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What types of transport do the English have?

Roads and motorways are Britain's primary domestic transport routes. At the beginning of the 20th century, railway trains and canal barges were the main means of transporting heavy goods. Now around 65% are carried by lorries.

Travel by car, van or taxi is by far the most common means of transport, accounting for 85 per cent of passenger mileage in Great Britain.
Cars Most people in Britain travel by car. About 75% of households have at least one car.

Lorries:
Most goods are transported by roads in lorries

Buses and Coaches:
The English have single decker and double decker buses. You can see them in our towns and cities. They use coaches for travelling longer distances or for going on school outings.

The red double decker buses in London are famous all over the world. There are two main kinds of buses in London: the red double-decker and the red single-decker.

The main places a bus goes to are shown on the front of the bus. Some double-deckers have automatic doors and you pay the driver when you go in. On single-deckers you sometimes buy your ticket from a machine in the bus. Most London buses have a conductor who will come round and collect fares.

Taxis: In London, the taxis are black but in the rest of the country they are different colours.

Black Cabs are the only taxi you can hail from the street (though they now come in other colours as well). With the "for hire" sign lit, the driver is obliged to stop for you.

Trains:
Britain's rail network covers 16,659 kilometres. The rail network can take you anywhere in the country from the major stations in London The major stations are:
Euston, St Pancras, Victoria and Charing Cross. We have a railway network throughout the Uk used by many travelers

When in London, "the Tube" is a great means of getting around! "The Tube" is the name of London's underground system

London was the first city in the world to have an underground railway, called the 'tube'. The first line was built in 1890.

Euro Trains:

These trains travel under the sea in a very long tunnel called the Channel Tunnel. The tunnel was compleated in 1995 and is 50 metres below the sea bed. Eurostar is the high-speed train service linking London, Ashford, Paris, Brussels, Lille, Avignon, Calais, Disneyland Resort Paris and the French Alps. The Eurostar will take you to Paris in 4 hours, to Brussels in 3 hours and to Disneyland Paris once a day.

Eurostar only transports people if you would like to take your car you have to go on the Euro Shuttle.

The "Shuttle" service joins Calais to Folkstone in 35 minutes. We drive our cars onto the Shuttle trains.

Airports:

ENGLAND : There are 470 airports in England.
London has five airports : Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, London City and Luton. The first three have underground connections to the centre of London and are the main London airports.

Heathrow and Gatwick Airports are the two main centres for overseas flights. London (Heathrow) Airport is one of the largest airports in the world and has two tube stations.

The number of passengers arriving and departing to or from London's airports equaled over 120 million in 2004. Heathrow handled 67m passengers, making the airport the busiest and best connected in the world. Source; CAA, BAA

SCOTLAND :
Prestwick airport.

Ships:

Shipping still remains the main form of cargo transport in to and out of Britain, despite the opening of the Channel Tunnel to France in 1994. The busiest sea port is Dover.

Many ferries cross the seas between England and Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and France.

Below is some information about ferry crossings from England to Ireland, France, Isle of Wight and Holland

Dover to Calais
Once an hour - Crossing time 75min

Portsmoth to Le Havre
Once a day - Crossing time 5 to 8 hours

Portsmouth to Cherbourg
Once a day - Crossing time 7 to 10 hours

Hull to Rotterdam
Once a day - Crossing time 10 hours

Hull to Zeebrugge
Once a day - Crossing time 15 hours

Liverpool to Dublin
Twice a day - Crossing time 8 hours

Southampton to Isle of Wight
Once an hour - Crossing time 1 hour

Swansea to Cork
Once a day - Crossing time 10 hours

In Britain they drive on the left-hand side of the road, so the steering wheel is on the right.

Petrol (Gas) in Britain is one of the most expensive in the world. We pay on average 80 pence a litre ( 1.53944 USD)

Facts

The wearing of front seat belts was made mandatory for motorists in 1983. The minimum age for driving a car in the UK is 17, and 16 for riding a moped or motorbike with a maximum engine capacity of 50cc.

Roads
Many of the roads of Britain are built on the old roads laid down by the Romans centuries ago. There are thousands of kilometres of roads in Britain. They range from wide modern motorways down to narrow country lanes. Cities and towns tend to have compact streets because they date back to well before cars were invented, and were certainly not planned for large lorries (trucks).

In Britain, there are "M" roads, "A" roads, and "B" roads.

"M" roads are like American freeways.

"A" roads are not controlled-access: they range from two-lane divided highways ("dual carraigeways") down to one-lane roads.

"B" roads are the smaller of the three. They may be in the open or have impentrable foliage right up to the road. Road markings (curves, etc.) may be sparse.

M Roads are motorways which are fast roads.
They have three or four lanes.

A Roads are the main routes between towns.
They mainly have single lanes but in some areas they have two lanes.

The first toll motorway, the M6 Toll, opened in December 2003 to ease motorway congestion in the West Midlands. The 43-kilometre expressway cuts journey times around Birmingham by an estimated 45 minutes.

Speed limits
Speed limit on Motorway: 112kph / 70mph

Speed limit on Major roads: 96kph / 60mph

Speed limit in Towns: 48kph / 30mph

Speed limit in residential areas: 35kph / 20mph

Round signs indicate speed limits with the limit amount circled by a red band. When the speed limit has stopped then there is a black line at an angle crossing over the speed limit indicated.

Questions on Driving in Britain

What is the minimum age for driving in Britain?
While the minimum driving age in most European countries is 18, in the United Kingdom it is 17. There have been no official statements that the driving age is going to change.