Hope someone can give me a bit of advice here…
I’m flying into Gatwick at about 0630 on the 21st of December. What I’d ideally like to do is get a train from Gatwick, change in London and go to Birmingham, then return to London the next day. However, I’ve heard that nationwide, the trains have been slowed and many have been cancelled. Still, wouldn’t some be going on a regular basis between such two large cities? If anyone has some good info on timetables and so forth, or knows a site that can help, please advise. I’ve looked up Railtrack’s site, but don’t know how updated it is.
Plan B is to get a National Express coach out of Victoria station, which I’ve done before. I only hope that there will be seats what with the coaches taking on all the extra train passengers (one assumes).
Anyway, I hate to leave it until the day. The on-time delivery of pressies to my nieces and nephews depends on this! =-)
Cheers,
R-n-R
Trains are still a disaster zone but those routes are such major ones that you may not have any problems.Most rail traffic going north passes through Birmingham.
The big problem now is that we had a huge amount of rainfall so the ground is saturated, even moderate amounts of rain causes flooding because it cannot be soaked up, it just runs off.
This has been a big cause of delays the past week so you might want to keep your eyes on it.
Can’t speak for Birmingham, but I was just there and the waits were interminable. I was in Berkshire and went in to London and then intended to go out to Surrey - two trains in a row cancelled, all others running 30-60 minutes late. And no chairs in Waterloo station! Then on the way back to Berkshire, three trains cancelled; then there was the train that finally arrived, only it was at Platform 19 - hidden away from the other platforms. It took me approx. 1 minute to find it, and as I ran up to the train the doors shut and do you think they could open them for the obviously running person? Nooooooooo.
The rest of my trip was lovely though. I must add that I’ve never had a bad train situation in the many times I’ve been to the U.K. It’s all that flooding, the poor dears.
Casdave, Colin, Missbunny:
Thanks for your advice and the links. Yes, I also looked up the timetables, but have heard that trains are getting cancelled all the time. I understand that it’s the talk of the country atm. I’m on a mailing list dedicated to a band that’s playing London this Sunday, and several UK subscribers are gutted that they can’t go due to the unreliable trains. Looks like I better ring National Express on Monday.
And Colin, whilst in Gatwick on the 21st, look for a youngish, cuteish (heh) woman with long dark hair wearing Docs and camo pants. C’est moi. I’ll probably really stand out as I’ll be the one veering into walls all bleary-eyed and trying to head the wrong way on the moving sidewalks (don’t do mornings OR jet lag very well)…
Trains to London from the airports are okay. The Heathrow Express takes about 15 minutes, and the trains from Gatwick are (more or less) on time too. I can’t remember if trains to Birmingham go from Euston or Kings Cross, but allow a bit extra – say two to three hours each way to be on the safe side. You should be okay.