karanmehta

Hi friends. We (myself and wife) will be arriving at Heathrow T-2 by an 11:30 AM Air India flight on 9th June (Friday). Our plan is to take a tube from there to King's Cross and take a train to Edinburgh (we already checked flying option from LHR to EDI but nothing is suitable with the kind of luggage that we will be carrying so train is the best option for us).

We are wondering how much time do we budget for reaching till King's Cross including immigration, luggage pickup and the tube ride. Assuming about 2 hours for immigration and luggage pickup, then getting to the tube and reaching King's Cross, is 4 hours a good enough time to reach the station?

We want to be extra conservative and keep maybe an hour extra that what is normally required. We have not planned anything in Edinburgh that night so reaching there a little late is also ok.

There are trains from King's Cross at 3:30, 4, 4:30 and 5 and we would like to purchase the cheaper advance fare so have to decide the train time now itself. Which train do you suggest we take out of the above options?

P.S. We would like to take a few minutes to pay a visit to platform 9 3/4 as well while we are at King's Cross so kindly factor in that time too.

thursdaysd

The tube will take a bit over an hour. No one can predict whether your flight will arrive on time, or how long it will take to clear passport control.

What is the luggage issue? Trains will not be easy if you have a lot of luggage. King's Cross and Waverley have luggage trolleys, but you still have to get the bags on board and find space for them.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/KGX/details.html

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/EDB/details.html

dotheboyshall

4 hours is the minimum I would give it, preferably longer

For future reference, assuming you are starting in Delhi the easiest way to Edinburgh would have been KLM via Amsterdam, Finnair via Helsinki, Lufthansa via Munich, all of each have easy connections

You could have booked Air India to Edinburgh via Heathrow as one ticket

janisj

>>(we already checked flying option from LHR to EDI but nothing is suitable with the kind of luggage that we will be carrying so train is the best option for us).<<

I cannot imagine where too much luggage would be easier via train than flying. Even if you have to pay for oversized/overweight.

Just <i>how much</i> luggage are you schelpping?

thursdaysd

janisj - Indian train stations come well equipped with porters (arguably over-equipped, lol), and people often travel with a lot of luggage. I'm not sure the OP realized that the situation is different in Europe.

Southam

Here's another voice stressing that the space for luggage on British rail cars can be pretty limited and the days of squads of porters or even checked bags belong to the age of steam. Considering the amount of time, energy and money you will spend on the Tube and train, flying into Scotland as part of your international ticket bears reconsideration. Don't be enslaved by your baggage.

karanmehta

Thanks for all the valuable suggestions.

I realised that taking the 3:30 PM and 4:30 PM trains would not make sense as they are 20 minutes slower than the other ones so effectively will reach only 10 minutes earlier than the 4 PM and 5 PM trains. I think 4 PM should be easily manageable but I'm still leaning a bit towards 5 PM time to make reasonable certain that we get there well on time and get sufficient time for lunch and platform 9 3/4 as well. What do you feel would be the right option for us?

What I mean by not suitable luggage is that the total weight of check-in luggage will in all likelihood be more than what is allowed on flights and hence extra charges would be applicable. Flight is anyway turning out to be more expensive than train (roughly 160 pounds for two tickets with total 40kg baggage allowance vs 110 pounds for train) and taking additional luggage allowance will push it close to 200 pounds. We would much prefer to utilise that part of our total budget over something else!

We have traveled with the same amount of luggage through bus / metro services earlier also (through most of Europe) and are comfortable carrying it and boarding with it. And hopefully the tube would not be extremely full considering that we will be going well past the morning rush hours. Also we love traveling by trains and relaxing while watching the beautiful scenery around so would definitely enjoy the experience more than taking another flight.

Maybe we can finalise regarding taking the tube or a taxi from Heathrow once we are packed up and exactly know how much luggage is there - essentially it will be two medium sized bags and one smaller bag along with a couple of backpacks so easily manageable by two young adults..

crellston

Avoid the 5 pm train at all costs (4.30pm is not a lot better) ! This is THE busiest time of the week on the tube and the trains out of London. I commuted from KingsX and/or Euston for many, many years and would always avoid the period from 16.30 - 18.30 at all costs. Trains will be absolutely packed, especially on a Friday. The chances of you sitting in sight of your luggage (to be recommended) are remote at that time of day. Reserved seats tend to mean little on rush hour trains.

£200 is well worth it on a Friday!

karanmehta

@crellston:

Our tube ride will surely be much earlier. As we are scheduled to land at 11:30 AM I'm hoping to reach King's Cross latest by 4 PM or probably earlier than that. The extra time we want to keep is to grab a bite there and some photo ops near platform 9 3/4.

On the long distance trains, can there be more people than there are seats for? I understand that trains would be running full capacity but are there people actually standing who did not get a seat reservation?

And what do you mean by, "Reserved seats tend to mean little on rush hour trains."? If we have a numbered seat reserved for us then we definitely get to sit there right? Or is there something that I am missing here?

We can take a 4 or 4:30 train also but that may be cutting it close.

janisj

The tube will not be crowded when you board at LHR. But by the time you get into central London it will be crowded, and by the time you get to KingsX it will be VERY crowded.

crellston

On a Friday afternoon the tube will rapidly fill up en route to central London. At Heathrow I make a point of standing at the end of the platform and get in the last or first carriage as these are usually a lot less busy than those in the centre of the train. As you will have lots of luggage, sit near the door so as to keep your luggage close and to aid your escape at KingsX.

