London Transport Chaos

London has just survived a day without the tube. The train drivers were on strike because of job cuts. As a result, the rush hour traffic between 8 and 10 in the morning and 5 and 7 in the evening was terrible. Most of the buses were stuck in traffic jams with long queues of people waiting to get on them at bus stops. Lots of commuters had to walk to work and normally lazy people used their bicycles for the first time in ages. Unusual Fortunately, London also has some less common transport systems. Firstly, there is the ‘Clipper Service’ of fast boats which run up and down the river Thames from Chelsea in the west to the City and Canary Wharf (the financial district) in the east. Secondly, there is also a bicycle hire service, which means if you pay £1 you can use a bike for an hour, taking it from one part of London and leaving it in another. Cost Travelling through London can also be really quite expensive. If you have a car and want to drive it in the centre of town, you have to pay a congestion charge. The tube and train system also isn’t cheap if you buy individual tickets. Luckily, there is the Oyster Card, a discount travel card which allows you to pay less for each journey or pay a fixed weekly price to use all the transport system. A. Please find the italic (blue text) words from the text with the definitions below.

1. people who travel to and from work every day [commuters]
2. money you have to pay to try and stop traffic jams [congestion charge]
3. the transport you find on rivers or at sea [boats]
4. a busy time of day when people normally travel to and from work [rush hour]
5. a cheaper ticket which lasts for a longer period of time [discount travel card]
6. the underground train system in London [tube]
7. when the roads are completely blocked [traffic jams]
8. when you pay some money to use something for a short period of time [bicycle hire service]
9. when you don’t go to work because you are unhappy about something [were on strike]
10. a long line of people who are waiting for something [queues]

B. Now please visit https://tfl.gov.uk and find out how you can get an Oyster card and how much it costs to hire a bicycle for your next visit to London!