The Times Queen Elizabeth Used Public Transportation To Travel

Royal family members are constantly under scrutiny over how they spend taxpayer money. For instance, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were recently criticized when they traveled using a private plane. But there’s one royal who hasn’t caused any buzz at all over how she travels at home.

Queen Elizabeth II, who is once the most traveled head of state, doesn’t seem to mind using public transportation at all. She has been known to ride trains, buses and even the subway at times.

London Underground

The London Underground, more commonly referred to as the “Tube” among locals, is the city’s rapid transit system that connects 270 stations. Queen Elizabeth II traveled on the Victoria Line in 1969 shortly after it officially opened to the public.

Her Majesty rode on the Tube once more in 2013, when the London Underground celebrated its 150th anniversary. The city’s underground railway system was first proposed in the 1830s and was eventually approved in 1854.

Construction for a test tunnel began a year later. And the first underground railway of the world finally opened in 1963, when passengers can ride from Paddington to Farrington and back.

Public Buses

The Queen is also not averse to hopping on a public bus to get to her destination. Back in 2013, the then 87-year-old monarch surprised fans when, instead of the usual motorcade, she arrived on board the Cambridgeshire Guided Bus. Her Majesty took the public bus when she visited the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

Train

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip often travel by train. For instance, they took a train when they traveled from London to Tweedbank in 2015. On that journey, they were accompanied by Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland‘s First Minister.

The royals usually start their Christmas break by boarding a train to Sandringham, where they usually spend their holidays. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were spotted boarding the public train at London’s King’s Cross Station on Dec. 21, 2017.

Last year, however, Her Majesty seemed to have chosen to travel separately from her husband. On Dec. 20, 2018, the monarch was spotted boarding the first-class cabin of the train at King’s Lynn Station in Norfolk without the Duke.

The monarch is known for her love of her corgis. Thus, it wasn’t an unusual sight back then to see the Queen taking her furry friends along for a ride as well. Unfortunately, her last corgi, Whisper, already died in 2018.