Is the "London Pass" worth it? and other London, United Kingdom Transportation Tips

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: .

Is the "London Pass" value for money?

Of course, it depends where you want to visit, so you should check the price against the various entrance charges. But remember that most of the national museums and galleries in London are free entry now. These include:

- British Museum
- National Gallery
- National Portrait Gallery
- Science Musem
- Natural History Museum
- Victoria & Albert
- Tate Modern
- Tate Britain
- Museum of London
- National Maritime Museum
- Royal Observatory, Greenwich
- Imperial War Museum

So be sure that you are not paying for something you don't need.

The London Pass costs a minimum of £39 for 1 day (not including transport) and the coverage is fairly limited. It does cover The Tower of London, HMS Belfast, St Paul's, Kew Gardens, and London Zoo, but most of the other attractions offered are fairly minor (but all worth seeing in ther own right, of course). It also allows you to skip the ticket queues at busy attractions, and includes some restaurant offers and discounts at gift shops.

Some major tourist attractions like Westminster Abbey, Madame Tussaud's and the London Dungeon are not covered by the London Pass.

Also, you will have to pay extra for a Transport for London (TfL) Travelcard with the London Pass. This adds £7 to the one day card price for a zones 1-6 off-peak (ie after 9:30am) card.

Any visitor to London will certainly need a TfL TravelCard, but most visitors will only require zones 1 & 2, and you can get a one-day off-peak card for these zones for £5.60.

In our view, the London Pass is not very good value unless you want to visit the attractions that are included in it in a short space of time. Most visitors would be better-off just getting the TravelCard that they need.

For further information, see the following websites:

London Pass
TfL TravelCards
Free London

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: (fares updated 2 January 2009)

Any visitor to London is going to need a Travelcard or a cash Oyster card, as the fare structure on public transport penalises those who pay cash. Travelcards are available from all tube stations and many newsagents etc. You can find out where to buy them at: ticketlocator.tfl.gov.uk

Travelcards can be used on the Tube, DLR, London Overground and National Rail within the zones covered and on all London Buses displaying the familar London Transport sign. They also include a 1/3 discount off scheduled Riverboat services. Travelcards cannot be used on the train services to Heathrow.

A one-day off-peak (ie after 9:30 am) Travelcard for
zones 1 & 2: £5.60
zones 1-4: £6.30
zones 1-6: £7. 50

Three-day Travelcards are also available:
zones 1 & 2: £18.40 (If you´re only travelling off-peak then three one-day cards are cheaper)
zones 1-6:£42.40 (£21.20off-peak)

# If the three days you are travelling on include a Saturday, Sunday or Public Holiday, it may be cheaper to buy a combination of Day Travelcards

A 7-day Travelcard for zones 1 & 2 costs £24.20.

Travelcards are often the cheaper option if you are going to use the bus or tube for more than one or two journeys in any one day. Cash single fares are now very expensive:

Bus fare
£2.00 cash
£1 with Oyster card (up to a daily maximum £3.30 if you travel by bus only)

Zone 1 Tube journey
£4.00 cash
£1.60 Oyster card, up to a daily maximum of:
- £6.70 (if any of your travel is between 0430 and 0930 Monday to Friday),or
- £4.80 (if your travel is after 0930 Mon-Fri)

Since Oyster Card rates are capped at £0.50 below the relevant one-day Travelcard price, it is usually cheaper to use Oyster cash fares if you are travelling less than 7 days.

It is possible to buy an Oystercard before you get here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/visitortickets/5192.aspx

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Website: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/default.aspx

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: London by bus - fares from Jan 2009

Buses in London now operate on a flat cash fare of £2.00 (£1 with Oyster pay as you go) for any journey anywhere in London. That can be one stop or the whole length of the route.

There is no transit/transfer facility on London buses. If you change bus you have to buy another ticket.

Most visitors to London will find that a TravelCard is the most convenient and best value transport ticket as this covers tubes, buses, trains and the DLR.

You can also get Bus Passes, which are valid on all bus routes (and the Croydon Tramlink). A one-day Bus Pass costs £3.80. If you have an Oyster card, bus fares are £1 (up to a daily maximum £3.30).

On most routes within the central London Pay Before You Board area you are now supposed to have a ticket before you board the bus - you cannot pay the driver. This only applies in a fairly small area. You can tell by looking at the bus stop sign - if the route numbers are on a yellow background then you have to pay before you board. There will be ticket machines next to the bus stop. Of course, if you have a valid TravelCard, Bus Pass, or Oystercard you can use those on any bus anywhere in London operated for TfL. They all show the LT circle with a line through it.

It is worth remembering that, since there are no bus fare zones any more, all TravelCards are valid for any bus trip anywhere in London, no matter which zones the card is valid for.

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Website: www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: Passenger services on the River Thames are now regulated by London's transport authority - Transport for London (TfL). This has meant that several scheduled "commuter" and riverbus style services have become established in recent years, and there is better co-ordination of the tourist and sightseeing services.

There is lots of information on boat services on TfL's London River Services website (see link below). This has route maps and details of all the sightseeing and commuter services as well as some of the dinner cruise operators.

Whilst river services are not included in the Travelcard scheme, a valid card will get you a 1/3rd discount off the fare for most scheduled riverbus services and many of the sightseeing cruises.

Thames Clippers
Two scheduled routes which are particularly useful are run by Thames Clippers, using a fleet of fast water-jet powered catamarans (see pictures):

- "Tate-to-Tate": Millbank (for Tate Britain, near Westminster) - Waterloo (London Eye) - Bankside (for Tate Modern); every 40 minutes
- "Commuter service": Embankment - Bankside - London Bridge - Tower Bridge - Canary Wharf - Greenwich - Woolwich; every 15-40 minutes, depending upon the time of day.

