This is early morning (arriving 0745) Sunday Oct 15. My hotel is near the Hayes & Harlington station.
My destination is Hyatt Place London City East.
I’m confused by what the tfl (Transport for London) website is telling me.
Elizabeth line to Ealing Broadway Station
Central line to Liverpool Street (so far so good)
Circle line to Aldgate East (This what gets me)
Looking at the tube map, Circle doesn’t go to Aldgate East (it goes to Aldgate, which is a bit farther but acceptable to me).
There is also just walking from Liverpool which tfl estimates 22 min which I guess isn’t bad but involves a bunch of street zig-zags
I guess I can ask at my hotel but figured I’d try here first.
ELIZABETH LINE: Sunday 15 October, between 0020 and 0740, no service between Paddington and Ealing Broadway. The last service on Saturday night / Sunday morning at 0007 from Heathrow Terminal 5 will not run.
ELIZABETH LINE: Sunday 15 October, from 0740, a reduced service will operate between Paddington and Heathrow / Reading. Two trains per hour operate between Paddington and Reading / Heathrow Terminal 4 / Heathrow Terminal 5. West Ealing will be served by four trains per hour.
I don’t know exactly where your hotel is relative to the airport, but there is a Heathrow to Paddington Express - not the tube, nonstop and faster, gets you to Paddington in 15 minutes. So from the airport, the most efficient way would probably be Heathrow Express to Paddington then either Elizabeth Line or Hammersmith & City (pink) tube the rest of the way.
It will cost more than using just the tube, if that’s a factor.
ETA: google maps confirms that this is the quickest way if your starting point is the airport, and I don’t think you can be more than a 5-minute cab ride from the airport on a Sunday morning.
ETA: the first Heathrow Express is usually ~5:30am, but there appears to be some maintenance scheduled specifically on early morning Sunday 15th when you want to leave. This may not be an option.
So two to four trains per hr at the time you are traveling rather than every 10 mins or so. You’ll have to wait longer, but it’ll still get you there? That’s also from LHR. You aren’t actually departing from LHR, you are hopping on at H & H, correct?
I’d also suggest playing around with Google maps for options. You can specify your arrival date and time. it’ll tell you when you need to depart. There’s options avoiding the Elizabeth Line altogether but will take about 1.5 hours. You might still want to hire a car, more expensive and will still take about an hour though.
Google says take district from Ealing Broadway to Aldgate East but
DISTRICT LINE: Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 October, no service between Whitechapel / Edgware Road and Hammersmith / Kensington Olympia / Wimbledon. Replacement buses operate between Earls Court / Hammersmith and Wimbledon.
Uber fare looks like about £40. I wouldn’t recommend driving across London any other time, but early on Sunday morning there will be little traffic, this looks like the best option to me.
I’m there one night (23 hours). My plane lands 9AM Saturday. I get on a bus to Southampton (with a Stonehenge detour) 8 AM Sunday. With less than a day, I just a got a hotel near the airport I’m flying into (LHR)
Brian
yes, going to Liverpool would be a longer ride…
Believe it or not I considered going there…
Low on my visit list…
Paddington just to take picture and caption it “no bears in sight” is slightly higher
I strongly disagree with any advice here to hire a car. The time you would take picking up and dropping off a car would negate any possible advantage over any other means of transport. Further, I drove as a courier in London for six months. It ain’t easy at the best of times, and I’m from a country that at least drives on the same side as in the UK.
Admittedly as Riemann says very early Sunday morning is probably about the easiest time to drive in London but I still wouldn’t. The area where you are trying to go is a morass of closures, dead ends and one-way streets. Even knowing the area well (I worked between Liverpool St and Aldgate for a couple of years) I would expect to have bother driving.
I don’t recommend uber or taxi either. Again admittedly I haven’t travelled early on Sunday morning in central London much but I essentially have developed a firm rule that I do not take taxis or ubers in central London because it is usually painfully slow compared to the public transport options. I’ve been burnt too many times.
I’d be doing exactly what tfl suggested per your first post, except that I might walk from Liverpool St depending on how much luggage I have and whether the temperature is amenable. Though that decision might be influenced by nostalgia given it would take me past my old office.
If you are going to walk from Liverpool St, be aware that it is a large station with exits all over the damn place and taking the wrong one can leave you 100 yards (at least) in the wrong direction. You need to head for Bishopsgate East exit.
Bumping this thread to add a second question rather than start a new one.
My wife and I are traveling to London for a few days and plan to use our GooglePay with our phones to pay for the Tube. From what I understand, the system will automatically detect when a person using GooglePay gets up to the maximum charge for the day and stops charging after that. Both of our phone’s GooglePay are tied to the same credit card right now - is that kosher? Should I change mine to another card so we both only pay the maximum each day?