The Tube, Croydon, London

The tube is by far the best transport system I have ever experienced in Europe, we have trains going past every minute to hundreds of destinations. The oyster system makes the price affordable and although is can get packed, and I mean packed, at peak times, AT off peak times it is a breeze and much faster than taking a car or bus journey to your destination. Could be a bit cleaner and the central line trains could be replaced but i guess that will happen for 2012. Other lines are perfect though and using tfl.gov.uk you can plan your journey beforehand and know when to leave and when you’ll arrive.

The tube isn’t so bad. Outside of peak times, you’ll almost always find a seat, and its a quick and easy way to jump around the city. I don’t live in London, but work often, so the day travel passes are the easiest and cheapest way if you haven’t got an Oyster card.

In busy time certain lines are almost unbearably busy, and you will have to literally squash yourself onto a train at times. Despite this, the tube is still cleaner and runs more reliably than its equivalent in other European cities such as Paris! Not ideal, but not too bad either.

You’re on the tube with hundreds of thousands of other people at busy times of day, of course, and what that means is that it will really help you to have an idea of the route you need to take beforehand. What I mean is to make sure, for instance, what mainline station will you come in at? What tube line will you be using? Will you have to change? What colour are your lines on the map? What direction will you be travelling in? Are there different branches on the line that you’re using? If there are, are you on the right one?

It can be a great experience. I remember coming to London as a sixteen year old and my delight in recognising all the different names I’d heard of on the TV. Nowadays, with the investment in many of the stations, its much better still.

And … the bugbear of all regular London travellers: please stand on the right! :)

Did worry about getting around London with 2 children in tow as had only ever done it with friends or by myself before. There were no problems at all, we had to wait at times to get through the barriers as children under 10 were free they had no tickets to get in or out themselves.

Not many people pushed or got in our way, we stood to the side to let people over take us when it was appropriate and those in a rush did just that.

They also enjoyed the buskers at the various stations, and got used to it by the end of the first day.

I think it helped we were in Paris and used their underground trains 2 weeks before as when at home we rarely if ever use public transport!