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I'm having trouble figuring out how to get to Salisbury by train from London.

I want to go on a special access tour of Stonehendge on July 14th. The tour starts from Salisbury at 5PM and ends at 10PM.

The tour operator said to take the train from London waterloo to Salisbury.

Can anyone tell me how to figure out when the trains run? Can I get back to London after 10PM?

Thanks in advance

The trains between London Waterloo and Salisbury are provided by South West Trains. Their website is at www.southwesttrains.co.uk/.

The timetable for next July has not yet been announced. The last train to London on a weekday in the timetable which starts this coming December is at 2225. You will have to change trains at Basingstoke, and arrive at Waterloo at 0006.

It is unlikely that the trains next summer will be much different. The time table for July will be available from the end of April onwards. There is no need to book the train in advance, although getting your ticket a week or so in advance may make it cheaper.

Trains between London and Salisbury run twice an hour during the day, and hourly in the evening.

Hi there,

Go to www.nationalrail.com and plug in Waterloo as your departing station, and Salisbury as your destination and it will give you the schedules.

You can only book 90 days out...so to get an idea just choose the same day of the week sometime in the next 3 months. They may change the schedule for next summer but there are lots of departures to Salisbury a day.

I plugged in Tues 25 Nov and got departures leaving Waterloo every 30 mins...travel time is about 1.5 hours.

There is 1 train returning to Waterloo at 10:25pm, takes 1 hour 39 mins. Nothing after that.

Hope this helps!

www.nationalrail.co.uk for train schedules.

However, schedules are not available for next July.

I plugged in a random date in December, and right now, it looks like the last "reasonable" train from Salisbury to London Waterloo departs at 10:25pm, arrives just past midnight.

Wouldn't it be better if you stay overnight in Salisbury? It's a lovely town with plenty of other things to see, including the Salisbury Cathedral.

it is really difficult to do the inner access tours by public transport from London -- unless one stays over night in Salisbury.

If you take the morning inner access - you'd need to stay over the night prior. And if you take the evening inner access - you'd really need to stay that night.

The tours just don't mesh well w/ the train schedules. -- OR you could rent a car for the day.

I meant to add - if the tour drops you at the station around 10PM you certainly <i>could</i> make the 10:25 train. But if you miss that train you'd have to stay over anyway - and finding a room at 11PM would be a problem. So I'd either plan on sleeping over or rent a car.

Thank you everyone for your advice.

I feel much better.

I might rent a car. I have driven on the Amalfi Coast (can anything be more harrowing) but I'm not sure about driving on the wrong side of the road in the dark???

Thank you for the stay over night advice but my flight leaves from Heathrow the next morning at 10:30am.

Cheers,

Kellie

Then I would consider staying overnight in Salisbury - and renting a car w/ a drop off at LHR.

w/ a 10:30 flight you'll want to be at LHR by 8:00AM meaning leaving Salisbury by 5:30 or 6:00. It is less than 90 miles and at that time of the morning there will be little traffic.

OR - stay in Salisbury the night before and do the morning inner access. Then explore - maybe Avebury and Windsor, drive to LHR and stay the last night there.

Option two is a bit easier/less stressful since you won't be rushing to make the flight.

<i>but my flight leaves from Heathrow the next morning at 10:30am. </i>

Kellie - I did the Salisbury-Heathrow journey just back in May 2008, except that my flight was in the afternoon.

You can do this journey without backtracking to London. There's a rail-bus ticket you can buy from First GreatWestern. You take a train from Salisbury to Woking, then change for a coach from Woking to Heathrow (stops at T5, T4 and T123).

I plugged in a date for next week, and there's a train leaving Salisbury at 5:42am, arriving Heathrow at 8am.

There's an earlier train that leaves at 5:12am and gets into Heathrow at 7:30am.

This may be an option for you.