If someone were to arrive at Gatwick around 7:30am off an international flight on a Thursday, how long might you expect it would take them to reach NW8 by hired car? Trying to decide if traffic at this time will make hiring a car for this journey too time consuming when compared to the Gatwick Express and tube route.

One or more train lines other than Gatwick Express (I don't know exactly which) serve King's Cross station. From there, a short Tube ride will get you to NW8. At maps.google.com, enter <B>london nw8 england</b> to see what stops are near your destination. Then enter that into the Journey Planner at www.tfl.gov.uk

A car would be a crazy idea -- ESPECIALLY in the morning. It would be expensive and take FOREVER.

Where do you want to get to? If it is near St John's Wood - then one way to get there is train to London Bridge and the Jubilee line to St John's Wood tube station.

Any journey from King's X would involve line changes.

But again -- where exactly are you traveling to . . . .

St. John's Wood, near the SJW tube. It's actually for my family who will be arriving at Gatwick staying with us here in SJW. They liked the car idea and I know a good company who can do it for less than £70, not that different than what the Gatwick Express and tube would cost for three people. So the main issue here is time. Just how long do you think this would take in a car that time of week/day?

As we explained, NOT the Gatwick Express -- very expensive and that would get them to Victoria. Well Victoria wouldn't be bad - it is just that they'd need to transfer at Green Park and if they have luggage, the fewer line changes the better IMO. But if they don't have massive luggage - then the cheaper Southern train to Victoria and tube would be OK. Though the train will be crowded.

I'd guess a car could take 2 hours. Gatwick is 30 miles south of London and there are no motorway connections and they wouldn't get in the car until probably 8:30 AM and the traffic would be REALLY bad -- unless you are talking a Sunday morning . . . .

Well, if cost is a major consideration, they can ride Southern Trains to London Bridge - up to four people for &pound;20 on a DaySave ticket. Another couple of quid to SJW, and you're done. I'd say that was significantly different from &pound;70, wouldn't you?

Only catch is that on weekdays the pass isn't valid before 10:00. But if your party is arriving from overseas, they'll probably use up a lot of time queueing for immigration/passport control, retrieving luggage, etc. Elapsed time LGW to SJW - I'd say about an hour.

http://southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=189

Going to Victoria makes no sense, whichever type of train they catch.
There are trains every 15 minutes from Gatwick to London Bridge which has a direct tube link to St John's Wood.
Single (one way) fare to London Bridge is £8.90 and the single tube fare is £4. However, if they're making any other tube or bus journeys that day, it would be worth buying a travelcard.
If they avoid the peak hours and leave Gatwick after 0930, a day travelcard is £11, covering the journey from Gatwick and all train, bus and tube travel in Greater London for the rest of the day.

Janisj, so what do you think the best route is? If not GE, then Southern Rail? Sounds like either way we're talking a change at Victoria and Green Park. I looked at the Southern Rail website and don't see trains going directly to London Bridge from Gatwick. London Bridge would be good as it's on the Jubilee line. I'm pretty sure they will be out of the airport ready to travel into London well before 10am, so then what would the Southern Rail cost be? A guidebook I have says around 11 quid a person to Victoria from Gatwick. No? If so that's really only 6 or 7 quid cheaper per person than the GE which is quicker and runs more frequently. Seems like the only real advantage of Southern Rail is saving a few pounds, but otherwise the connections are the same. And if it's also slower and runs less frequently than the GE, then perhaps it may not be much shorter than the car after all which has no hassle in connections. I'm leaning against booking them a car; two hours is insane, but still not sure what the easiest alternative is.

Forgetting money, the easiest way to do this is the First Capital Connect train to St Pancras, then a two-mile taxi.

POssibly slightly cheaper FCC to London Bridge, hten the Jubilee line tube to St John's Wood

I'd be amazed if a taxi could get to St John's Wood tube from Gatwick in 2 hrs at 0800 on a weekday morning. It takes close to that to drive the journey in reverse at 0400, arriving at LGW before rush hor really gets started.

PS:

Don't use a train operating company website to plan journeys in inner London: there are too many competing operators. Use nationalrail.com

From Gatwick, both Southern and Gatwick Express go to Victoria every 15 minutes. The Southern trains take an average of five minutes longer. First Capital Connect trains to London Bridge and St Pancras are also every 15 minutes.

Thanks for the replies and steering me away from a seriously bad decision! So for my family who have never flown into Gatwick or taken trains in Europe how can I best instruct them to find the tickets they need, get on the train, etc? The nationalrail site isn't working for me, not letting me search journey tickets or times. Can anyone here tell me about how long the FCC takes to London Bridge and how long the FCC takes to St. Pancras and how much each costs? Really appreciate the help!

Simply go back to the nationalrail site when it's not beseiged by Londoners checking if their train home's on time

1630-1800 British time - esp on Fridsays when they're joined by people going away for the weekend - is never a good time to ask the National Rail site questions. For you or for any of us.

And meanwhile you could always use bahn.de, which shows 30 min to London Bridge and about 45 min to St. Pancras.

Will check later, but in the mean time checked the FCC website and saw a whole lot of varying journey times to London Bridge, anything from 29 minutes to 53 minutes.

Why all this talk about nationalrail.com - the Journeyplanner on www.tfl.gov.uk handles trips from all the London airports with no problems

When I said 2 hours for the drive, it was just sort of a guess-timate (I actually figured more like 3 hours but thought that just sounded too long) In any case, driving across south London and then all the way up to SJW would take absolutely forever....

alanRow - true, but I suggested a specific train line for the cheap fare. My boys and I took the exact same route to Swiss Cottage in '07.

Thanks for the helpful advice. My family were able to take the FCC to London Bridge and then the Jubilee to SJW with no problems and were at our flat within two and a half hours after landing (even having arrived off an international flight)--not bad!

Just a note that my family has since taken a car from Gatwick on a Saturday morning up here to SJW and it took about one and a half hours. Worked well for us traveling with small children and on a Saturday morning, but under any other circumstances the FCC/tube would definitely be better.