How does the London Tube system work?

Question

I was wondering, when i take the london tube from Heathrow to Euston, and have to transfer a few times, do i get a transfer ticket? do i pay each time i get on a new train? or once i'm in the station i can use the Tube all day on a single fare?

thanks for any help!!

Answer 1

ALL ZONE TRAVELCARD YOU CAN TRAVEL ANYWHERE FOR ONE PAYMENT AND YES USE THE OYSTER CARD

Answer 2

London is divided into zones. With zone 1 being central London, zone 2 being slightly further out and so on...

You can either buy an all-day ticket or single ticket. You just have to make sure it covers the zones you are travelling in between.

Heathrow Airport (if that's what you mean) is in zone 6 and Euston is in zone 1. (Or so I think...) So you need to buy a ticket that covers up to zone 6.

If you buy an all-day ticket for zone 6 then you can go anywhere in zones 1,2,3,4,5,6 for the whole day.

If you buy a single ticket then you can only travel between two points. You can change trains as many times as you like but you can only exit a station once. The ticketing machine will keep your card once you leave the station.

Answer 3

when you go into a station there are ticket barriers ... you have to either swipe a card across the electronic card reader on the top to make the gate open, or push a ticket into a slot where it's read (like the way you put your bank card into an ATM) and the gate opens ... once you're into the station you can choose which platform to go to and which train to get on ... if you have to interchange to another train during your journey you mostly will not have to go out through a barrier gate to get to the next train, usually all the different platforms are behind the same barrier gate ... I say "usually" because there might be the odd station where, because of the physical layout of the lines and the platforms, you have to come out through one set of ticket barriers, walk along a street for a couple of minutes, and then back in through another set of ticket barriers, but this is quite rare

in theory once you're through the barrier gate you could spend all day just riding round the tube system changing trains without coming back out through a barrier gate ... however in practice there are ticket inspectors come down the tube trains sometimes checking everyone's tickets and if you're caught in a ticket zone for which your ticket is not valid you will be liable to a fine ... for instance if you've looked at a tube map you will see that the zones are concentric rings ... with a "zone 6 only" ticket you can go into a zone 6 station and come back out again at a zone 6 station ... if you were to go into a zone 6 station at one side of London, you could exit at a zone 6 station on the opposite side ... however this is illegal as to get from the one station to the other you have to pass through all the other zones, so what you should have purchased is an "all zones" ticket ... if you get caught by a ticket inspector in zone 1 during the journey between the two zone 6 stations, you've broken their rules

the best way to make sure you're OK on the tube system at all times is to buy an Oyster card ... you put credit onto it and swipe it at the barrier gates as you go in and come out and it automatically deducts the correct amount for your fare ... it's much much safer for you ... I presume you've found the London Transport website at www.tfl.gov.uk where you can find all the maps and info on the Oyster card ... there is absolutely no need to buy the Oyster before you come, you can easily buy one after you arrive