Heathrow and Gatwick

I will be traveling from the States to France by way of London. I
arrive at Heathrow on a Sunday morning at @6:30 am and depart out of
Gatwick at @5:00pm. My plans were to take the Tube into London for
lunch and a little sightseeing, then take the train out to Gatwick.
Does this sound practical? I realize that the Express runs between
airports, but with so much time, I wanted to see London.

Also, is there any place in London to store one bag while seeing the
city?

Thanks,
Bill

On 2 Jul, 04:25, bc0...@ wrote:
> I will be traveling from the States to France by way of London. I
> arrive at Heathrow on a Sunday morning at @6:30 am and depart out of
> Gatwick at @5:00pm. My plans were to take the Tube into London for
> lunch and a little sightseeing, then take the train out to Gatwick.
> Does this sound practical? I realize that the Express runs between
> airports, but with so much time, I wanted to see London.
>
> Also, is there any place in London to store one bag while seeing the
> city?
>
> Thanks,
> Bill

Sounds fine to me.

My recommendation is that after clearing customs at Heathrow you take
the Picadilly Line to Baron's Court station. From there it's a cross-
platform change to the Eastbound District Line to Victoria station. At
Victoria there's a left-luggage facility.

When you've finished sightseeing, after collecting your bags, you can
take the Gatwick Express from Victoria to Gatwick station.

I suggest buying a zones 1-6 travelcard when you get to Heathrow. This
will give you unlimited travel on rail, tube and buses within central
London but won't get you to Gatwick. I think you'll need to purchase a
separate ticket for the Gatwick Express but maybe somebody else can
advise as to whether you can save some money by using the Travelcard
to the edge of your its validity and then buying another ticket to
cover the rest of your journey. To save hassle, I suggest sorting out
a ticket for journey to Gatwick when you arrive at Victoria in the
morning.

Re timing... It can take a while to get out of Heathrow (maybe an
hour) and I think it will take about an hour to get to Victoria.

Assuming you need to check in 2 hours before your flight, probably
you'll want to get a train from Victoria about 2.15pm (it takes 30
minutes from Victoria to Gatwick). So probably you'll want to get to
Victoria just before 2pm to retrieve your bags.

Hope this helps.

On Jul 2, 7:05 am, goo...@feeney.screaming.net wrote:
> On 2 Jul, 04:25, bc0...@ wrote:
>
> > I will be traveling from the States to France by way of London. I
> > arrive at Heathrow on a Sunday morning at @6:30 am and depart out of
> > Gatwick at @5:00pm. My plans were to take the Tube into London for
> > lunch and a little sightseeing, then take the train out to Gatwick.
> > Does this sound practical? I realize that the Express runs between
> > airports, but with so much time, I wanted to see London.
>
> > Also, is there any place in London to store one bag while seeing the
> > city?
>
> > Thanks,
> > Bill
>
> Sounds fine to me.
>
> My recommendation is that after clearing customs at Heathrow you take
> the Picadilly Line to Baron's Court station. From there it's a cross-
> platform change to the Eastbound District Line to Victoria station. At
> Victoria there's a left-luggage facility.
>
> When you've finished sightseeing, after collecting your bags, you can
> take the Gatwick Express from Victoria to Gatwick station.
>
> I suggest buying a zones 1-6 travelcard when you get to Heathrow. This
> will give you unlimited travel on rail, tube and buses within central
> London but won't get you to Gatwick. I think you'll need to purchase a
> separate ticket for the Gatwick Express but maybe somebody else can
> advise as to whether you can save some money by using the Travelcard
> to the edge of your its validity and then buying another ticket to
> cover the rest of your journey. To save hassle, I suggest sorting out
> a ticket for journey to Gatwick when you arrive at Victoria in the
> morning.


Definitely. You can queue for half an hour or more for tickets at
Victoria. To make best use of the travelcard, I think you'd have to
get a single from boundary zone 6* to Gatwick, but then you'd have to
travel on one of the many other trains from Victoria to Gatwick, not
Gatwick Express.

*Or given that it's not a season ticket, possibly boundary zone 5,
where trains to Gatwick will stop.


>
> Re timing... It can take a while to get out of Heathrow (maybe an
> hour) and I think it will take about an hour to get to Victoria.
>
> Assuming you need to check in 2 hours before your flight, probably
> you'll want to get a train from Victoria about 2.15pm (it takes 30
> minutes from Victoria to Gatwick). So probably you'll want to get to
> Victoria just before 2pm to retrieve your bags.
>
> Hope this helps.

On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:26:39 -0700, MIG wrote:

> To make best use of the travelcard, I think you'd have to
> get a single from boundary zone 6* to Gatwick, but then you'd have to
> travel on one of the many other trains from Victoria to Gatwick, not
> Gatwick Express.

Is the Gatwick Express different to the Stansted Express regarding
combination of tickets? ISTR an earlier thread where the conclusion was
that travelcard and extention ticket could be combined on that service.

