While we are on the subject of the Tube (and buses)... it is well worthwhile buying a Visitor's Oyster card either in advance (although time is getting a bit short for postal delivery) or at the Heathrow *underground* station - or pretty much any other underground station until they shut the booking offices which is what the strike is about. More info here: http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/help-centre/oyster-card-help.html http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g186338-c75899/London:United-Kingdom:Oyster.Cards.Travelcards.And.Tickets.html There's a one-off fee of 3GBP but the card is good for ever and can be topped up as often as need be at almost any ticket machine. Oyster is the usual kind of contactless/RFID card that can be used to pay bus fares and tube fares as well as for local train services. It is cheaper with Oyster than buying paper tickets and if you use it a lot on a given day the total amount you are charged is automatically capped at the cost of a daily Travelcard. [You learn something every day!] If you don't mind taking a bit longer to get from Heathrow into central London, the underground is a *lot* cheaper than the Heathrow Express (about a factor of five! - HE is 21-26GBP single - Taxi to "central" London is 45-85GBP depending on time of day and how central) and isn't that much slower unless your hotel is real close to Paddington Station. Note that the Oyster is not usable for either the Heathrow Express or the Gatwick Express trains. Regards, Elwyn On Wed, 2014-02-05 at 12:46 +0000, Tim Chown wrote: > Hi, > > > (trimmed to the tube issue) > > On 5 Feb 2014, at 12:30, Alexandru Petrescu > <alexandru.petrescu@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Le 05/02/2014 11:47, Tim Chown a écrit : > > > > > The only disruption in March may be more tube strikes. You may > > > have > > > to walk places on the surface streets.... > > > > Could one check the on-strike announcements somewhere? (I guess the > > law > > mandates announcements that amount of time in advance). > > > So the best site is probably Transport for London, which is more than > just tubes, see http://www.tfl.gov.uk/. > > > There's a few free (or very cheap) tube apps. I've used one called > London Tube Status which is OK (and free). Obviously getting live info > while in the tube has issues :) > > > The London underground is generally a very good system. It's > obviously busy at the start and end of working day rush hours. It > suffers a little from early adopter issues, but the coverage is very > good. > > > The dispute is over the proposed closure of all ticket offices, and I > expect it may drag on into March and beyond. > > > Tim