In article <Juosc.56506$Jr4.1608@newssvr29.news. >,
boro@
(bobo) wrote:
> Anyone here ridden the tube? Do you need exact change?
> Do you pre-pay? Do you get on and pay a conductor?
You prepay, either by buying a pass for a day (or several days, or a week,
or more, according to your requirements), or by buying a ticket for the
individual journey.
Individual journey tickets can be bought from machines at any Tube
station. On some of them, you need to tell the machine which station you
are going to. On others, you just tell the machine what value of ticket
you need - and you can work this out by looking at the list of destination
stations and fares next to the machine. These machines usually give
change, though occasionally they demand exact money only. I can't remember
if they take banknotes; I think not.
If you can't get the machine to work there are also manned ticket
offices, though they can have rather slow queues.
The one-day passes can also be bought from machines. The longest-term ones
can't. I'm not sure where the cutoff is.
Incidentally, London buses also now require prepayment. Again you can get
a pass, you can buy individual tickets from a few machines located near
bus stops (there aren't many of these), or you can buy packages of tickets
from newsagents and convenience stores - seven for UKP4.20, IIRC.
London tube how? 
