higgy

my sister in law is flying into stansted from dublin with 2 young girls to take part in an irish dancing tournament in great yarmouth.
it does not look the easiest of places to get to from stansted.
does anyone know the best way to get there with 2 children. is it best to go into victoria or is there a way to avoid doubling back on ones self
many thanks
dave

PatrickLondon

If you were going into London, it would be to Liverpool St rather than Victoria.

www.nationalrail.co.uk and www.thetrainline.com both suggest trains changing at Colchester and Norwich, taking about three hours in all.

Going into Liverpool St and out again wouldn't be any quicker, since you'd end up taking the train out to Norwich and changing there.

Coaches are even worse, since www.nationalexpress.com only offers a change in London, taking five hours.

PatrickLondon

The airport's own information is:
http://www.baa.com/images/stansted/s...o_and_from.pdf

ben_haines_london

The reference library of a city near you, and the travel centre at Dublin Connolly, may have the Thomas Cook European Timetable. Tables 205 and 202 have their trains. A typical connection on a weekday takes a bit under three hours: Stansted 0920, Ely 1019, change, Ely 1027, Norwich 1119, change, Norwich 1135, Great Yarmouth 1204, and all these trains run hourly. At Stansted they wheel their luggage trolley by lift down to the station. If they take their train from Stansted before 0920 then they must pay separate fares, by buying saver return tickets at a total cost of 50 pounds 60 pence, and they can buy quickly from a machine. If they leave Stansted at 0920 or later they should join the queue for tickets, and buy a family railcard for 20 pounds. Then their saver return, as a cardholder, costs 26 pounds 30 pence. What is more, the card lasts a year, so if they decide to pop over to Norwich for a day they cut their rail fare by a third. The card applies to one or two adults, accompanied by one to four children aged 5 to 15. They can buy a saver return and use it just one way if they so choose. On the train from Stansted, when the ticket inspector comes your sister in law should ask where in Ely station to find their train to Norwich. Ely is a small station, easy to navigate with children and luggage. They should look for seats well forward in the train from Ely to Norwich. Then at Norwich one of them takes a pound coin and looks on the platform for a luggage trolley, which they all use to pile on their bags and walk them to the local train to Great Yarmouth. This change at Norwich involves no stairs, and the rail staff are helpful, through their Norfolk burrs.

I do not think Victoria comes into it: you may be thinking of Gatwick. I suppose they could go Stansted, Liverpool Street, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, but agree with you that there would be no point.

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flanneruk

Depending on the time of day, the near-painless way (though still long)is to get the 727 bus to Norwich, then the 490 to Yarmouth.

The National Express site is not reliable for this kind of journey, as it lists pretty much only buses it operates itself.

The way to find these things is on www.transportdirect.info Use the "Quick planner", trying both the coach and train options: it's a government-run site and some other ways of using it will drive you potty with the number of questions it asks.