Roehampton Diary: Transportation

Roehampton Diary: Transportation
By Ryan Muldoon

Have you ever been lost in unfamiliar territory? Maybe you went to New York for the first time and found yourself staring at a subway map in utter confusion. I have had the same experience during my semester in London. As a music industry major from Hillsborough, New Jersey, I felt that the opportunity to go to London was amazing. Yet I don’t have too much experience with public transportation, aside from riding the bus to school every day; coming to London and having to adjust was confusing at first. There are so many ways to get around. The most popular are Tube, bus, and taxi.

The Tube can be a great way to get around. Actually, it was the first underground railway system. Other railways, such as the subway in New York and the T in Boston, were influenced by the Tube. The Tube is fairly easy to understand; much easier than the New York subway. Railways run north, south, east, and west and cover the entire city. It is very similar to Boston’s rail system. I have found this to be one of the best ways to get around. The only downside is that it can be a bit pricey at about five pounds, or $10, for a day pass to most lines.

To cut down on the cost, we have been given Oyster cards. These are prepaid cards (like Metro cards) in which you can get a discount for public transportation. For example, a bus ride usually cost about two pounds, but with the Oyster card it costs 90 pence. When you walk on, you scan it and it deducts the money from the card.

Then there is the bus. English folk hate the bus. While it is cheaper than having a car and paying for gas, it also can be tremendously unreliable. The first week we arrived in London, I was in central London and didn’t realize the Tube closed at midnight, so I was left to figure out the bus. It was a long night of waiting for buses that never came. I ended up catching a taxi home.

Sometimes we have to take the bus to gather our supplies, and most of the time it is crowded and hard to hold all the bags of groceries. If you ride the bus late at night, you are likely to see someone who may have had a few too many drinks blabbing about a lost rugby or football game.

London seems to have held on over the years to the look of their taxis; the city still uses old black cabs that many people have probably seen in one movie or another. The only experience I had with a cab was about a 10-minute drive and it cost me about six pounds, or about twelve dollars. Hailing a cab is easy because there are so many driving around at all times of day or night. You can also call one and they will quickly pick you up. An interesting bit about the drivers is that to become a cabbie you need to be able to name every street in London. I don’t think I could even name every street in my own town.