From Heathrow to Euston in January?

katejo

mikeysee wrote: »

Hey,

Im returning from a long 9-month trip on January th 14th and so decided to book my trains now to get a cheap rate. Unfortunately however there appears to be works on the line between Heathrow and London in January so you have to take the Heathrow express which costs £80 for a 20 min journey which is just insane.

Does anyone have any other solutions to my problem getting from Heathrow Terminal 5 at 3pm to Euston on January the 14th 2014?

Cheers,
Mike

Personally I wouldn't bother with the expense of the Heathrow Express unless I were arriving back late or had to get to Euston within a restricted time period. i would take the Piccadilly line to Green Park, and change onto the Victoria Line. As the others have said, be careful about booking a train from Euston for a specific time. There is no flexibility. The advance saver tickets can only be used on that particular train. If your flight were delayed, you would have to buy an entirely new ticket.

mikeysee

Thanks everyone for your help. I hvae now booked an advance ticket from Euston to Stafford at 7pm for £16.50 then im going to buy an underground or express ticket on the day from heathrow.

7pm should give me plenty of time to work my way over and allow for any delays with the flight, if not its only £16.50 lost.

Cheers again for your help everyone!

yorkie2

mikeysee wrote: »

...so you have to take the Heathrow express which costs £80 for a 20 min journey which is just insane. ...

I agree that the journey on Heathrow Express is only 20 minutes But the cost is only £20, but I still think that is too big a premium to pay for a faster journey (unless your time is worth a lot to you and the journey is time critical). But it's not a 20 minute journey to Euston, and by the time you have got to Euston, the time saving compared to taking the Piccadilly & Victoria Line tubes, is really not worth it for most people.

mikeysee wrote: »

I checked National Rail Enquiries AND ticketline.co.uk for my date and time and get the total journey cost at £94.50 at the cheapest:

National Rail doesn't actually sell the tickets. I've never heard of nor used ticketline.co.uk so can't comment on that site.

There is a website which reveals all the fares (without having to look up times), though I am not allowed to link to it, but I have discovered the £94.50 fare is the cost of a through Advance ticket from Heathrow T5 to Stafford, routed Virgin & Connections. My guess is that the cheaper quota of tickets are barred from the Heathrow Express for some reason, so it is cheaper to use a combination of tickets (also known as "split ticketing")

mikeysee wrote: »

I did another search from Euston to Stafford and I get one at £16.50:

This is a Virgin Trains only Advance from London Terminals. If you start your journey on LU, on a separate LU ticket, you are not officially covered in the event of delay on LU. An inclusive ticket, which would have covered you in the event of delay on LU, would have cost £21.50 from 'Zone U1256 London"

mikeysee wrote: »

So I assumed that that the Heathrow to Euston journey is costing me £80 roughly.

It's not as simple as that, as I think you now know!

mikeysee wrote: »

But looking again now separately it appears that the Heathrow -> Euston costs £24 ().

That's based on the Heathrow Express fare, plus a single cash Zone 1 fare on LU, which is a very expensive way to do it.

katejo wrote: »

The advance saver tickets can only be used on that particular train..

The tickets formerly known as 'Saver Single' or 'Saver Return', now known as 'Off Peak Single' and 'Off Peak Return' (still retaining ticket codes SVS and SVR, and still commonly known as 'Saver tickets') are walk-up tickets, valid on any train within the validity period, except trains barred by the restriction code.

I agree that Advance tickets can only be used on the booked train (except under certain circumstances).

mikeysee wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your help. I hvae now booked an advance ticket from Euston to Stafford at 7pm for £16.50 then im going to buy an underground or express ticket on the day from heathrow.

7pm should give me plenty of time to work my way over and allow for any delays with the flight, if not its only £16.50 lost.

Cheers again for your help everyone!

If you are likely to visit London again, you may be better off obtaining an Oyster card, and using Oyster PAYG, as this enables you to travel at cheaper rates in London, compared to a paper ticket.

If you miss the 1907 Virgin Trains service, a new ticket will cost £57.40 for an Off Peak Single (SVS), or £58.40 for an Off Peak Return (SVR), the return portion being valid for a calendar month (useful if you do a trip to London in that period).

Alternatively, for a much cheaper fare of £22.90 for a Super Off Peak Single (OPS), or £23.00 for a Super Off Peak Return (OPR), you can take the 2013 London Midland service, though this does take longer, the reduced fare reflects this.