Going to London: thinking through travel costs

P. Breathnach

Herself has to make a business trip to London in a few weeks' time, the target destination being near Russell Square.

She checked with Aer Lingus and found that she could avail of €1 fares to either Heathrow or Gatwick, but with taxes and charges added in, it looked far cheaper to go via Gatwick. She asked me to research the cost and difficulty of getting from each airport to Russell Square, and the price advantage of Gatwick disappeared: it costs about €45 (and a couple of changes of train/tube) to do the return link from Gatwick and about €12 for a direct tube link from and back to Heathrow.

I post this as advice. Don't let the nominal price of a ticket decide your travel arrangements.

[I'm going, too, as bag-carrier and to have a little R&R.]

P. Breathnach

Yes: Gatwick express. Single £16.90; open return £28.80. Add a bit for tube fares, and you see how coming and going rises to about €45.

Tube from Heathrow to Russell Square: £4 --> about €12 return. I'm now looking into Oyster cards.

Thanks. I share your hope about having a good trip.

Pete4779

Weird! Who are you thanking?!

It sounds expensive. London is expensive to get around unless you have an Oyster Card. You could always tube it from Heathrow but it takes ages and is rough as ****.

storka

Pete4779 wrote: »

It sounds expensive. London is expensive to get around unless you have an Oyster Card. You could always tube it from Heathrow but it takes ages and is rough as ****.

You can get an all day travel card for £7 which covers travel cost for a full day i.e. bus and tube and inc. your in and out from Heathrow.

And the tube into London from Heathrow is not rough at all. Its the same as any of the tubes.

P. Breathnach

Pete4779 wrote: »

Weird! Who are you thanking?!

It sounds expensive. London is expensive to get around unless you have an Oyster Card. You could always tube it from Heathrow but it takes ages and is rough as ****.

I was thanking a poster whose post has disappeared!

Yes, I reckon we need Oyster Cards. I don't think the tube from Heathrow is that bad (not as bad as getting through the airport, anyway), and at least it goes directly to where we want to go.

BuffyBot

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I was thanking a poster whose post has disappeared!

A not particularly good shill

H2G2

Gatwick over Heathrow any day, its smaller and easier to get around. Quicker to get to that Heathrow from central London and non of the hassle of mega-airport Heathrow. Aer Lingus (and Ryanair) usually depart from gates 1-10, which are only 3 minutes walk from shop/restaurant area and even less from business lounges.

wrote:

Gatwick express. Single £16.90; open return £28.80. Add a bit for tube fares, and you see how coming and going rises to about €45.

OK, that’s only one side of the story. Get a one day travel card for £10 which is valid on both trains and all 6 tube zones – great value for money. Then get a London bound train – every few mins, as Gatwick in on the Brighton line – and you are in Victoria in 30 minutes, change at London Bridge and you make Charing Cross in 35/40 minutes.

To get to Russell Square, get on tube network at London bridge, or Charing Cross – its easy.

A one day travel card (zones R123456) costs £10.00 when bought at train desk in south terminal building in gatwick, just opposite when you exit customs. A one way regular train fare is £10.40 when bought in central London and is valid from all London terminals to Gatwick.

I don’t know why anybody bothers with the Gatwick Express – waste of money.

P. Breathnach

Too late to change our plans now, as the tickets are booked. Using the travel card makes the costs of the two options close to equal.

I researched the options using the two airports' own websites, and H2G2's routing did not come up. I wonder if BAA has some vested interest in promoting the Gatwick Express.

Anyway, as Herself is going for work reasons, we will be carrying an amount of stuff, and we would prefer not to have to navigate tube connections with a couple of bags each. I cope with Heathrow the same way I cope with CDG, by going into a stoic state of mind. From parking at Dublin at Dublin Airport until we arrive in Bloomsbury I'll simply go (or stumble along) with the flow.

Travelling is just something that we have to put up with in order to get to where we want to be.

H2G2

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I wonder if BAA has some vested interest in promoting the Gatwick Express.

Conspiracy theory, nice one… like it
Gatwick express (and Heathrow express) are eventually owned by the same company as National Express bus people, but I reckon BAA must get a kick back of some kind for promoting it.

Anyhow, just in case people think I am mad, attached is the £10 ticket I used this Wednesday which is valid for Gatwick to London and all trains & tubes within zone 1-6, except of course Gatwick & Heathrow express.

BuffyBot

Heathrow Express is actually BAA owned.

Gatwick isn't

gandalf

Personally I much prefer to fly into London City Airport. Its worth the slight extra cost.

