Name: How to take The Tube in London 🚇
Uploaded: 2026-03-30T10:37:07.000Z
Duration: 9 min 22 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Good morning from London, specifically this London.

To-infinitive

Today I'm going to show you how to take the London Underground, or as us Londoners call it, The Tube.

The imperative

And don't call it the metro or the subway because that's not its name, and that's incorrect.

It's made up of 11 lines and 272 stations, and it's a little bit confusing for tourists sometimes.

But don't worry, most tourists will stick to this central bit here.

Anything else on the edges, you don't really have to worry about because you probably won't end up there.

The tube system is made up of 11 interconnected lines that are color-coded and also have their own name.

The names are: Baggerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, and

There's also the new Elizabeth Line, which oddly is actually not considered a tube line,

You might have seen our video from when the new line launched last year.

As mentioned, each of the lines have their own color,

but we never call them by their color because there's like four lines that are blue.

You always call the line by its name, so you would say the District Line, for example.

There are also some other lines that are on the map,

but we're not going to focus on them today because they're not as commonly used by tourists.

The London Tube Map is split up into zones.

and then the other zones are in concentric circles along the outside of that.

How many zones you travel through on one ride determines how much you will end up paying for that ride,

and how many zones you travel through in a day determines how much you will be charged for that entire day, thanks to something called the daily cap.

Most tourists will stick to just Zones 1 and 2, which means the most that you will be charged for all of your rides that day is £8.10.

But if you're confused, don't worry too much.

The system automatically calculates how much you'll be charged per ride and automatically calculates your daily cap, so you kind of don't have to worry about it.

So we're going to do an example journey to show you how you would use the London Underground if you're going from Green Park Station, which is right by Buckingham Palace, over to Notting Hill Gate Station of Hugh Grant Fame.

These two stations look quite close on the map,

but actually they're about an hour walking distance between them, so let's take the tube.

If you look at the tube map, you'll see that there are a couple of different ways that we can get to Notting Hill from here,

but we're going to use the app City Mapper to figure out which way is most efficient.

And if you have one of our London itineraries, your digital map is already integrated with Google Maps, which means you can figure out your public transportation to any of the places that we recommend on each route very easily.

Whichever app you choose, it will tell you the most efficient way to get where you want to go.

It'll tell you which station you need to go to, if you're going to need to change trains,

and where you do that, where you're going to get off, if there's any extra walking you have to do once you get off the tube.

It'll also tell you if you're actually just better off walking instead of taking the tube.

We're near Green Park Station, so let's put in that we want to go to Notting Hill Gate.

So we have a couple of different options: the Jubilee Line to the Central, the Piccadilly to the Central Line,

but I think today, since it's the quickest, we'll go Victoria Line to the Central Line.

So it tells us we need to walk to Green Park Station, which is just behind us,

We're taking the Victoria Line northbound, just one stop to Oxford Circus, changing at the Central Line,

and then five stops to Notting Hill Gate, and we've arrived.

What's great about City Mapper is you can see the price of each journey option.

They're all going to be the same price, £2.70 for one ride.

At the first station on your journey, tap in at the barriers.

Either pay with your contactless debit or credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, or if those aren't options, buy an Oyster card and fill it up with credit.

Never use a daily travel card because they're a rip-off.

In my opinion, the easiest way of getting around London is to use your normal contactless debit or credit card to tap in and out at the barriers.

Oysters are a good second option if you're traveling with kids 11 to 15 who don't have their own cards.

Plus, you can ask a station staff member to add the Young Visitor discount, which gets them 50% off travel for two weeks.

You can buy an Oyster card at almost all tube stations,

and you can top them up using ticket machines in any station and at a lot of convenience stores around London.

Oh, and kids under 11 travel free with an adult.

You will need to tap your card in and out at the last station of your journey.

Have your payment method ready as you approach the barriers to save time and not annoy the people behind you by holding everything up.

Be sure to always use the same payment method each day and throughout your entire trip,

and each person needs their own card to travel if they're over 11 years old.

These wide gates are great for those traveling with kids, with bags, or if you have accessibility needs.

Just follow the signs to the line you want and ask if you get lost or have any questions.

On the escalators, always stand on the right, walk on the left.

Otherwise, you'll be swiftly reminded to do so.

Wait on the platform behind the yellow line.

Trains come every couple of minutes, so you shouldn't have to wait too long.

Make sure you wait till passengers get off the train first,

and then make your way on and grab yourself a seat if you can.

By the way, the end carriages tend to be a bit quieter.

Now, the tube can get really, really busy, especially at rush hour.

And most of the lines don't have air conditioning, so bring some water with you if you're traveling in the summer.

If you're sitting in a priority seat, make sure you look at who is around you.

People will often wear badges if they need a seat, but use your judgment.

If someone looks like they could use a seat and you don't, offer yours to them.

To be honest, you should do this even if you're not in a priority seat,

and remember that not all disabilities are visible.

Changing tube lines is usually pretty straightforward.

Just follow the colored signs, which will tell you which way to go to get to your next line.

Some lines, like the Northern Line, have different branches, which take you to completely different places.

If you're using an app telling you where to go, it will tell you which branch and which direction to use to get to your next stop.

If you're confused, just ask somebody for some help.

By the way, if it's your first time visiting London, I have a free London 101 guide, which has everything you need to know before you come to London.

You can get that for free by clicking the link in the description box of the video.

They have signs all along the train showing all of the stops on that line.

We're on the Central Line right now, so we can see all the stops on the red line.

This is a really popular line for tourists and for Londoners, so it does get very crowded.

We're going four stops to Notting Hill Gate.

and the last train tends to depart around midnight, but sometimes can be earlier.

Make sure you check times if you're planning to be out late.