On Sat, 13 May 2006 02:09:10 -0400, P.Trofimov wrote:

My wife and I will be traveling to London for 4 days in the middle of
this month, then back again for 2 days after a week in France. We will
be staying at the Docklands with a friend, and during the day going to
central London and moving around within the city - by bus and the tube.
We might make a day trip to Cambridge but it is not certain.

What is the cheapest way to use public transport for this short period
of time and from the Docklands as a base? Should we bring passport
pictures to get a travel card? Or is pay per ride going to be cheaper?

It will probably be easiest to each buy a weekly Zones 1-2 Travelcard
from the first Tube ticket office you arrive at (or, if your base in
Docklands is in Zone 3, you should get Zones 1-3 Travelcards). These
will come on free Oyster cards (which normally cost GBP3 each). Ask
for "unregistered" Oyster cards - this means you don't need to fill in
forms. No photocards are required, so you won't need to bring
photographs. They are valid for 1 week on the Tube and Docklands Light
Railway in Zones 1-2 (where most of the tourist attractions are) and
on buses throughout Zones 1-6. If you need to go outside Zones 1-2 on
a particular occasion, you can put some money on the card and use Pay
As You Go on the Tube. For the last 2 days, it would be cheapest to
just use Pay As You Go (using your existing Oyster cards).

For the trip to Cambridge, Oyster cannot be used - you will need to
buy tickets at the National Rail ticket office at King's Cross. You
may wish to make the trip to Cambridge on a weekday, as the fast
trains to Cambridge currently don't run at weekends, so you'd have to
get a stopping train (70 mins vs 45 mins journey time each way). The
fast trains are the ones that depart King's Cross at 15 and 45 minutes
past the hour on weekdays.

More information on Oyster and Pay As You Go is at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...er/general.asp (try
the yellow link that says "Your Oyster guide"). A map showing the
Travelcard Zones is available at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/colourmap.gif .

HTH