OPENROAD

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Tube from Heathrow to Russell Square: £4 --> about €12 return. I'm now looking into Oyster cards.

Bonus of course, it is a direct link on the Piccadilly line 50-55 mins.

If it is only a one day trip I would be inclined to just buy a one day travel card zones 1-6. If it is longer or going to be in London on a regular basis go or the Oyster.

As for Heathrow, it is not as bad as people make it out to be imo.

WexCan

As has been said, for reference, the options from Gatwick are:

Gatwick Express - to Victoria - expensive
Southern - to Victoria and London Bridge - cheap and only takes 5 minutes longer
First Capital Connect - to London Bridge and Kings Cross Thameslink - cheap too

With Southern and FCC you can get the tube add-ons.

Gatwick Express franchise is actually being transferred over to Southern in the next year or so.

HarryD

H2G2 wrote: »

Anyhow, just in case people think I am mad, attached is the £10 ticket I used this Wednesday which is valid for Gatwick to London and all trains & tubes within zone 1-6, except of course Gatwick & Heathrow express.

Anyone know if this can be got from Luton ?
I need to get from Luton from Gatwick.
Since the train is half the time and double the comfort as easybus,
I think it's the best option.

Tabnabs

gandalf wrote: »

Personally I much prefer to fly into London City Airport. Its worth the slight extra cost.

Agree 100%, IMHO it's even worth a big extra cost. A very stress free way to get to and from London.

John R

HarryD wrote: »

Anyone know if this can be got from Luton ?
I need to get from Luton from Gatwick.
Since the train is half the time and double the comfort as easybus,
I think it's the best option.

A Luton Airport P/Way - Z1-6 offpeak Day travelcard is £16

A cheaper option is available though at £13.50. A Cheap Day Return Luton Airport - Elstree is £6.50 and a Z1-6 off-peak travelcard is £7.00. These can be buoght together at Luton Airport station and you can travel on the one train straight through to central London.

If you are going out Luton and back from Gatwick it is more complicated as both are outside the travelcard zones. Cheapest AFAIR is to do as above (single Luton-Elstree, only 10p cheaper than a return though) and also add a single East Croydon-Gatwick £5.50. At £19 it is cheaper than the single Luton-Gatwick fare at £23.

If you just want to get from Luton-Gatwick without travelling around London replace the travelcard portion with a single Elstree-East Croydon at £4.80 and Luton-Gatwick will cost £16.80

Splitting fares like this is often cheaper than buying the standard single/return fares for many UK rail journeys. It is perfectly valid and ticket staff will issue them no problem as long as you know what you want although they won't offer up split fares if you don't specifically request them.

There is no need to get off/change trains at the intermediate stations, you can use 1 through train for the full journey. The only rule is that the train must stop at the intermediate stations the tickets are split at. Having said that I've used them from Luton on trains that do not stop in Elstree and have never had any problems, I wouldn't chance getting on the East Midlands Trains express though but any FCC train should be fine.

quinnray

Thanks for the info John
I need to go from Luton to Gatwick with 8hrs to kill,
so will probably stop off in town .
I can walk from St Pancreas to Victoria stations and catch some sights on the way.

John R wrote: »

A Luton Airport P/Way - Z1-6 offpeak Day travelcard is £16

But Gatwick is outside Z1-6 travelcard area ?

Z1-6 off-peak travelcard is £7.00.

Does off-peak mean eves/weekends ?
I'll be traveling on Saturday morning/afternoon.

BuffyBot

I can walk from St Pancreas to Victoria stations and catch some sights on the way.

Long enough of a walk

John R

quinnray wrote: »

Thanks for the info John
I need to go from Luton to Gatwick with 8hrs to kill,
so will probably stop off in town .
I can walk from St Pancreas to Victoria stations and catch some sights on the way.


But Gatwick is outside Z1-6 travelcard area ?

Yes it is.

Like I said if you want to go Luton-Gatwick you need to use multiple tickets. A single Luton-Elstree (£6.40)
A Z1-6 Travelcard (£7.00)
And a single East Croydon-Gatwick (£5.80)

You can buy the first two together at Luton and buy the East Croydon-Gatwick portion before boarding the Gatwick train at Victoria.

If you do this make sure you board a "Southern" train stopping at Gatwick Airport not a Gatwick Express. The Southern trains depart every 15 minutes at 02, 17, 32, 47 past the hour.

quinnray wrote: »

Does off-peak mean eves/weekends ?
I'll be traveling on Saturday morning/afternoon.

Off-peak for Travelcards is all day Sat and Sun and anytime after 09.30 on weekdays.