London tube

[coccinelle]

Setting up a lesson for my French puplis and need some help. If say I was at Victoria station and I wanted to get to Earl's Court and I asked my way what would I be told? Take the District line westbound and it's the third stop? I'm not quite sure how the eastbound, northbound etc works.

[MarkRae]

Well, if you were told that it's the third stop, you'd get off at Gloucester Road!

Directions on the District Line are usually given by quoting the terminus, so something like "Take an Ealing Broadway District Line train." Of course, in this case, any West-bound District Line will do.

You could always take a clockwise Circle Line, assuming it's actually running...

[rockyracoon]

Pretty much the only way to say it, if you look at the map it will be clearer how Eastbound etc works.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...wnloads/tube_map.html

[rowanwitch]

Take a westbound district line train... do not get the circle line as it doesn't go to Earls Court.... Trains will be going to Wimbledon, Richmond or Ealing Broadway.

[coccinelle]

Missed Sloane Square out Mark!
So directions from Victoria to St Paul's could be: take the eastbound Circle line or District line to Monument then get the westbound Central line, it’s the next stop. Is that it?

[MarkRae]

That would work...

[mushroom25]

district line trains can be distinguished from circle line trains -

district trains have "single leaf" opening doors.
circle trains have "double" opening doors.

[Jonathan-Joe]

It's not a good idea to change at Monument / Bank, the subway connection is long, convuluted and crowded. From Victoria it's better to take (northbound) Victoria line to Oxford Circus then (eastbound) Central line to St Pauls.
Applying directions "east-", "south-", "west-" or "north-bound" to the different lines produces some quirks and anomalies but usually you don't have to worry about these, just use the direction given to get to the correct platform of a station to board a train.

[coccinelle]

Thank you for your answers everybody. Jonathon when you say 'just use the direction' what direction do you mean? and what is exactly written up in the tube station so you know where to go. it's been years since i was in London as you can guess....

[jno]

it's a bit of a mixture, coccinelle. For instance, Jubilee Line signs in a station tend to say Westbound and Eastbound, which isn't much help if you're at Waterloo and wanting to go north. But on the platforms, the signs (they are dot matrix ones telling you when the next 2 or 3 trains are coming and how soon they will arrive) will tell you the train's destination. So you really need to carry a map with you, or have memorised the name of a few stations at each end of the line.

[coccinelle]

jno, what are written on the signs to guide you through the corridors to the platform?

[jno]

usually just "District Line", "Bakerloo Line" etc, as the lines in both directions are generally close to each other. But as you get nearer they often have to differentiate, as in the Jubilee Line signs I mentioned (in some stations the lines are actually on different levels), so they may say Jubilee Line Eastbound" and "Jubilee Line Westbound". They don't give the terminus stations the way they do in Paris, as trains often don't go right to the end of the line.

In the case of the District Line they sometimes use several platforms (as they may share them with other lines), so you might need to look for larger signs which tell you which one to go to for the next train heading for your destination. Sorry I don't know those stations well enough to be precise, though.

[Jonathan-Joe]

Coccinelle - I meant that in an underground station, the platforms are usually described as "Northbound", "Eastbound" etc. So in my example, at Victoria I would look for the platform "Victoria Line, Northbound", change at Oxford Circus, looking for "Central Line, Eastbound" to travel to St Pauls.

[coccinelle]

OK that's a lot of help. Thank you so much.

[Cathyhuns]

However to get to St Paul's from Victoria it might be quicker to get off the eastbound District / Circle line at Mansion House and walk.

[coccinelle]

Thanks Cathy. Maybe so but this is a lesson to ask directions and what somebody would answer back. We're not, thank goodness doing it for real!!!