Reply to: London - Travel recommendations

[expat]

Lot less trains though and the only Rush hour would be leaving London. If I chose to take the train from London between 17:30 and 18:30 ish that leg alone is £84 which is frankly silly.

I think you will find that rail journeys are excellent value for money, compared to driving a car, including of course the total cost of ownership. Of course the prices are higher for peak-hour journeys where you have not made an advance booking, but you will find that if you book in advance, look for specific trains with low fares, and avoid peak travelling times, that your journey can be made as cheaply by train.

So that's all right then.

HTH
Minister of Transport.

[Svalbaard]

You could always fly from Leeds to London City. It's a short hop then into the City on the tube.

This is all predicated on there actually being flights between the two airports though.

[TykeMerc]

Drive to junction 4 of m1. Get off and park at stanmore tube station (about 400 parking places)

Pakring is 3.60 for the day.

Get tube to westminster (direct on jubilee line, 40 mins) cost 4 quid.

Get same tube back the other way (another 4 quid)


total cost, petrol + £11.60 for tube and parking.

Easy.

The parking proved to be £3.20 and the Travelcard £7.50. 35 mins on the Tube each way.

Many thanks for the spot on advice Doggy and Pickle2 Stanmore was ideal.

[Sysman]

Lot less trains though and the only Rush hour would be leaving London. If I chose to take the train from London between 17:30 and 18:30 ish that leg alone is £84 which is frankly silly.

It's come back to me now. The best reason for using Wakefield back then was that you could get a 24 hour pay and display parking ticket for about 1.40.

That return leg cost is crazy!

[oracleslave]

You'd really recommend driving into the heart of London for someone who doesn't know the place, for an important meeting? I'm sure it seems fine if you're used to it, but for most people (me anyway) it has to be pretty daunting.

TomTom. You know it makes sense.

[BrilloPad]

Can't your chauffeur sort all this out for you?

[Platypus]

I'd take the train and save huge hassles.

Westminster is in Zone 1, and TFL website suggests:

King's Cross St.Pancras Underground Station
Take the Victoria Line towards Brixton

Zone(s): 1
* Average journey time: 7 mins
* Zone(s): 1

Change at Green Park Underground Station
Take the Jubilee Line towards Stratford

Zone(s): 1
* Average journey time: 2 mins
* Zone(s): 1

If you don't want to change tubes, take the circle line at KX, which will take longer to Westminster (I'd estimate upto 30 mins, but I'm sure the TFL website could provide details) http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk

At Leeds you can ask for a return to Kings Cross with Zone 1 or a day travelcard, either will add approx £5 to the fare.

These days I find driving journeys such as you're proposing such a hassle that the extra spent on the train is well worth it.

Tube map is available on the TFL website too.

[swamp]

You'd really recommend driving into the heart of London for someone who doesn't know the place, for an important meeting? I'm sure it seems fine if you're used to it, but for most people (me anyway) it has to be pretty daunting.

It's actually really not that hard, and driving in London isn't scary. For instance, from up North to the edge of Westminster you only need take the M1 and the Edgeware road.

Anyway this is a contractors' site... I'm sure moneysavingexpert.com will tell you how you can hitch-hike to Golders Green and get an off peak bus ride to Big Ben for 80p.

[d000hg]

Why not drive in?!

Parking costs less than £3 an hour in a multi-story car park in Westminster, and CC is £8. Driving out of London at 5:30 to the M1 is easy. Driving into town is only hard in rush hour or the school run, and you'll be fine after 9:30.

You'd really recommend driving into the heart of London for someone who doesn't know the place, for an important meeting? I'm sure it seems fine if you're used to it, but for most people (me anyway) it has to be pretty daunting.

[d000hg]

I regularly book a ticket to another national rail station in London (the train from Bristol only goes to Paddington), this way the ticket includes travel on zone 1 underground.

Yes I've done this, if you book e.g from Newcastle to Paddington you might get a train ticket Newcastle->King's Cross + plus a tube ticket.

[pmeswani]

Thanks for all of the advice, it's exactly what I needed to work out a few options.

Just to add to the suggestion regarding Oyster PAYG Cards. £3 for the card, you can top it up at any Underground station and a lot of Newsagents in London. You don't lose any credit on the card that you don't use. A single journey on the Oyster PAYG card is a lot cheaper than single or return paper ticket price. If you want, you can set up an Auto-Topup via the Oyster website and not have to worry about finding lose change or time to add the funds to the card.

[TykeMerc]

Thanks for all of the advice, it's exactly what I needed to work out a few options.

[swamp]

Why not drive in?!

Parking costs less than £3 an hour in a multi-story car park in Westminster, and CC is £8. Driving out of London at 5:30 to the M1 is easy. Driving into town is only hard in rush hour or the school run, and you'll be fine after 9:30.

[NickFitz]

Drive to junction 4 of m1. Get off and park at stanmore tube station (about 400 parking places)

WHS. It's a few minutes drive from the motorway.

[TykeMerc]

I haven't done this since the early 90s, but instead of Leeds, Wakefield offered easier and cheaper parking and no Leeds rush hour.

Lot less trains though and the only Rush hour would be leaving London. If I chose to take the train from London between 17:30 and 18:30 ish that leg alone is £84 which is frankly silly.

It's no wonder that the roads are so busy when the train prices are so damn high. Let's face it for reasons of convenience and noticable cost I'm seriously considering driving 200+ miles each way when there's a main line station about 16 miles from me. Ok it will take me a couple of hours longer over the day by driving, but time isn't something I'm drastically short of at the moment.