Gatwick Express or Southern Train
 

We'll be arriving in Gatwick and have two choices of trains into London Victoria: The Gatwick Express and a Southern train. We've taken the GE in the past and it was fast, easy and clean. The Southern, though, is about 7 pounds/person cheaper and only takes 4-8 more minutes. Is there any reason not to book the Southern??

Early morning on a weekday, the Southern train will likely be >standing room only< with commuters.

What about early on a Sat. morning and back again mid-day on Wed. for the Southern?

London commuter trains can always be mobbed, not just at rush hour. Seems it's not unlikely for trains to be cancelled or run very late, thus one train picks up slack for others. But normally should be tolerable, if, in my many rides on these commuter trains, dirty with old cans, newspapers and other detritus laying around. Hint - always test the seats you sit on on these trains - more than once i have slid down to the floor on a seat that wasn't attached. For 7 pounds i'd take the Southern. I think if you quote Time Out London's offer for 2 for 1 tickets on the Gatwick Express the cost may come down if two going - is in recent Time Out i read here in States - just said to mention at ticket window. Otherwise a novel option is to buy a London Travelcard for a day or a week at Gatwick and buy a ticket to East Croydon for a few pounds and then use the travelcard for unlimited London transit by trains, buses, tube the rest of the day or week. buy these in ticket machines at Gatwick.

The Sat a.m. should be fine. Wed. afternoon might be more of a problem, but probably not so crowded you'd have to stand. But at rush hours I would not take the Southern train - especially if I had any luggage.

W/ your schedule the crowds won't be that bad so if budget is important, take the Southern train.

Has anyone costed out PalQ's suggestion about East Croydon and a Travelcard?

East Croydon in in Zone 5. So you have to buy a Travelcard that's valid in zones 1-5. That's £36.30 a week for an adult. A zone 1 only Travelcard - which is all most visitors need - is £18.50. I can't see any way it makes sense to buy a Z1-5 card unless you're staying with friends in the outer suburbs.

The profusion of deals on the London transport system means there may be circumstances in which the East Croydon suggestion might work.

But what I think PalQ's actually suggesting is that you buy a ticket to East Croydon, but a Z1 travelcard. That would save money, and you'll probably get away with it.

But it's theft. You're travelling between East Croydon and Victoria without paying.

If you're caught you'll get fined. And those of us who subsidise you would just as soon you stayed at home and stole from your compatriots.

No what i was suggesting was that they buy a one-dau zone 1-5 travelcard - a week would be wasting money but a 1-5 zone car would porbably be about 6 quid and they could travel the rest of the day on it. Maybe it's still cheaper to buy a ticket to Victoria and then a one day 1-2 zone card but i think the difference is only a few pounds. I also do not condone cheating even if it's not coming out of my tax bill - actually with the UK's high VAT tax tourists do pay part of the bill.

So then if I am staying with a friend out by Gatwick airport would the best solution be to travel into london on the gatwick express, southern railway, or to do what some people suggested and buy a ticket from gatwick to East Croydon and then supplement it with a london travel card? How much would a ticket from Gatwick to EC cost?

mdeller: flanneruk gave you very sensible advice re this question on your original thread . . . . . .

For a day trip to London, you can buy a combined ticket which covers the journey to the outer boundary of London (zone 6) and a six-zone Travelcard. You can buy these tickets at any station in the south east of England. The ticket looks just like any other one-day Travelcard, but will give the starting station as Gatwick, Dover, Bournemouth, or wherever. The fare is a little higher than a day return to London, but has the big advantage of including trains, tubes and buses in London.

What if it won't be just one day trip, but several days trips? I think that we will probably be going from Gatwick to London 4 or 5 days during the week that I'm there.

It's best to ask at the station when you get there. You can get a weekly season ticket or a combined weekly season ticket/Travelcard. It might be cheaper to buy day tickets for four or five days, but the cheap day tickets cannot be bought until after the morning rush hour, so are of no use if you need to get into London earlier.

Buying them after morning rush hour would be fine. I thought to get some discounts thought you needed to buy tickets in advance. I know that for Southern Trains there is a Daysave pass that up to 4 people can use, and I think that there will be 3 of us. Should I look into some advance pass or wait until I am at the train station?

There is generally only a discount for advance purchase for longer journeys where the cheap tickets come with a seat reservation, but are only valid on the specified trains. For journeys in the south east of England, there is no advantage to buying tickets in advance: trains are frequent and seats are not reservable.
One exception is the Southern day pass which is, I think, £20 for four people, but that probably wouldn't be worth getting for three people going from Gatwick to London. It would certainly be worth considering if you wanted to spend a day visiting Hastings and Brighton, or Arundel and Portsmouth, but you have to buy it a week ahead, so could find that it's raining on your chosen day.

Thanks alot for taking time to help me out!

mdellar:

One option that might make sense for you is to buy (for about £20) a Network SouthEast Card. One card gives a 33% reduction on all offpeak and weekend fares for up to four adults (and up to 60% for kids) - and this includes 33% off the preposterous bargain all the train companies offer of adding an all day Z1-4 and 6 London Transport pass to your day return for about £2 extra.

You get your reduction from the time you buy the card, which is availablre from pretty much every railway station (incl Gatwick, but not I think Heathrow) within 100 miles of London

I think that I read somewhere that with the Network Card there was a £10 minimum fare for each adult traveling. Is this correct? In that case wouldn't it be cheaper to buy the Southern DaySaver pass, which is £20 for up to 4 adults all day?