🚇how to ride the london underground without annoying anyone

for visiting coworkers who keep four-abreast blocking the platform. also just genuinely useful.

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Tap a contactless card or phone at the yellow reader, skip the paper ticket entirely

same tap-in tap-out logic as Oyster now, most UK/EU bank cards just work so don't bother pre-ordering a Visitor Oyster

Let it cap itself, don't do the fare math yourself

Stand on the right on escalators

walk on the left if you're walking. this is the one rule Londoners will actually get mad about

Let people off the train before you get on

Move down inside the carriage

Have your card out before you reach the gate

the person patting down three pockets at the barrier is the most hated person on the network

Keep conversations quiet, no phone speakers

Don't try to hold the doors

gate-checked once, never again, and Tube doors are worse than a jet bridge

Load an offline map before you go underground

check the date on your app's map cache too, signal drops in most tunnels

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