if you're visiting london for the first
time then you're going to need to know
how to use london's transport system
today i will run through the basics plus
a few tips so you can be using the
london transport system like a local
the first thing that you need to know is
some of the slang or local terminology
that we use
the most common one is tube
so
the tube
is
the train that runs in the london
underground network so we wouldn't call
it a train we would say it's the tube oh
a tube station which is
a london underground station and that's
where you catch the tube from so youtube
is basically the replacement word for
train and we will just interchange that
with different words the next one is tfl
which stands for transport for london
there are a couple of modes of transport
that we've already covered off the tube
which is the underground network
next is the buses so you'll get both
double jacket buses and single story
buses and they will all be red
most people like to go on the double
decker buses right up to the front seat
so when you're going through london you
can see some of the iconic attractions
we then have what's called the national
rail
national rail is the national service
that runs through scotland wales and
england
and this is where you do majority of
your long distance travel and they do
have services that go a bit further
outside of london too you will hear the
overground which is slightly different
than the underground it's a whole
overground network but that is also run
by tfl then we have a few other modes of
transport so we have the tams clipper
this is the ferry across the tams one of
the ways that i recommend using the
ferry is if you wanted to go from the
tower of london to greenwich it's a lot
quicker route to get there
next is the emirates cable car this is
mainly a tourist attraction uh we don't
really use it too much as a lucu but it
is a little bit of fun
to catch
and finally we do have some trams these
are mainly run on the outer skirts of
london so if you're kind of staying
central london you won't see any trams
at all
there are a couple of ways that you can
get access to the london transport
system so one is an oyster card and no
it's not the slippery one
um that's a shellfish it is this card
here
or you can use a contactless card so a
contactless card is one that you can
just tap on and pay not all countries
have access to this uh so you need to
double check whether your card is
compatible
with the contactless system and if
you've got apple pay or google pay on
your phone and then you can also tap
your phone but there is also a visitor's
version of the oyster car that you can
buy and they will give you other
discounts so they might give you 10 off
to the london eye for example so that
can be a good idea if you're looking for
some savings on attractions and you can
get sent the visit oyster card to your
home address before you arrive here i'm
just going to run you through how to buy
an oyster card and the options that you
have available
so i'm just going to select get new
oyster card and it goes into the number
of oyster cards that i wish to purchase
so i will go confirm
now it gives you two options whether to
do
top up pay as you go
or you buy a travel card which one
should you get well if you're only here
for a couple of days then i recommend
getting their pay as you go
on both the oyster and the contact list
they will apply daily capping so if you
take three or more journeys then you'll
be capped at the zonal prices if you're
only here for a day then you might want
to get
a paper ticket so a daily travel card
and this will give you full access to
the network both the trains and the
buses
if you're here for more than five days
then i recommend getting a weekly pass
if you're using an oyster card then
you'll need to add this manually to your
card so when you go to the machine just
select the seven day travel card option
if you're using a contactless card which
is a little tip then this will
automatically apply weekly capping so
this is one of the benefits of
the oyster card is this will just do it
automatically for you the reason i
recommend getting a weekly card is this
can save you like 15 to 20 pounds in the
week which is enough for a dinner out
somewhere so it's worth the money if you
are here for a week
so for this
show and tell i'm just going to go pay
as you go
and add five pounds
as you can see the total is now 10
pounds you pay a five pound deposit for
the oyster card and then five pounds for
the credit
and then
when you're ready to pay you insert
your card into the card reader
[Music]
all right removing my bank card
and now it's dispensing my oyster as you
can see collected your oyster
and then you need to touch
on the yellow reader to activate
and then until your current balance if
you ever want to know how much is on
your oyster card then just come up to
one of the machines and press on the
yellow card reader and it will tell you
your current balance
and then you can top up or add a season
ticket if you wish
if you plan on traveling around great
britain and you want to save some extra
cash then get a rail card a rail card
will give you a third off national rail
but the additional benefit is that you
can add it to your oyster card which
will give you a third off off peak fares
so you save even more money by
adding your rail card to you
you can get a rail card if you are
living overseas and you can also get one
if you're living here locally
i'll leave the link in the description
below on how you can go about getting a
rail card to quickly explain the
achieved map and the difference between
the tube and national rail so the solid
lines mean that that is the tfl slash
underground only so the tube and the
ones with the dotted lines means that
that's national rail so anything that's
on this map that's in a zonal location
will be included in oyster travel so for
example you can get to gatwick airport
and heathrow
which is over here
um using your oyster card but you can't
get to an airport like stance did uh
which is up here as you can see as it's
out of the zonal location so this map is
really handy to get to know as it will
cover everything that you need to know
read the pricings and where you can go
with your oyster card here you can see
all the keys to the lines and the
symbols so here are all the lines that
run on tfl
and here are all the lines that run on
national rail
prices and then you can see where the
river boats are
the coach stations and the airports and
bus transfers to the airport
now that you've got your oyster card
let's show you how to use it so if
you're using any of the rail network so
this includes the tube the overground or
national rail they all work in the same
way you tap into the station
and you tap out of the station if you
forget to tap in or out then you may be
charged with a penalty fare and this can
be easily rectified on the tfl website
so for example if i was going from
paddington
to bond street and i forgot to tap out
then it would show on the website that i
had a fair leaving from paddington but
they didn't know where i exited so i'll
be charged the maximum fare all i need
to do is log on to the system and say
that i went to bond street and then i'll
be charged the appropriate fare for
buses all you need to do is tap in once
and that's it
they did bring an initiative a couple of
years ago where you can catch uh two
buses within an hour so that's super
handy to know for the
tams clipper and the mrs cable car
you tap on the yellow readers as well
but this will be additional fares
outside the daily and weekly capping so
you need to make sure that you have some
more money on your card
if you are running low on money on your
oyster card then you can get an
emergency fare
out of this which will give you enough
time to get home so if you're on a night
out and there is
no ticketing office open for you to top
up your oyster card then you can simply
tap this on the bus and allow you to go
into negative value you will need to top
it up the next day but it's nice to know
that you have a little bit of security
uh with your oyster card
they have recently changed the rules on
getting a refund for the oyster card
so when you were leaving london
previously you could go to heathrow
airport tap the card on the card reader
it will return unpaid balances as well
as the however since they're trying to
reduce plastic they've brought in a new
rule where you'll only get your deposit
back after a year of having the card
so they'll automatically put the five
pounds on here
and
that's how they're returning the money
these days which isn't great if you're a
visitor however if you're living here
then you'll have five pounds on your
card please know that you can't do this
with the visit london oyster card the
five pounds is non-refundable let me
know in the comments if there is
anything else you would like to know
about london's transport this was a
quick highlight tour if you want to
watch more london content there's a
video popping up now that you can watch