03 June,2009 08:31 AM IST | | PTI
The next time you buy tickets to travel on the London Underground, you will be able to follow instructions on the ticket machines in Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Urdu.
LU authorities have upgraded touch-screen ticket machines at its stations to feature 17 languages, making life easier for the capital's Tube travellers.
Some machines already had six languages - English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Now, as part of Transport for London's Investment Programme, the upgrade means all touch screen machines in every station will also offer Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Polish, Punjabi, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu.
Wayne Trevor, LU's accessibility and inclusion manager, said, "Although many of our staff speak foreign languages, we have increased language translations on our ticket machines to make it easier and quicker for tourists, and those from London's diverse communities whose first language isn't English, to travel on the Tube."
He added, "By increasing the number of language translations, more customers will be able to travel with confidence by using our ticket machines."