Reply to: M25 on Monday mornings

[expat]

I live down the road from you in Edlesborough.

When I use the M25 I never use the M1. I pick up the A41 (a very fast road) at Tring to M25 junction 20 (or 19 if 20 is busy). If you hit the M25 by 6:30 you should get past the M40 junction before it gets too busy and to the M4 before seven.

Not sure about traffic at Heathrow at that time of the morning, I either go past the M4 or go west on it, but going east doesn't look too bad and it is only one junction to the airport spur.

Ah, I had thought of that. Need to test it, but I'm still worried about the M25, and the entrance to Heathrow.

Not to mention the off-site car parks' shuttle buses. The last thing I want is them telling me, "Yeah Mate every 10 minutes during the day, but at this time in the morning it's not worth going for one passenger" while my checkin closes.

[wendigo100]

My local station is Leighton Buzzard, I fly from Luton since we don't have our own budget airline (yet).

I live down the road from you in Edlesborough.

When I use the M25 I never use the M1. I pick up the A41 (a very fast road) at Tring to M25 junction 20 (or 19 if 20 is busy). If you hit the M25 by 6:30 you should get past the M40 junction before it gets too busy and to the M4 before seven.

Not sure about traffic at Heathrow at that time of the morning, I either go past the M4 or go west on it, but going east doesn't look too bad and it is only one junction to the airport spur.

[expat]

I suppose 50 quid a week is fair enough, well anyway, sorry can't help much, seems the only way is to try it a few times to find out how bad it is - yesterday 9-ish was okay on M25 around heathrow, surely should be a bit better when driving earlier.

Anyway, you are very brave to fly so frequently - I would not fly that often even if they paid me £1000 per day there.

I wouldn't take a rate cut either!

[AtW]

I suppose 50 quid a week is fair enough, well anyway, sorry can't help much, seems the only way is to try it a few times to find out how bad it is - yesterday 9-ish was okay on M25 around heathrow, surely should be a bit better when driving earlier.

Anyway, you are very brave to fly so frequently - I would not fly that often even if they paid me £1000 per day there.

[expat]

I can sympathise with you travelling by Easyjet. I have never found them cheap and there customer care and services are poor. However I don’t think you will have any advantage going from Heathrow. I have missed flights at Heathrow because of long check-in queues and traffic delays, and public transport delays. An alternative from Luton would be Gatwick because there is a through train service (Luton - Gatwick) that runs almost 24 hours.

Yes, I'm looking at that too. For a start I'm coming back this Friday on Easyjet to LGW, then getting the train to Luton to pick up my car if it's still there.

There are a number of aspects making this particular weekly commute a grind, and it's not the fault of any one (except myself), but I'm just trying to improve it. For example, the flight back to Gatwick is earlier, enough that I'll still get home earlier even after the train. And I'd rather have a solid block of 1 1/2 hours sitting reading, than 1/2 hour shuffling forward in a passport queue: the first is usable time, to me, the second is wasted.

[expat]

But parking at Heathrow costs like 40 quid per day, surely Luton is much cheaper?

Look at online booking of car parks with good shuttle services: Luton 50-odd a week; Heathrow can be done for 60-odd, off the top of my head. But it's not the money, give or take say 30-80 quid: time is a bigger factor, and inconvenience, and discomfort even more.

Easyjet is not that pleasant nor indeed cheap enough to justify it, and it doesn't do on-time flights.

Luton is an armpit of an airport. 25-minute queues to show your UK passport on entry on Friday night, and that's when you're an hour or more late. I'll pay to avoid that.

[Paddy]

I can sympathise with you travelling by Easyjet. I have never found them cheap and there customer care and services are poor. However I don’t think you will have any advantage going from Heathrow. I have missed flights at Heathrow because of long check-in queues and traffic delays, and public transport delays. An alternative from Luton would be Gatwick because there is a through train service (Luton - Gatwick) that runs almost 24 hours.

[AtW]

But parking at Heathrow costs like 40 quid per day, surely Luton is much cheaper?

btw, women are supposed to like committment - I am sure she would not mind driving you every morning on Monday and picking up on Friday...

[expat]

I take it you are getting a lift there rather than parking your car for a week?

No, I'm parking my car there. My partner might get up early enough to take me, but I wouldn't ask her to do that every Monday morning. And she wouldn't like staying sober on Fridays to drive me back!

[AtW]

I take it you are getting a lift there rather than parking your car for a week?

[expat]

By the way, surely airlines flying out of Heathrow are much more expensive?

In general yes, but Í'm not flying Easyjet bacause it's cheaper. Actually flights (I'm in Madrid) are quite costly on Easyjet, and not so bad on Opodo IF you book a couple of weeks in advance.

Ex: Easyjet return M-F 4-8 Sep 106.00. Opodo BA 131.00. If I flew back late on Friday BA would be 80.50. (return incl "taxes").

With less advance notice it would typically be about 190.00 Easyjet and 230.00 BA, still OK. If you're going for 1 or 2 days time, look at Easyjet 240.00, BA 460.00.

[AtW]

By the way, surely airlines flying out of Heathrow are much more expensive?

[expat]

According to the National Rail Enquiries site there's a service at 05:14 from luton arriving in heathrow at 7:03. There are also trains at 05:44, 05:48 and 06:04 all taking Between 1:35 and 1:49 to get to heathrow.

My local station is Leighton Buzzard, I fly from Luton since we don't have our own budget airline (yet).

Flying from Luton, I can drive there in half an hour at that time in the morning. Going to LHR by train, I get Silverlink to Euston. It is almost worth driving to Luton and then taking the train from there! I could drive to Milton Keynes, which would get me faster trains to Euston.

I could live somewhere else, it'd be easier.....

[Phoenix]

Fly from Luton To Heathrow!
Perhaps HyperD will give you a lift?

[DaveB]

Hmm. Public transport is ok but slow and a bit sparse in the morning. When I ask Journey Planner about arriving at LHR by 7:15 or earlier, it's 4:42 from my station, arrive 6:48. That's not really the kind of timings I had been looking for. And I don't like multiple changes, I'd rather have the comfort of my own car.

Maybe I´ll stick with Luton.

According to the National Rail Enquiries site there's a service at 05:14 from luton arriving in heathrow at 7:03. There are also trains at 05:44, 05:48 and 06:04 all taking Between 1:35 and 1:49 to get to heathrow.