It’s a very large city, London. Central London is quite walkable, but London, as a whole, is fairly spread out, so it pays to know your way around the public transport options. There are no less than 8 ways of getting around London, but in practise, there are the 3 main ones (tube, busses, overground) and then there’s the rest.

At a glance...
The 3 main ways to get around London
Let’s start with the 3 main ways of getting around London. These are:
- The London Underground (the Tube)
- Busses
- The Overground
All three are run by Transport for London (TfL).
How to get around London: the Tube
The first way of getting around is the Tube. The Tube, or – to give it its proper name – the London Underground, or simply the Underground, so called because it’s…well…underground (mostly), at least in central London (less so as it moves away from central London) is a London icon in its own right.
It’s the oldest underground metro system in the world (and sometimes that shows), but overall it works pretty well for something whose beginnings were in 1863.
The tube network is made up of 12 lines, each colour coded in a different shade.
- the Bakerloo line (brown)
- the Central line (red)
- the Circle line (yellow)
- the District line (green)
- the Hammersmith & City line (pink)
- the Jubilee line (grey)
- the Metropolitan line (magenta)
- the Northern line (black)
- the Piccadilly line (navy blue)
- the Victoria line (light blue)
- the Waterloo & City line (turquoise)
…although the Waterloo & City line hardly counts as a full line: it runs back and forth between two stations (Waterloo and Bank, in the City – the name is a bit of a giveaway) in under 4 minutes, with no other stops. It’s very busy at the start and the end of office workdays.
As far as Tube stations go, Central London is pretty well covered, but the further from the centre, the more widespread the stations are.
What about the all new and shiny Elizabeth Line? I hear you say. Well, the Elizabeth line is not actually a Tube line (though it certainly looks like one), so it’s mentioned further down in “the rest of the options”.
How to get around London: busses
And then there are busses. Red double-decker busses are arguably just as iconic as the Tube. Busses go all over London: some bus lines radiate from central London, some cover the gaps between tube and train lines.
There isn’t actually one bus map that covers the whole network. Considering that there are several hundreds bus routes, that would be one pretty unreadable map. Instead, there are maps by areas or bus stops, which you can download in PDF format from the TfL site.

How to get around London: the Overground
There’s also the Overground, so called because it runs …er…overground. Its line colour is orange. If ever it gets sold to Easyjet, that will save a lot of money on the rebranding. Seriously though, it’s actually 6 separate but interconnected lines that go across the outskirts of central London, plus a bit that plunges down to the deepest depth of South East London. It’s newer than the Tube (it started in 2007) and it intersects with the Tube at various points, allowing for a smooth between the 2 systems.
The rest of the options: DLR, the Elizabeth Line, trams, boats, Santander bikes and suburban trains
In addition to the Tube, busses and the Overground, there are a few localised transport networks; these are also run by TfL (except river services which are jointly run with Uber, and the Elizabeth Line, which is run by MTR Elizabeth line).
How to get around London: the DLR
The DLR (Docklands Light Railway) is a driverless, computerised light rail system that mainly serves the area around Docklands in East London and South-East London.
How to get around London: the Elizabeth Line
Formerly the Crossrail project, the Elizabeth Line was unveiled on the 24 May 2022. It’s not quite finished yet, but it’s looking good. It runs from the deep corners of London’s eastern side to as far west as Reading (and Heathrow) via Central London. And, it may look like a Tube line, but it’s not.

How to get around London: trams
The tram network serves mostly Croydon (in the most southern part of London) and connects it to Wimbledon in South West London.
How to get around London: river boats
You can travel along the River Thames in a fleet of boats, a service formerly known as Thames Clippers, and now a joint venture between TfL and Uber.
How to get around London: suburban trains
Most Tube stations are north of the river, which would leave the area south of the river severely lacking in options if it wasn’t for trains. This light commuter rail network is run by a number of different companies (11 of them, plus the lines that go to Heathrow and Gatwick, respectively) under the umbrella of National Rail. Each company covers a specific area.
Train lines radiate from all London train stations, and spread out in a spiderweb pattern. The network is included on some maps issued by TfL. They provide a pretty comprehensive overview of the network.
Just like using the Tube, you can use contactless payments or Oyster cards in any station within zones 1 to 9 (as well as Gatwick Airport).
How to get around London: cycling

You can cycle around London on Santander bikes, a fleet of bicycles that you can hire for a time period that goes from 30 minutes to 24 hours and beyond. Docking stations are aplenty in central London, but not so much the further away you go, and there are pitifully few of them south of the river.
So that’s it for the round-up of options to get around London. Now, maybe you’d like to visit Stanfords travel bookshop and check out their selection of London guides?
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