I loved the public transportation in London. My parents had the Transportation for London TfL app and Google maps to figure out the best routes and for the most part, it all worked as expected. The trickiest parts were finding tube and train lines that were wheelchair accessible. Sometimes we had to go out of our way or to stops that weren’t always the closest to where we were leaving from or going to.

Public Transportation in London

Tube and rail

My mom purchased prepaid Oyster Visitor cards before we left so we were ready to use public transport as soon as we arrived. After we got through customs, we took the Elizabeth Line from the airport to Central London and then hopped on another Line to get to the stop that got us the closest to where we were staying. There was actually a stop right outside of our hotel, but that one wasn’t wheelchair accessible so we always had to walk several blocks to get to the tube or train lines that worked for me.

I loved riding the tube and rail. We found the staff were really good at helping us find our way or helping if there were certain cars we needed to be on that were accessible. Elevators were much cleaner than places I’ve experienced in the states.

Buses

Buses in London are wheelchair accessible. You enter in the middle and one of my parents would go through the front to tap our Oyster cards to pay for the fare. Since I’m not a UK citizen, I wasn’t able to get any discounted cards or rates for people with disabilities. We did take rail and bus to the AFC Wimbledon match. Had the rail stop that was closest to the stadium been wheelchair accessible, it would have taken about 30 minutes to get there instead of the hour. But, it was fun to see other neighbourhoods outside of London. It was also easy to hop on busses in other parts of the city to explore more areas and get out of the rain and warm up on one of the colder days we were there.

Black cabs

The only cab ride we took in London was from our hotel to Euston train station on our last day. The pictures below say it all. I was able to fit in the wheelchair accessible cab, that also had hearing loops, along with all of our luggage and both of my parents. We were curious about whether the cab would be tall enough because even in my manual chair, I’m tall and my seating system makes me even taller. But, I fit!

Next up is rail, ferry and WAVs (wheelchair accessible van) as we traveled to the Peak District and then on to Dublin.

Music video for this post is London Calling (YouTube)