--
jhk

On Jul 2, 9:44 am, Jarle H Knudsen <j...@jarle.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:26:39 -0700, MIG wrote:
> > To make best use of the travelcard, I think you'd have to
> > get a single from boundary zone 6* to Gatwick, but then you'd have to
> > travel on one of the many other trains from Victoria to Gatwick, not
> > Gatwick Express.
>
> Is the Gatwick Express different to the Stansted Express regarding
> combination of tickets? ISTR an earlier thread where the conclusion was
> that travelcard and extention ticket could be combined on that service.



The one day travelcard isn't a season ticket, so to get an extension,
I think you have to travel on train that stops at the boundary.
"Southern" trains to Gatwick will stop at East Croydon, which is in
zone 5, so that's where the extension would have to be from.

Gatwick Express is also a different operator with operator-specific
tickets. Stansted services not only stop on the way but they are run
by the same operator as the other services on the route. Stansted
Express is just branding for some "One" services.

MIG wrote:
>
> You can queue for half an hour or more for tickets at Victoria.

<jaw drops>

On Jul 2, 9:56 am, Fig <m...@> wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:26:39 +0100, MIG <googles...@doreenbird.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > On Jul 2, 7:05 am, goo...@feeney.screaming.net wrote:
> >> On 2 Jul, 04:25, bc0...@ wrote:
>
> >> > I will be traveling from the States to France by way of London. I
> >> > arrive at Heathrow on a Sunday morning at @6:30 am and depart out of
> >> > Gatwick at @5:00pm. My plans were to take the Tube into London for
> >> > lunch and a little sightseeing, then take the train out to Gatwick.
> >> I suggest sorting out
> >> a ticket for journey to Gatwick when you arrive at Victoria in the
> >> morning.
>
> Wouldn't it be possible to buy both tickets at the Heathrow ticket office?
> I would also recommend the boundary zone 6 to Gatwick option using local
> services. In my experience the
> Gatwick express is only a couple of mins quicker than the local service
> but the cost
> saving would go a long way to buying lunch.
> --
> Fig



I don't know if Underground stations sell National Rail tickets any
more, or whether they could ever manage anything other than a single
from where you got on. Someone will know.

Gatwick Express trains leave Victoria at 00, 15, 30 and 45 past the
hour and take 30 minutes.

Other trains leave Victoria at 02, 17, 32 and 47 minutes past the hour
and take 38, 31, 37 and 31 minutes respectively.

On 2 Jul, 04:25, bc0...@ wrote:

> I realize that the Express runs between
> airports, but with so much time, I wanted to see London.

There is *no* "express" branded train that runs between Heathrow and
Gatwick airports (or any other pair of airports).

The Heathrow Express trains run between Heathrow Airport and the
London Paddington terminus. The Gatwick Express trains run between the
London Victoria terminus and Gatwick Airport.

Maybe you are thinking of the Heathrow-Gatwick bus service run by the
National Express bus company?

MIG wrote:

>> I suggest buying a zones 1-6 travelcard when you get to Heathrow. This
>> will give you unlimited travel on rail, tube and buses within central
>> London but won't get you to Gatwick. I think you'll need to purchase a
>> separate ticket for the Gatwick Express but maybe somebody else can
>> advise as to whether you can save some money by using the Travelcard
>> to the edge of your its validity and then buying another ticket to
>> cover the rest of your journey. To save hassle, I suggest sorting out
>> a ticket for journey to Gatwick when you arrive at Victoria in the
>> morning.
>
>
> Definitely. You can queue for half an hour or more for tickets at
> Victoria. To make best use of the travelcard, I think you'd have to
> get a single from boundary zone 6* to Gatwick, but then you'd have to
> travel on one of the many other trains from Victoria to Gatwick, not
> Gatwick Express.

There are two sets of fares for Boundary Zone 6 to Gatwick, one routed
Not Gatwick Express, the other routed Gatwick Express only. Back in
January, the Singles were £4.80 and £8.10 respectively.

And even if you do get the cheaper ticket, if you've only got one bag
it's no great hardship, given Southern services leave 2 minutes after
the Gatwick Express off-peak, and take between 32 and 36 minutes...All
of 2 to 6 minutes more than the express.

Cheers,

Barry

On Jul 2, 2:39 pm, asdf <inva...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:23:35 +0100, Martin Rich wrote:
> >>Gatwick Express trains leave Victoria at 00, 15, 30 and 45 past the
> >>hour and take 30 minutes.
>
> >On two separate occasions (once in April this year, once a few years
> >back) I've arrived at Victoria on a Sunday to find the Gatwick Express
> >only running every half hour.
>
> Not surprising, since that's the normal Sunday timetable. ;-)
>
> The Southern services still run every 15 minutes on Sundays though, so
> effectively provide a better service than the Express.

The Gatwick Express run every 15 minutes - unless there is Engineering
Works when they sometimes reduce to every 30 minutes and may take up
to 10-15 minutes longer too. Their website always has this on.
The Southern service on a Sunday stop at more stations, the 06 & 36
past from Victoria, Brighton Express stop at Gatwick on Sundays, but
does not when there is Engineering Work.