The fast and/or the easy.

September 11, 2009 12:22 AM

TransitFilter: Lewes, UK (by Brighton) to Heathrow Terminal 5. Arrival 6pm tonight (Friday). Options?

NationalRail's website says take the train to Victoria Station, then tubes to Paddington, then the Heathrow Express, total 2hrs ~20minutes. The other half hates taking luggage on the tubes, especially during rush hour. Taxi from Victoria to Paddington sounds stupid at that hour.

Options available include car. Question is, what's the perfect balance between comfort/ease and travel time? Occurs to me that it might be best to go some place like Woking, for example, then catch the bus (40 minutes from there to Heathrow).

Concern is that traffic will be heavy and slow, maybe worse than usual, as the weekend is looking pleasant. Sadly, National Rail doesn't seem to have a map showing intersecting lines, so figuring out clever combinations seems impossible without the knowledge of what goes where. Car all the way is possible. Thanks!

posted by Goofyy to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

National Express bus to Heathrow T5 from Brighton. It's under 2 hours nonstop (though a few services go via Gatwick, with a 20-30 minute stop), with hourly departures through the afternoon. You'd save on parking and petrol. £32.80 open return.
posted by mdonley at 12:36 AM on September 11

It might be a bit long and a bit expensive but dead easy / relaxed would be

Drive to Southampton

Southampton to Reading on the Train

Railair (http://www.railair.com) straight to terminal 5
posted by rus at 12:40 AM on September 11

Get a lift (or the train) to Gatwick, and then get the Gatwick to Heathrow transfer bus (they say it takes ~75 mins). You can find more specific info on the National Express Airport service site.

The other option, obviously, is to drive but we all know how unpredictable the M25 and A/M23 can be :) There is this route that avoids the motorways, but takes ~2 hours whereas the route along the motorways takes only 1hr 20.

Enjoy your trip!
posted by mahke at 1:11 AM on September 11

National Express, in my experience, gets you there on time with the least hassles, for the best price, and I hate the bus.
posted by bystander at 3:51 AM on September 11

Many thanks for the link and name "National Express". What a shame the UK can't be like Switzerland, and publish all public transit particulars on one site. I guess they don't want people to use it badly enough, or something. I blame that Thatcher woman, with her privatization nonsense. Seriously, here in Switzerland, it is all in one place, and works like a charm. It is not all one company, either.

My other half is the one making the trip, and it's just him getting home from a training. Folks there have explained car is the fastest, so he's decided to accept their judgement. There are several folks traveling to the airport together anyway. Pity the flight wasn't from Gatwick.

rus: Your way would have been lovely, but much to long.

It's difficult to say whether this would have worked best going to Gatwick then bus, or Brighton, then the bus. Fortunately, it isn't a recurring trip. Now, a magical way to get from central Moscow to the airports, LOL! That is recurring, and that's next week's trip for himself.
posted by Goofyy at 4:22 AM on September 11

There is a site that tells you all the transport options, it's this one: http://www.transportdirect.info/
posted by Helga-woo at 4:37 AM on September 11

Just to add that I have taken that National Express bus from Brighton to Heathrow many, many times and found it to be reliable and easy.
posted by meerkatty at 6:17 AM on September 11

No doubt about the easy, especially if you are in Brighton. Helps too, if you know exactly where the bus stop is. We're terribly spoiled by the Swiss system. A map site shows all the train stations and bus/tram stops, which are clickable. A site from the national trains provides schedule details. (map.search.ch and sbb.ch respectively).

Helga: AWESOME LINK! Why, it's the missing link! :-))

They made it driving in 1:40. Pretty good, really.
posted by Goofyy at 12:57 PM on September 11