Transports in London - Hotels London, United Kingdom

Our selection

Hotel The Royal Norfolk, London***
	The Royal Norfolk hotel enjoys a unique and enviable location at the corner... More...
	Starting from 52.00 GBP

Hotel Central Park, London***
	Central Park is a charming hotel situated a stone's throw from the famous H... More...
	Starting from 69.00 GBP

umi Hotel, London***
	Perfectly located for visiting London on business or pleasure, umi Hotel li... More...
	Starting from 59.99 €

Hotel The Gallery, London****
	The Gallery hotel in London is a haven of quiet elegance and a living tribu... More...
	Starting from 145.00 GBP

Hotel Blair Victoria, London**
	The Blair Victoria hotel is an heritage building consisting of Victorian ho... More...
	Starting from 65.00 €

Hotel Comfort Inn Kings Cross, London***
	Retaining its Georgian façade, Comfort Inn King's Cross hotel in London has... More...
	Starting from 102.00 €

Hotel Bayswater Inn, London***
	Bayswater Inn Hotel is situated in a quiet residential square in central Lo... More...
	Starting from 73.00 €

Caswell Hotel, London**
	The Caswell Hotel is a small, family-run hotel situated in the heart of Wes... More...
	Starting from 60.00 €

Abcone Hotel, London***
	Hotel Abcone, set in a quiet residential street in London's Ashburn gardens... More...
	Starting from 69.00 GBP

Victor Hotel, London***
	The Victor Hotel is a small and idyllic family-run hotel situated in the he... More...
	Starting from 70.00 €

London

Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London. However the mayor's financial control is limited and he does not control the heavy rail network. The public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL), is the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues, which a large investment programme is attempting to address, including £7 billion of improvements planned for the Olympics. London was recently commended as the city with the best public transport.

Rail

The centrepiece of the public transport network is the London Underground, commonly referred to as The Tube, with sixteen interconnecting lines, and plans for expansion — especially deeper into South London, and at least one new line. It is the oldest, largest, and most expensive metro system in the world, dating from 1863. The system was home to the world's first underground electric line, the City & South London Railway, which began service in 1890.

Over three million journeys a day are made on the Underground network, around nearly 1 billion journeys are made each year. The Underground serves the central area and most suburbs to the north of the Thames, while those to the south are served by an extensive suburban rail overland network. The Docklands Light Railway is a second metro system using smaller and lighter trains, which opened in 1987, serves East London and Greenwich on both sides of the Thames. Commuter and intercity railways generally do not cross the city, instead running into fourteen terminal stations scattered around its historic centre. Since the early 1990s, increasing pressures on the commuter rail and Underground networks have led to increasing demands, particularly from businesses and the City of London Corporation, for Crossrail - a £10 billion east-west heavy rail connection under central London. Eurostar trains link London Waterloo station with Lille and Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium, in two to three hours, making London closer to continental Europe than the rest of Britain and tying it into the Euro-core.

Bus / Road

The London bus network is a twenty-four hour service and caters for most local journeys, carrying even more passengers than the Underground. Every weekday, the London bus network carries six million passengers on over 700 different routes. In the year to March 2005, the network's ridership was 1.79 billion passenger trips. The buses are internationally recognised, and are a trademark of London transport along with black cabs and the Tube.

Although the majority of journeys involving central London are made by public transport, travel in outer London is car-dominated. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs), and the outer orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) encircle the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes — but very few motorways penetrate into inner London. A plan for a comprehensive network of motorways throughout the city (the Ringways Plan) was prepared in the 1960s but was mostly cancelled in the early 1970s. In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £8 per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of congested central London. Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a vastly reduced season pass which is renewed monthly and is cheaper than a corresponding bus fare.

Air

London is a major international air transport hub. No fewer than eight airports use the words London Airport in their name, but most traffic passes through one of five major airports. London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic and handles a mixture of full-service domestic, European and inter-continental scheduled passenger flights. Similar traffic, with the addition of some low-cost short-haul flights, is also handled at London Gatwick Airport. London Stansted Airport and London Luton Airport cater mostly for low-cost short-haul flights. London City Airport, the smallest and most central airport, is focused on business travellers, with a mixture of full service short-haul scheduled flights and considerable business jet traffic.