They run a good, efficient service using modern, comfortable boats, on some of which you can sit outside on the rear deck as you whizz along the river at 28 knots (52 km/hr, 32 miles/hr) - great fun on a nice day. I occasionally use this service to go home from work, as there are piers very close to where I work and live. We also sometimes use it to go into town at the weekends. It is not usually the fastest option available, but it is certainly the nicest!

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Website: www.tfl.gov.uk/river/

'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: Updated with fares as at Dec 08

There are five main airports serving London. In order of distance from the city centre, they are:

London City (LCY) 7 miles east
London Heathrow (LHR) 15 miles west
London Gatwick (LGW) 25 miles south
Luton (LTN) 26 miles north west
London Stansted (STN) 30 miles north east

Heathrow is the main scheduled airline international and intercontinental "hub"; Gatwick serves similar routes; Stansted serves mainly European business and holiday traffic; Luton is mainly used for scheduled and charter services to European holiday destinations; and London City is for short-haul business services to Europe.

The map here shows all five airports in relation to each other, and the main transport links between them and with central London.

There are direct rail links between all of them and central London as follows (prices are for a single ticket, in standard class):

Heathrow
LHR - Paddington: Heathrow Express (15 mins, £16.50 online, or from ticket office or machine, £19.50 if you buy on board the train) [Britain´s most expensive railway]
LHR - Paddington: Heathrow Connect (25 mins, £6.90)
LHR - Central London: Piccadilly Line (55 mins, £4 cash, cheaper with Oyster card)

Gatwick
LGW - Victoria: Gatwick Express (30 mins, £16.90)
LGW - Victoria: Southern (30-40 mins, £8.90)
LGW - London Bridge/St Pancras International: First Capital Connect, 30 mins, £8.90)

Stansted
STN - Liverpool Street: Stansted Express (45 mins, £15 online, £16 from ticket office)

Luton
LTN - St Pancras International/London Bridge (32 mins, £10.40; free shuttle bus service from Luton Parkway station to the airport)

London City
LCY - Bank: DLR (22 mins £4 cash, cheaper with Oyster card)

There are also bus and coach links between all the airports and central London and other destinations. These are usually a bit cheaper than the rail fares, but take longer and are much less reliable. There are also regular coach services between the four main airports (www.nationalexpress.com).

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'Mode': TO
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: For getting to LHR, most people know about the non-stop Heathrow Express, the most expensive railway per mile in the world.

Less well known is Heathrow Connect which runs between Heathrow Terminals 1,2 & 3 and London Paddington on the same route as the Heathrow Express, but with stops at several West London stations en route, including Ealing Broadway (District and Circle Tube lines) making it some 10 minutes slower.

The service runs every 30 minutes and takes 25 minutes Heathrow - Paddington. The standard single fare is £6.90 (min £8 cheaper than express) with returns costing £12.90. (min £15 cheaper than express).

With the opening of T5 at the end of March Heathrow Connect is extended to T4 , but if you´re flying BA out of T5 you can use the most the world´s most expensive railway line free from between the station for Terminals 1,2 & 3 and T5.

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Phone: 0845 678 6975
Website: www.heathrowconnect.com
Other Contact: queries@heathrowconnect.com

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: New fares for travelling on London´s extensive public transport network start on 2 January 2009.

We´ve updated our tip with the new numbers, but there´s one thing worth mentioning.

When is peak period?

One of the things that visitors to London quickly notice is how overcrowded the city is. You can get a full bus or tube any time of day of night. But TfL´s fares have different peak periods:

There are no peak fares on Saturday, Sunday or public holidays.

If you´re using a pay as you go Oyster card travelling on the tube between 1600 and 1900 Mon-Fri you´ll now also pay the higher peak fares. Previously that only applied 0630-0930.

Confusingly, the daily capping limits (the max amount you can pay in any day) is only higher if you travel between 0430 and 0930 (Mon-Fri) - the evening peak doesn´t seem to make a difference according to TfL´s leaflet.

We´ve crunched a few numbers and reckon that in most cases the capping limit comes in after the 4th journey.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: Oyster cards are smartcards that can be loaded with different types of tickets (or cash) which can be read electronically and are intended to be part of a fully integrated transport service.

They have been an undeniable success - according to TfL in March 07 three quarters of all journeys on the capital's Tubes and buses are now paid for with an Oyster card, while only 5 per cent of passengers use cash. Given the way the fares are structured that´s not a surprise.

BUT

Confusingly it doesn´t work like that when it comes to trains in London. The operators have agreed in principle to start accepting Oyster pay as you go, but when that will be achieved, who knows?

The map here shows you were you can use cash loaded on a oyster - almost exclusively north of the river where the train companies have to compete with the tube.

What it doesn´t show all the niggles.

One I know of is that if you get off a First Capital Connect train at London Bridge, you have to use the validator on the platform not the gates. Only found that out when meeting a friend off the Eurostar.

Don´t hold your breath for all this to be sorted.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: OK no getting away from it London is huge.

And TfL the body responsible for organising public transport offers a huge number of services.

But if you´re interested in tourist parts only then this might be for you - TfL´s visitor guide.

It includes a user-friendly bus "spider" map showing the main attractions (and a few smaller ones).

The routemasters may only run on "heritage" routes, but seeing London from the top of a double decker bus is far better than the tube. Just don´t expect it to be quick :))

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Phone: 020 7222 1234
Website: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/travelling-around-london-leaflet-0108.pdf