Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ber to arrive. If the sign says “request stop,” hold your arm out when your bus approaches.
Hop on and confirm your destination with the driver (often friendly and helpful).
As you board, show your Travelcard to the driver, or touch your Oyster card to the
card reader. On “Heritage Routes” #9 and #15 (some of which use older double-decker
buses), you may need to show your card to a conductor; take a seat, and he or she will
come around. There's no need to show or tap your card when you hop off.
To alert the driver you want to get off, press one of the red buttons (on the poles
between the seats) before your stop. In central London, stops are pretty close together, so
if you do go past your destination, don't panic—it'll likely be only a short walk back.
If you have a Travelcard or an Oyster card, save your feet and get in the habit of hop-
ping buses for quick little straight shots, even just to get to a Tube stop. During bump-and-
grind rush hours (8:00-10:00 and 16:00-19:00), you'll usually go faster by Tube.
By Taxi
London is the best taxi town in Europe. Big, black, carefully regulated cabs are every-
where. (While historically known as “black cabs,” some of London's official taxis are
covered with wildly colored ads.) Some cabs now run on biofuels—a good way to dispose
of all that oil used to fry fish-and-chips.
