London after 7-7

LONDON — Feb. 16 — Let's get right to the point. How safe will you feel coming to London this spring or summer given the July 7 terrorist bombings?

A good place to begin is with the London Underground where three of the four attacks occurred (The other was on a bus at Tavistock Square near the British Museum), killing 56, including four suicide bombers, and injuring more than 700.

Overall ridership is estimated to be back to normal levels, about three million people per day, but Londoners are using the Tube less in certain areas, such as the West End retail and tourist area where ridership is down about 5 percent.

Safety concerns are not necessarily why many here are falling back on a Plan B when it comes to getting around. It's not that security changes aren't noticeable. More than 600 British Transport police ride the Tube, trains are equipped with video cameras, and signs posted at station entrances warn of the possibility of random searches.

No, the real crisis on the London Tube isn't safety. The big issue - the one that will impact travelers the most - is what's happening to prices and service. The cost of a single, one-way Tube ticket for travel in Zone 1, an area that covers many tourist sites, is now £3 ($5.25 based on current exchange rates), up from £2 ($3.50) last year.

Given the sticker shock that goes with the price of almost anything in London, you might wonder if this is really out of line. Even the mayor admits it may be the most expensive public transport fare in the world.

The new fares are designed to encourage a switch from paying for tickets in cash to using a pre-paid smartcard called the Oyster card, a plastic card, preloaded with cash, that's swiped over an electronic reader on a bus, or at the beginning and the end of a journey on the Tube. (With the Oyster card, a Zone 1 Tube ride costs just £1.50 ($2.60).

London TravelWatch, a passenger watchdog group, protested the fare increase, saying that the new system punishes infrequent travelers, and pointing out that some tourists may not want to or know how to buy an Oyster card which includes a £3 deposit.

For its part, London Transport says that thanks to the Oyster, one million fewer paper tickets are being sold each week, meaning more staffers can be redeployed to help passengers, not only on the Tube, but on the buses where 1,300 officers and support staff patrol the network.

Get out the calculator

Buying an Oyster card assumes you know exactly how much Tube and bus riding you're going to do, and between what zones (there are six). Most tourists don't.

As far as I was able to tell shortly after arriving in London today, the best options for most short-stay travelers are still the one or three-day travel cards, good for unlimited rides on the Underground and buses. At £6.20 pounds ($10.85) for a one or two-zone one-day pass or £4.90 ($8.60) if you travel off-peak, meaning after 9:30 a.m. Monday-Friday, it's the most economical way to go if you plan to take more than one trip per day. Families with children under 15 are eligible for discounts.

If you're planning to be in London for longer than a few days, then an Oyster Card starts to make more sense. I'm here for parts of six days, including the day I arrived and the day I leave, so I opted for a two-zone, seven-day Oyster card at a cost of £22.20 ($38.85), $15 less than buying two three-day cards. (The only way to get a seven-day travel card is to buy an Oyster card.)

It was easy to buy. I avoided the long lines at the Victoria Station Underground ticket windows by buying mine at the Travel Information Center inside Victoria station from a helpful clerk who explained everything. So far, I'm finding it easy to use.

For more details on sorting out fares and options, see London Transport's Web site at www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl. Meanwhile, if you're reading this and you live in London, you know more than I do about strategies for getting around. Let me know what you've found, and we'll post your comments on this Web site.

Strikes and shut-downs

The Tube system has been plagued by strikes and delays this year, including a 24-hour walk-out on New Year's Eve, as unionized staff protested plans for a 35-hour work week, partly brought on by the move to the cashless fare system. The unions have promised more strikes this year. Meanwhile service interruptions are common, especially on weekends when repairs are made.

Survival strategies

What's a traveler to do?

With the threat of more strikes looming this spring and summer, it's smart to plan your stay in an area where there are alternatives for getting around. Best is a hotel or B&B that's on several Tube lines and bus routes, or one that's within walking distance of the sites.

This nixes less expensive options in neighborhoods farther from the center. I've had some good times zipping in and out of the city on the Tube to and from B&Bs in friendly neighborhoods such as Hammersmith and Parson's Green, but this time I've decided to play it safe and stay closer in (I found a B&B in a private home in Holland Park near the chic Notting Hill neighborhood of Julia Roberts fame; more on that later) where the public transportation options are better.

There are always taxis, but be prepared to pay dearly, especially if you're traveling alone. The average fare for a four-mile ride across London in a traditional black cab is $17-$24, and that's weekdays. Count on $7-$10 just to get in and travel no more than a mile.

Buses are more reliable and less crowded than the Tube, but slower. Still, many Londoners seem to prefer them. One change this year: No more hopping on and off the double-decker Routemaster buses. They were retired last year in favor of modern double-deckers and single-deck "bendy'' buses.

Also new: Passengers boarding a bus in central London are now required to have paid for their journey prior to traveling. A single-cash fare is 1.50 pounds, dropping to 1 pound with an Oyster card for peak-time travel.

Walking always works

Walking, of course, has always been the best way to see London, and if there's an upside to all that's gone on, maybe it's that we'll all be encouraged to do more of this. It's really the best way to get your bearings, and it's fun to discover how London "shrinks'' once you know the shortcuts.

Download a street finder program to your Palm or BlackBerry, or buy a good map.

One of the handiest is the London All-On-One map that sells for about $4.50 at London bookstores or $6.50 online, postage included, at www.quckmap.com. It shows you how to work around service disruptions, the best night bus routes, and if all else fails, the fastest walking routes between destinations.

All-On-One's motto is "whatever the rights and wrongs of the strikes, Londoners need to keep moving."

This goes for tourists too.