So how are your first days going? Found your accommodation in London? Sorted out stuff like bank account and National Insurance Number? We hope so… You could have well found a job in the meanwhile, and, unless you’re particularly lucky, you will need to commute to get to your work place. The transport system in London is fairly simple to understand in principle, although more often than not practice is different.

Going Underground

Courtesy of Coffee Lover on Flickr

The Underground lines are given different names and colours, so it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get the wrong one. As for the directions, trains go northbound, eastbound, southbound and westbound, so you’ll need to have a rough idea of where you are and where you’re going to. But this shouldn’t be big news, uh? Platforms have monitors for you to know when the next train is due, and where it is going, which is useful for those lines that have different destinations, or for those travelling fairly far on the lines, as trains might terminate earlier than your destination.

All stations on the London Underground network offer free tube maps, which you can keep in your pocket and check if needed. The tube is definitely the best mean of transport for mid to long commutes but they are also very crowded during peak hours: try catching the Central Line around 8.30 to 9 in the morning, and let us know. We don’t do that any more.

London Buses

Buses are those typical red doubledeckers that are so well known among tourists (we KNOW they’re at least in one picture of yours!), but that the very same tourists don’t use. img The buses system is a bit more complicated than the tube, but once you use it a couple of times it gets much, much better. To me, tourists tend to avoid buses because they’re not sure about where they go. Plus, they don’t have a bus map, right? Wrong! They’re not as easy to find as the tube ones, but most underground station and information points should have them available for free. Buses have line numbers and destination written above the driver’s seat, and on the left side. You can’t miss them. You will also see many other places named: it’s where the bus is going to before reaching the destination, but they are not necessarily in the correct order, remember. Buses make you understand the city better in my opinion: you have windows that don’t face a tunnel but buildings, parks, streets and people. But they might not be the best mean of trasport: if there’s a traffic jam, there’s very little a bus can do. There are bus lanes, but they are shared with cylists and, recently, with motor bikes.

Overground Trains and the DLR

There are two other sevices (well, three, there are also boats on the Thames) that we don’t really use, and therefore cannot offer our views on, and they are the Overground tranins and the Docklands Light Railway. The DLR operates, guess what, in the Docklands area, and is (hey hey) a light railway. The Overground is nothing but a normal trains network. You will find all sort of information on underground, buses, DLR and overground trains in the Transport for London website.

Our experience

The overall transport system works, and works well. Night buses operate along the tube lines when the Underground closes at night, so, in theory, where the tube gets, buses can too. I personally have preferred buses for some time now, and only jump on the tube if the journey is too long and/or I need to change more than once. But I ride a bike, so that doesn’t count really. Just read part 2 of this mini-series, where I’ll tell you about private transport. Private as in ‘your own’ private transport. Cause sometimes you’re better off cycling or walking.

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• Going Around London – Part 2: Green transport