UK Rail assistance please
 

I posted about this before however it was too early to purchase tickets. Now that we're withing 3 months and tickets are available, I would appreciate any assistance.

We are landing at Gatwick on Sept 12 (am) and traveling to Bath Spa. Our return trip from Bath to London is on Sept 27th (2 days in London then fly home). My question is this - what is the cheapest way to travel between Gatwick, Bath and London?

I was looking at return rail fares from London Paddington to Bath, which of course would require the Gatwick express to Victoria, then a tube ride to Paddington, then the train to Bath. However the cheapest fare I can find with FGW is 66 quid each. Is that a decent fare or are there cheaper, easier ways to go? I don't mind taking a bus but we were rather hoping to go rail.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome!
Thanks!
Melanie

I found that you can avoid the hassle of going into London (and taking luggage through the underground etc) if you get on the train right at Gatwick (I did this no more than a month and a half ago). You can change at Reading and then go on to Bath. I don't know the cost, but you can usally put in Gatwick to Bath via Reading and it will come up on the websites. There really is no need to go into London just to come back out! Hope this helps! :)

Jerilyn

Contact David Gunning at TrainsEurope. David is the manager and can certainly assist you. E-mail to [email protected] or call him in London at 01354 660222.

The cheapest way to do this, I think, is to buy a Superadvance return (round trip) ticket, Gatwick to Bath, via Reading, which should cost £24. On the return journey, get off the train in Reading, buy a cheap day single to London for £11.30. This way you avoid the horrible transfer through London on the outgoing journey and pay a reasonable £35.30.

Check this site: <http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/>, and look for something like "Plan my trip".
You can enter your travel info and it displays train times and costs, and links to the rail company you need.

It will also tell you what the advance purchase requirements are, and how much you can save. Only problem we had was finding a convenient place to pick up the advance tickets -- it's a kind of kiosk not in all stations. (We ended up collecting from the Travel Service office at Waterloo, but it took a phone call to arrange -- couldn't do it all online.) However, it was worth the effort: ticket price was less that half what a day-of-purchase ticket would have been.

Thank you so much for the assistance - I'm going to go through Reading with the single fare to London.

Thanks again!