Totally Tubular!
Written: May 04 '04 (Updated May 21 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Frequent & Punctual, Clean, Not too crowded, Quick, wheelchair friendly
Cons: The Gap, The Operating Hours
The Bottom Line: The best cheap transportation in London. Be like the locals, travel like the locals, meet the locals...you can do it all on the Tube.
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| heckonwheels's Full Review: London Underground |
As a resident of the second largest metropolis in the USA, I get green with envy when I visit places that have a decent public transit system. Los Angeles’ transit system is equivalent to what a medium sized city (say Kansas City) should have, not the patchwork of bus companies and a few train lines we have now. I must admit that I’m in the minority here…most people still would rather sit in a car in traffic than invest the money necessary for a truly world class system.
So, when I travel, I take sharp notice of the destination’s transit system and how it compares to our slowly growing, slightly feeble one.
London’s public transit system is probably the most extensive I’ve yet seen. Of course, I have to bring the accessibility quotient into it and it does amazingly well in that category too. A huge fleet of wheelchair taxis complements a bus system that is mostly wheelchair accessible and covers every major (and many minor) street in the city. England’s train system can get you to any part of the island quickly and reasonably although their 24 hour notification requirement for wheelchairs takes the spontaneity out of it for disabled travelers.
Of course, if you want to get anywhere quick and cheap in London proper, you must descend to the Tube…
The Underground is London’s mass-transit underground railroad system and is commonly referred to as the Tube. We’d call it a subway here in the states but don’t call it that here because a subway in London refers to a pedestrian underpass tunnel.
I’ve read various statistics claiming London’s Underground system is the world’s most extensive system. It’s 415km long. For comparison, New York’s system is 370km; Moscow is 340km; and Paris is 211km (source: www.infoplease.com).
It does seem to go just about everywhere. You can see just how much of London it covers at the Transport for London Underground Map page at tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/tubemap/default.asp .
Flying into Heathrow, the Tube would be my preferred way to travel the rest of the way into the city.
The trains and most of the stations I’ve visited are clean. Much better than any other subway system I can think of including Paris, New York, Boston, and Chicago. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being sparkling clean and sanitary, I’d give London’s system an 8.
Here are some of my observations on pertinent points of the system:
FREQUENCY: On the heavier traveled lines, 2-3 minute intervals between trains. The longest periods between trains that I saw was on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR – not a true underground line) where they sometimes stretched to 10 minutes.
STATIONS: They’re just about everywhere you look. Some of the smaller stations might blend in a bit too much with their surroundings (Lambeth North, I’m looking at you!) and may be a bit hard to find. Interiors are clean and just a little graffiti was seen inside. The stations I’ve seen are well lighted. Platform information boards give you the status of upcoming trains and there destinations, such as “STRATFORD – 2 MIN” which of course would mean a train bound for Stratford will be arriving in two minutes. There are plenty of station personnel around to keep things moving and under control – unlike Paris where it was major operation to leave the station because we could not find anyone to open the wheelchair exit gate.
COMFORT: Each train had comfortable, padded, and clean seats…although at crowded times they were not always available. Even during rush hour, there was room on the train. To those Londoners, or others, who complain about the rush hour crowding here it would only take a quick trip across the channel to see how crowded these things can get. In Paris, you’re packed like sardines all day long – not just during the rush.
SPEED: The quickest way to get around London other than a taxi. Major holdups in the system are announced ad nauseum on each station’s public address system and with such an extensive system, there’s bound to be a way around those bottlenecks.
COST: From a pound on up. A day pass for zones 1 and 2 (covering most areas around central London) is £2.80 or around $5. This will be one of your biggest bargains here. If you want to travel out of your zones…say a day trip to Greenwich…simply purchase an inexpensive upgrade for that trip from the station ticket window. Day passes can also be used on London’s great bus system…a cheap way to get on board one of those great double-deckers.
ACCESSIBILITY: A lot better than you’d think for such an old system. Much better than ADA covered systems like New York, Boston, and Chicago. Obviously, Transport for London has been doing some serious retrofitting over the last few years and many stations now have lifts installed. About the only areas where we couldn’t get to via tube in the wheelchair were the Knightsbridge area and the Piccadilly/SoHo area. I’d suggest that a lift at the Harrods station and another at the Piccadilly Circus Station could render that moot.
Of course, the accessibility is not perfect and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the shortcomings. As everyone who’s been on the system knows, you must “mind the gap.” Nowhere is this more true than for wheelchairs where the gap – or step up into the train – can be anywhere from 0” to 12”, sometimes on the same line. For instance, a wheelchair rider can board the Jubilee Line at London Bridge with no gap and get off at Westminster with no gap but board the same line in-between at Waterloo and you have a 5” gap to get over.
Some stations are accessible in one direction only and the access map…showing which stations have step-free access…is at least two years out of date.
Still, it has a great deal of accessibility for wheelchairs and is a great way for the disabled to travel about the city.
INFORMATION: From the afore mentioned station personnel to system brochures and maps at each station, bountiful sources of system information exist. The Tube Access guide includes a map of accessible stations and a guide for each station that includes what lines are wheelchair accessible from that station, how large the gap is at that station, and how large the lift is at that station. Another map shows the best bike routes in London. Pocket maps and guides are available as is a protective ticket holder that fits in your pocket.
WHAT COULD BE BETTER ABOUT THE SYSTEM: The line naming convention is peculiar. Instead of letter, number, or color designations like you’d see in most systems, London names each line. If you’re unfamiliar with the city, how would you know where the Jubilee Line, the Northern Line, the Bakerloo Line, etc. go? This is confusing for a novice here and extensive time spent pouring over the map is necessary to find your way around. To me, it would be much easier when getting directions to hear "take the B line to Piccadilly, transfer to the C line to Tower Hill" than to have to remember the names they use here.
It could stay open longer. I’m not much of a club goer…in fact, not at all…but my night owl friends would have to find an alternate means of getting home because the system shuts down around midnight. It would seem to be a good way to keep drinkers off the road at that time…but on the other hand, maybe that’s why the trains are so clean.
And, finally, would it have been so hard to build the platforms level to the trains to minimize those infamous gaps?
Overall, the London system is one of the world’s superior underground mass-transit railroads and after my trials & tribulations on other systems, it was a breath of fresh air. Five stars!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov
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Epinions.com ID:
heckonwheels
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Location: Los Angeles, CA USA
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
Southern California native who travels around the country a lot.
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