PatrickLondon

You'd need to keep checking with Network Rail for timetable information and advance information on engineering works and how they might affect your chosen train:
www.nationalrail.co.uk

shellio

Thanks to everyone who has responded. You are a great resource.

Grindeldoo

And one final comment - to get the best priced tickets, order/pay for on line in advance (a couple of months), collect tickets from a machine at Bath station, which you can also do in advance!

annhig

Thanks for the link. The rail site doesn't go as far out as May 4, but looking at a Sunday in January shows a fast train at 8:56 that arrives at 11:47 with 15 minute connection at Reading. I will assume that May is similar. Looks easy enough. >>

this will work so long as there aren't the dreaded engineering works referred to above.

otherwise I would strongly suggest coming up the day before in order to avoid them. Easyjet, bless them, won't wait.

janisj

On a weekend I personally would not rely on a train that morning. I'd leave Bath in the evening and check into a LGW area hotel that night. You wouldn't lose any useable "Bath time" since you could leave after dinner.

easyJet has very strict check in rules and being in the queue isn't good enough, one must have boarding pass in hand by the cut off. I wouldn't mess with that - . . . I'd have a nice early-ish dinner in Bath and then head to LGW.

Gordon_R

>>easyJet has very strict check in rules and being in the queue isn't good enough, one must have boarding pass in hand by the cut off. <<

In practice - at least at LGW - they are usually more helpful than the official policy referred to by Janis. What happens is that an EasyJet guy with a clipboard and a walkie-talkie walks up and down the bag-drop queue and shouts out for passengers who are nearing the cut-off time to come to the front. This queue-jumping does irritate other passengers who have taken the trouble to turn up on time (especially Britons who are brought up to queue properly), but it does mean the chances of missing your flight <u>once you are in the queue</u> are very low.

Frances

The OP said she was flying BA

Gordon_R

Oops so they did.

MmePerdu

Although she/he hasn't asked, the luggage issue may be a greater potential problem than the trains. Too much stuff was the single greatest mistake of my early travels and as I get older (and maybe wiser, but maybe not) my luggage needs shrink even more. I think the greatest misery , barring incidents with poisonous biting creatures, is moving around burdened with the weight of it all. There's nothing worse than being late, for instance, and needing to hurry faster than one's burden will allow. It simply makes no sense.

Maybe this is one of those lessons that must be learned by everyone on their own as the ramifications aren't clear until experienced. In this day of travel wardrobes for every occasion & budget there's just no reason to take more than 1 bag's worth of clothes. 6 days or 6 months requires just about the same amount of stuff which will fit in 1 checked bag plus a tote of some kind for incidentals. Shellio, I encourage you to reconsider your needs in this regard.

shellio

Annhig, janisj, we are flying BA, not Easyjet, and will have checked in and printed boarding passes the night before.

Although the May 4 schedule is not yet available, I checked for the Sunday before Christmas as a possible heavy use day and there is a fast train Bath-Gatwick that leaves at 7:58 and arrives LGW at 10:48. Would you still suggest staying over near LGW the night before?

I seem not to be understanding the concept of 'engineering works'. Do you mean they simply stop the train for hours? Or do they not leave on time? Should we think of getting a bus or renting a car?

MmePerdu, thanks for your concern. Somehow I seem to have given the impression that I am taking enough bags to require a file of porters following me along the quai. That is not in fact the case. We take what we need.

Gordon_R

"Engineering works" means repairs to the track/signalling etc, that are normally scheduled for weekends/public holidays to minimise impact on commuters. The impact on those who have to travel while engineering works are in play varies, but will typically involve timetable changes, slower trains and very often a replacement bus service between some of the railway stations along the route.

janisj

>>I seem not to be understanding the concept of 'engineering works'. Do you mean they simply stop the train for hours? Or do they not leave on time?<<

What Gordon said - or the trains don't run at all and there is longer bus service.

annhig

a quote from the guardian letter's page on saturday, itself quoting the National Rail enquiries website
"First Capital connect are expecting to run a near-normal service. Passengers are advised not to travel".

That said, the train leaving at 7.48 should be early enough to allow for most contingencies, especially in May when leaves on the line and/or snow are fairly unlikely.

bonne chance, stoke!

shellio

Just an update for those of you who offered advice. Given the less than optimum transport choices, I've switched the order of our trip and will begin in Bath and end in Oxford, thus taking a short direct train trip from London to Bath and a direct bus from Oxford to Gatwick for the departure to Venice.

Thanks for your help, all.