LONDON TAXIS
 

Are London taxis difficult to get at rail stations to transfer to another rail station or a hotel? I think I have seen some talk on this fourm to that effect. I was wondering if the fairly recent restrictions on central London traffic had an effect. I want to use taxis to change rail stations when I have luggage because I can’t drag it around in the tubes like I used to.

Can only give my one recent experience. On a Friday in June we arrived at King's Cross about 1:00 PM. It took an hour in a long line to get a taxi. (The people behing us waited longer.) And it took more time than we expected to drive across town. The taxi driver said heavy traffic plus construction detours made it hard for taxi drivers to get to King's Cross.

It depends non the station and the time-but in general it's pretty easy.

The congestion charge (which I imagine is what you're referring to) has actually speeded traffic up - especially taxis.

Kings Cross has specific problems of its own, resulting in long queues. So does Paddington between 0800-1000 on weekdays. As in most large cities, getting taxis at some stations can take a lot longer than you'd expect sometimes. But there are always cabs around.

You'll find it more useful to ask a specific question about a particular station, time and day. Very likely, there'll be someone here who's discovered whether that's a problem time or place.

One plan would have us arriving at Kings Cross at about the time that Mimar had to wait so long. It would, however, be on a Wednesday or Thursday and we would be going to Waterloo. Thanks for your comments so far.

KX to Waterloo - take the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line

Ignore that, having a brainstorm

You're getting off a train, crossing town, and getting on another train - but you don't want to ride the train from one station to the other.

Okay...

harvey:

No-one in their right mind - if they were a bit un-nimble - would want to take luggage down the steps from KX railway station, then struggle to the Northern Line (City Branch).

Unfortunately, there's no direct bus. So you need to assume 20 mins journey time by cab, and allow up to 30 mins waiting in a queue. To be honest, I'd always allow 30 mins for a taxi from a mainline London station in working out what time I was going to arrive somewhere: it's astonishing how often (and how unpredictably) long queues seem to build up

The problem of floods of people arriving at KX and swamping taxi queues (and queues for tube tickets) seems to be a Friday and weekend problem. At any rate, I've not seen it on other weekdays.

To be fair, the OP can't manhandle luggage up and down stairs and corridors. There's no direct bus, so a taxi is the only option.

Thanks so much for the replies. I'd just like an alternative if the quay is really long. I can allow a couple of hours to get between stations. We can handle luggage on and off a bus. Last time I couldn't get a taxi because of rain I took a bus to Victoria Station and changed to one for Waterloo. This was from Kensington not from Kings Cross.

I'd much rather ride two buses than stand around for a half-hour waiting to get a taxi.

From stop R at KX, any of buses 10, 30, 73, 205, or 390 to Euston.

From Euston stop B, ride 59, 68, or 168 to Waterloo.

YMMV