you should allow about two minutes between stations in the main central area and about three to four minutes between stations further out.  The longest journey between two stations is the six minute journey between Hammersmith and Acton on the Piccadilly Line.  The cheapest way to pay for single journeys on the tube, buses, trams and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London is the Oyster card. Oyster single fares are cheaper than cash, you can top up the card whenever you need to and the biggest bonus is that you don't need to queue to buy tickets, you just swipe the card when you enter the underground or board a bus. Travel enquiries for both Bus and Underground are answered from a central London Transport Travel Information line. There is also a Travelcheck line with details of how the transport system is running.

Docklands Light Railway

The fully automated Docklands Light Railway (DLR)  runs throughout Docklands on the north bank from Bank Underground station in the heart of London’s financial centre  out to Stratford and Beckton in the east  At Poplar, a branch runs off south into and through the Isle of Dogs to Island Gardens (and for the foot tunnel under the Thames to Greenwich), and another branch runs off north to Stratford rail station to connect with the North London and Great Eastern lines and the Central Underground line. It takes about twelve minutes to travel from Canary Wharf to Bank making it the quickest method of travelling between Docklands and the City.  The service runs every 8–12 minutes from 5.30am to about midnight.  For information on Docklands Light Railway Services, call London’s transport information hotlines.

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