Allez vite!

July 6, 2007 5:09 PM

What's the quickest way to get from London-Heathrow to either train station in Canterbury in time to see the end of the Tour de France stage on Sunday afternoon?

My husband has a last-minute business trip to London and as a cycling enthusiast he'd love to get a chance to see the Tour finish in Canterbury on Sunday. He gets into Heathrow at 10:30 on Sunday morning, and on public transit it seems that the quickest option is the train from LHR to Paddington Station (15 minutes), then the tube (30 minutes?) to Victoria for the 1.5 hour train ride to Canterbury. Luckily, the finish (projected for around 2:17) is very close to the Canterbury stations.

He figures he'll have to get on a train to Canterbury by noon for this to be worthwhile. Does this even seem possible? Would a cab ride to Victoria be quicker for that time of day on Sunday? He'd consider renting a car except that it seems like a bad idea to have to park a car near the finish of a major sports event.

Any advice is appreciated!

posted by handful of rain to travel & transportation (13 comments total)

Google Maps UK claims that you could drive it in an hour and a half (from Heathrow: M4 west, M25 counterclockwise, M26 east, A249 northeast, M2 east, arrive in Canterbury), but I assume that there'll be all manner of diversions and detours for the Tour route once he gets to Canterbury proper, which he'd do well to get in advance, along with a detailed map of Canterbury. It's only 90 miles.

Assuming he gets driving a rental by 11:30 (which is admittedly optimistic, but as it's a Sunday morning things might be slower at Heathrow), he'd theoretically be able to get there by 1, but assuming traffic and parking and stuff, perhaps he'd make it to where he wants to be on the route around 1:45 or 2.

You could easily drive 180 miles if the rental place gives you a full tank. Expedia.co.uk turned up some cars priced around £50 for the day, but they didn't have AC and were manual. He'd also have the car for the rest of a 24-hour period for that price, which might be nice if there's anything else he'd like to see in Kent, but if that's too slow, perhaps he could just return the car at Canterbury station and take the train back to London instead of trekking back to Heathrow.

NB: I am not British, and I've never been to Canterbury. Good luck!
posted by mdonley at 5:27 PM on July 6, 2007

And amazingly, all the diversion/parking info is on the BBC Sport website. Here you go.
posted by mdonley at 5:35 PM on July 6, 2007

Direct link to PDF of Canterbury with parking/bathrooms/viewing areas labeled here.
posted by mdonley at 5:36 PM on July 6, 2007

The London rail network works against him. Rent a car.

If money's not an issue, then the best non-rental option is to take a cab from Heathrow to Bromley South, and then train to Canterbury. But the cab fare's going to run to about £50, especially on a Sunday.

Just got my Grand Depart pin in the post today. Le sigh.
posted by holgate at 5:55 PM on July 6, 2007

I do this trip regularly, and know better than to rely on the train to get you anywhere in East Kent on time. Sigh.

It's a third rail system, and last time, the circuit breaker on the line tripped and they couldn't get buses very fast to cover the service disruption. I ended up paying £50 for a cab on top of my train fare.

The new trains run at about 110% of the nominal line rating, and the breakers trip often. You are then turfed onto buses, but you'll have to wait hours and hours.

Sundays are also absolutely the worst, since half the network is then up for repair. All the repairs are done Saturday and Sunday, and you'll only find out that there are no trains or huge reroutings or buses when you get to your London station.

In short, don't rely on the train unless you're leaving plenty of time.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 8:38 PM on July 6, 2007

Nthing all the above about the trains. Plus this is a period of heightnend security, lots of possible glitches. The road links are excellent for this trip, I'd drive it. Follow the links in the BBC site, park where all the other enthusiasts are parking and walk the rest of the way. Canterbury is flat and the weather here in the South East is good for a short walk. Hope he enjoys it.
posted by Wilder at 3:58 AM on July 7, 2007

Oh, I'm about 40 mins away. If he gets into any difficulty, e-mail's in the profile I'll send you my number
posted by Wilder at 3:59 AM on July 7, 2007

Thank you all SO much for the advice! He leaves San Francisco this afternoon, and I think he's really taking to heart the comments about the train and leaning toward renting a car or looking into a car service from the airport (got some quotes online last night) that can get him close enough to walk the rest of the way in. It'll depend a bit on what time he gets through customers.

At this point the expense of a car/car service is not a major object - the chance to see the Tour in person is just too good to pass up. I think he's a bit more worried about being horribly jetlagged and having to drag himself back to London :)

Thank you again!
posted by handful of rain at 9:42 AM on July 7, 2007

I'm a massive fan of driving everywhere, rather than use our country's hideous public transport, but I'm going to dissent and say that driving into Canterbury itself on the day is going to be absolute madness. I'd advise driving to a railway station NEAR Canterbury and then getting the train. It'll save a lot of heartache for getting within viewing distance of the finish.

Faversham might be the best bet. Quick to get to and it's not on the TdF route at all, yet it's the closest major town to Canterbury to the west. He'd be in Canterbury watching the finish rather than driving around in a giant jam looking for parking in an olde English towne that way :)
posted by wackybrit at 11:52 AM on July 7, 2007

I just looked at the timetables and there are two trains an hour tomorrow between Faversham and Canterbury. The journey takes 12 minutes.

That 12 minutes could be sucked up in looking for parking in busy Canterbury, whereas Faversham should be a lot quieter to park in (from my memories of the place, most likely totally dead on a Sunday).
posted by wackybrit at 11:54 AM on July 7, 2007

Thanks again for all the feedback...I wanted to post the (disappointing) update: his plane was late leaving San Francisco, so it looks like he won't have enough time to make the trip regardless the method of transport. :(
posted by handful of rain at 10:39 PM on July 7, 2007

Nooooo! What a shame. Any chance he can scoot over to France for a day at the end of the trip?
posted by mdonley at 12:51 AM on July 8, 2007

Ha - he wishes! Actually, that's sort of his pipe dream...if things go well enough with this customer that he's done a few days early, he'll just hop on over. I told him to dream on if he thinks he's going to France on a holiday without me!!
posted by handful of rain at 9:53 AM on July 8, 2007