Seat reservations on packed trains are often ignored by some at the end of a busy week. Sometimes it can be "difficult" to persuade someone sitting in your reserved seat to move if they can see they are going to have to stand (and yes there will likely be people standing, at least for the first part of the journey). You may need to be quite insistent or engage the help of staff (if you can find any) to get them to move.

Having commuted in an out of London for many years, including arriving into Heathrow and onward travel elsewhere in the country, on a Friday if it were me, I would seriously consider biting the bullet and paying the extra to fly.

Getting a 4.00pm train would make a big difference but then you have the stress of your flight arriving late, delays in immigration etc. and possibly missing that train.

karanmehta

Thanks for the updates.

I am not very worried about the tube ride. It will anyways be at an earlier time (hoping to reach King’s Cross by 3 or 3:30) and we will take the advice to sit/stand close to the doors for ease of getting down.

What I am more worried about is the train ride to Edinburgh. Taking 4 PM train will be risky and we would like to stick with 5 PM only. Do we get a chance to choose our exact seats while booking the tickets? In that case we can take a seat close to the end of the coach where our luggage would be stored.

Also if we get to the platform in advance and try to get in the train as soon as it arrives on the platform, would it still be difficult to get luggage space and our ‘prebooked‘ seats? I think if we manage to place our luggage right and get to sit on our seats close to the luggage racks then the journey should be easily manageable. So my key question is whether we get to choose our seats at the time of booking or are they randomly allocated?

I checked for airfares also and realised that most cheaper airlines (except Flybe) do not fly out of Heathrow. The only doable option I found is a 6:20 PM Flybe flight which reaches EDI at 8 PM and costs around 193 pounds including extra luggage. And we will end up reaching our hotel room at around the same time as we reach by train (costing 110 pounds), and that too after spending an annoying 7 hours on the airport (Don’t think we can go out of the airport as our luggage will not be checked through as our base BOM-LHR-BOM tickets are already booked. Even if we use left luggage at the airport we may not have enough time to do anything productive like a trip to Windsor Castle or such).

thursdaysd

Why don't you save on stress and just spend the first afternoon and night at Windsor? Then you can join the line for platform whatever at Kings Cross without worrying about missing your train.

Or, take the sleeper - no stress about missing it, no stress about your seats, no stress abour luggage, which will share your compartment.

http://seat61.com/CaledonianSleepers.htm

crellston

Excellent idea above. Another would be to get the tube into Kings X, stay overnight in one of the many hotels in the area - Tune, Ibis and Travelodge are usually great value. Get the train next morning when they will be a lot quieter and cheaper. A quick look on trainline revealed standard fares of £40 and first class of £58.

karanmehta

Spending the night is not an option as we have to meet a friend in Edinburgh next day morning. Not too keen on the sleeper train either as we would like to have a nice bed to sleep on in order to get rid of all the tiredness on previous day.

I feel that it should be manageable in the 5 PM train as long as we are ready to board on the platform as soon as the train arrives and reserve a seat facing the luggage racks (correct me if I am wrong).

One question - does it help to reserve the seat in a 'quiet' coach? As in, are there normally less people traveling in that coach, especially the ones who don't have a seat reservation or are standing?

thursdaysd

I haven't taken the Caledonian (on my list), but the pictures on seat61 look quite good. I would expect to sleep, there are very few stops.

I would not expect the quiet car on the 5:00 train to necessarily be quiet. I was in the "quiet" car on a train the Friday of a Bank Holiday weekend last year, and the system had booked a family with small kids in there as the train was full.

Ask yourself how you would feel if you had to stand part of the way?

I did a dummy booking, and it appears that you cannot request a specific seat - forward/backwards, window/aisle, individual/table, quiet car or not. I am not at all sure that the forward/backward request necessarily works.

karanmehta

I did a dummy booking as well on nationalrail.co.uk and it was allowing me to choose the exact coach and seat and the location on luggage racks were clearly marked. Also, there are plenty of seats available at present on the 5 PM train from where we get an eye on the luggage racks.

"Ask yourself how you would feel if you had to stand part of the way?" - we would not be OK with it and whether it can happen or not is precisely what I am trying to figure out.

From your experience, do many people already turn up at the platform before the train arrives and there is a mad rush to get in as soon as the train comes in? Or if we are the ones waiting on the platform before the train comes then we can be one of the first ones in and get the luggage space as well as safely secure our reserved seats?

thursdaysd

""Ask yourself how you would feel if you had to stand part of the way?" - we would not be OK with it and whether it can happen or not is precisely what I am trying to figure out."

I thought that crellston had already answered that.

historytraveler

karanmehta, in answer to your last question

<< do many people already turn up at the platform before the train arrives and there is a mad rush to get in as soon as the train comes in? >>

The short answer is yes.

karanmehta

Yes but I figure that if we are quick to get in when the train arrives then hopefully this should not be an issue? Even if someone is sitting on our seats we can request them to take another empty seat and let us sit on our reserved seats.

I also read about a there being a checked baggage service on some of the busy routes where we can put our larger bags into the guards van at the end of the train and collect them from the platform on arrival. That should be really helpful in case we are unable to find luggage space in our coach. Any idea if there is any pre-booking required for availing this service and are there any extra charges for it?