National Rail CBG to Waterloo, get off at King's cross or not?
 

Hello, I am planning to take the National rail from Cambridge into London Waterloo where we will catch the Eurostar for Paris. I was wondering if it would be faster to get off at King's Cross and take a taxi to Waterloo or just take the rail all the way with the train switch at King's Cross? The train is 53 minutes from KC to Waterloo. Which would be the shortest route?

Also if we took the rail the whole way that would leave us 45 minutes to board the Eurostar, is that enough time?

A sincere thanks to those that have helped me so far, the input has really allowed us to get good travel plans in order.

Hi T,

>that would leave us 45 minutes to board the Eurostar, is that enough time?

If you are on time, just barely.

((I))

There's no "train switch" at Kings Cross.

You have to get a tube, changing either at Bank to the Waterloo and City line or at Leicester Sq to the Northern Line. Which is a real pain wth luggage.

I can't understand how you're getting 53 mins, though: from the platform at KX to the Eurostar checkin by tube will take half an hour max.

If it's in the near future, I'd take the tube personally: cab queues at KX, though unpredictable, can be very bad sometimes.

If the ThamesLink or whatever they call it these days is now operating out of Kings Cross mainline station as it is due to soon i believe then you could transfer to a train to London Bridge and transfer there to a train to Waterloo-East, an appendage of Waterloo station.

If after Nov Eurostar trains will start serving kings X only and it would be a snap.

45 mins is the minimum boarding time i think now so just take an earlier trains from Cambridge as you seriously risk missing the Eurostar as UK trains are often late.

OK, now I see where you're getting the 53 mins from. The National Rail site.

It's talking through its rear end. Whoever's programmed it probably lives in Bangalore - but even that's unlikely since everyone in Bangalore must know you can walk from KX to Waterloo in a lot less than 53 minutes.

Ignore it, and vow never to trust anything National Rail says about transport it's not responsible for.

The TFL site (they run the tube) says 15 mins. Well, yes if you ignore the time getting from the train platform to the tube platform and the same at the other end.

In other words, trust me. 30 mins, KX platform to check in. And only you know when you've got to check in by, because you've got your ticket and we haven't

Again why not take an earlier train from Cambridge and put all angst to rest? Assuming you are not leaving on the very first train at 5:45 - trains run very frequently after that. so why cut your connection time so short - absudly short IMO

Just a sanity check. I presume you will be travelling before 14 Nov, because afterwards, you just walk across from King's X to St Pancras.

From King's Cross, you take Victoria Line one stop to Euston, then change to Northern Line, or alternatively take Victoria Line to Oxford Circus and change to Bakerloo Line. It shouldn't take more than 30minutes, including connections.

You'll need to "check-in" at Waterloo Int'l 30 minutes before Eurostar train leaves.

HOW ABOUT BUSES BETWEEN THE TWO? I prefer over descending into labyrinth Underground with bags.

sometimes fairly fast since it's not that far between the two

I wouldn't do it.

No direct bus, traffic and bus schedule are too unreliable. Would probably take double the time.

Hello again, thanks travelers for the great help. Yes, we'll be departing from Cambridge on August 28th. Looks as though we'll just have to depart earlier. Prior to this we will be visiting the Imperial War Museum in Duxford and it doesn't open until 10am. I might try to see if we can switch the Museum visit to the day before so we get more time there. It's the main attraction m spouse wanted to see. We booked a 16:14 (4:12) Eurostar departure because we didn't want to arrive in Paris too late as the gentleman letting us in to our apartment is seeing us after his work day between 8-9pm.

Ps, thanks Flanneruk for the info regarding travel times King's Cross to Waterloo, I thought that was a bit long too.