I will be in Cambridge for a seminar in late July. The flights home from Gatwick all seem to leave at 10.30 am. Would I be able to make it, or do I need to spend the night in London before the flight? Thanks!

I always sleep the the night before a flight home in the departure city. I like to have at least two ways to get to the airport.

To depend on British railroads to deliver you on schedule is to live in a fool's paradise.

Stay out in the west end so you have a choice of Tube or bus, with taxi as backup.

I routinely depend on the railway system in Britain to get me to places on time. It's a great deal more reliable than the alternatives (average on-time performance for flights into Heathrow, for example, is almost 10 points worse even than Virgin Cross-Country).

The trick, if punctuality really matters, is to seek well-informed local advice (not the untravelled morons who, in Britain, love to tell you that trains are hopeless - which is why they never use them) about individual line reliability. And then get at least one train earlier than you need to.

The 0545 from Cambridge gets you to Finsbury Park tube at 0627, in plenty of time to catch the 0715 from Victoria, getting into LGW at 0745. There are several different trains going south at roughly the same time, getting you to LGW around 0800.

If that's OK as a checkin time, I'd stay in Cambridge overnight. Why give up the joy of that last stroll along the Cam? And England's ancient university cities are at their absolute best shortly after dawn in midsummer.

I was returning to London from Bath last summer (must have been about June 30) when my train slowed to a stop about 50 miles short of Waterloo. There was a fire adjacent to the Southwest tracks further down, and no traffic moved for four hours. The network wasn't back to normal for days. If I had been on my way to Heathrow, it would have cost me $2500.

I agree that one should "...get at least one train earlier than you need to." Two trains is better. A day in hand is best.

I would spend the night at a hotel near Gatwick. Have been to London many times before. If I had not, I would spend the night in London and stay near the train station (Victoria I think) where you can get the train direct to Gatwick. OF course, I dislike getting up early in the AM.

ok, i know this is tempting fate in the extreme. but actually the london - cambridge route is pretty reliable in my experience. i studied in cambridge for 4 years (recently) and i never had any real problems. 5 or 10 minutes here and there, but nothing serious.

Just do a horseback risk/benefit analysis, and let that be your guide.

Upside benefit: sunrise on the Cam (which you can see the day before). You will have a "last stroll" no matter when you leave.

Downside risk: having to pay through the nose for missing a flight. If you can't pay, don't play.

getting a 5.45 train, you'd be lucky to see sunrise over the cam, even in july. the train station is inexplicably far from the town centre...

We ran into this situation last May going to Cambridge from Vic Sta. The train stopped in a little town that I believe was called Royston due to work on the tracks or some problem. Buses were there to shuttle everyone to Cambridge--but not enough buses--so we had a wait of 45 min. at least. Not that we were in a huge hurry but it added quite a long time to what should have been a short trip.

yep, it is called royston.

it's worth checking the day before that there aren't works on the track or anything just to be on the safe side.