Subject: There used to be machines
Author:
Posted on: 2009-05-22 08:53:00 UTC
where you could be tickets. Select ticket of choice, insert money.
It's been a decade since I was in London (and I wasn't buying the tickets for the tube), but I don't think these machines have gone out of style yet. They're very useful for tourists and others who just once in a while want to travel by tube.
I'm trying to sort tickets to go and see my sister next month. The way there's alright - five hour break between buses, which is plenty of time to work out how the hell to get from London St Pancras to Victoria coach station. The way back's a bit more troublesome - it's the same journey in reverse but with only an hour available. Given that London confuses the hell out of me and the odds of me getting hopelessly lost are reasonably high, does anyone know if I can actually make that journey in the allotted hour? tfl.gov.uk is being spectacularly unhelpful in working this out.
So unless you fancy giving me a hundred and thirty quid, I'm afraid it has to be London.
My account got half-drained on Friday thanks to Star Trek and a game I'd preordered (down £76 in an hour). In three weeks, I'll be drained again when I buy the DSi to play said game. Then, every few weeks, I'll be spending more money on Xbox games. I suck with money. I wish I sucked at games too. Maybe they'd last me longer then.
You'll be pushing it. If there's any delays, you'll be in trouble. Victoria -st pancras on the Victoria line only takes twenty minutes/half an hour (did it every weekend last summer), but add ~20 minutes to walk from the coach station.
But, yeah, as hS said, get the Victoria line, and it's a straight trip. Since you'll have already done it one way you shouldn't have to worry about getting lost. Make sure you check the closures the week before hand - they have a tendency to take out the tube you need when you need it, and it's always better to know before you get to the station and have to suddenly backtrack.
Fortunately, if I do miss the bus, I can just wait seven hours for the evening express train home, which is only £9.
Note to self: take a BIG book.
So what would backtracking involve? Finding another route through luck? Or do they announce diversions and whatnot? And do excuse my total lack of knowledge; only been to London once, a decade ago, and round my end it's shanks' pony all the way.
...If I remember correctly, anyway. XD Depends if it's a decent time of day, of course, but if you do get stuck it might be worth it.
Generally, if there's closures, they just give you a list, which is why it's useful to check in advance. That way you can plan an alternate route. It might just be a case of, Victoria line's closed, get the Circle line instead (or, if you're lucky, there'll be no closures and you can go straight through). What I normally do if there's lots of closures is print off a tube map, mark off the stations/lines that are down and then go from there.
Also, with tickets, there's normally quite a big queue at Kings Cross. The machines/booths are right next to the entrance to the Victoria line, though, so easy to spot (you have to go past them on the way down from Kings Cross, but I'm not sure about St. Pancras). I'd suggest getting an oyster card, though. If you go to one of the desks with actual people, you'll be able to get one. It's cheaper, and means you won't have to worry about buying a ticket on the way back.
There's also tickets machines/booths in the overground stations, which are generally less busy, but way more complicated. And I'm not sure if the ones in St Pancras/Kings Cross do underground tickets (I assume they do, but I know that the Victoria ones do).
London isn't so bad as long as you can read the tube maps. XD First time I went there alone, I got completely lost, but still managed to get home safely.
(By the way, "shanks' pony"?)
An oyster card? Is that like the lobster card they mentioned in the Easter special of Doctor Who? Seems a good notion though, because any possibility for delay on the way back is likely to result in disaster.
I can read maps alright, but it's the black snot that really gets me down.
Shanks' pony = on your own legs. If you recall, Aragorn was occasionally called Longshanks, meaning long-legs.
Ehhh.... Possibly. XD;; I don't watch Doctor Who. It's a swipe card that you prepay. I noticed going through London this weekend that you now have to put a £3 deposit on them - but that will be your going to Victoria and going back.
Ahh, thank you. ^^; I fail when it comes to sayings.
It runs in a loop (hence Circle) that goes through both King's Cross St Pancras station and Victoria station. KCStP is linked directly to St Pancras main-line station, and Victoria is half a mile north-east of the coach station. On the way there you'll need to make sure you head for Victoria coach station rather than Victoria bus station (which is local), and on the way back... it /should/ take about half an hour to go round the Circle line, so you should be okay.
Alternately, you could take the Victoria line, which runs from KCStP to Victoria in about a third of the distance. Given how often the Circle line is closed for works, thaaaat's probably a better bet. And faster, too.
hS
Now all I have to do is figure out the tube itself. I take it there's not going to be anything so simple as a friendly-looking chap behind a desk who exchanges money for tickets and points you in the right direction?
There should be security guards around, but in all honesty, the best thing is to look for signs for Victoria Line {(Southbound) in KCStP, (Northbound) in Victoria}. They should show a map with light blue for the Victoria line. If you get really lost you can ask someone, though.
hS
But if there are no friendly-looking chaps behind desks, how does one go about, you know, paying and so forth?
where you could be tickets. Select ticket of choice, insert money.
It's been a decade since I was in London (and I wasn't buying the tickets for the tube), but I don't think these machines have gone out of style yet. They're very useful for tourists and others who just once in a while want to travel by tube.