Help with travel to/ around London
XXJULESXX
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Hi
I'm looking for some help with public transport into and around London.
We are staying in Pagham 1st week in July and planning to make at least 2 trips into London by train.
We are 2A and 2C, (8 &15yrs), and have a F&F railcard.
We are thinking about parking at Bognor regis about 9:30 and getting train there into London and travelling back early evening.
On the Southern railway website we can get a Super Off Peak Day Travelcard for £39.30
Or a Off Peak Day Travelcard for £56.55.
The main difference I can see is that the more expensive one allows slightly earlier return travel to Bognor regis in the evening.
Is this a ticket that will change in price ie. should I buy it now incase it's more expensive closer to the time?
With it being an off peak travelcard, does this mean that even the tube and buses &DLR also cannot be used during certain times?
Is it between 16:29 and 19:02?
In which case would it be feesible to use an oyster card if we needed to travel during restricted times? Would we all need oyster cards or just 1?
Sorry for all the questions - We have never been to London before, the pubic transport seems like a complete minefield, compared to here in Scotland!
Any help/advice appreciated, thank you
I'm looking for some help with public transport into and around London.
We are staying in Pagham 1st week in July and planning to make at least 2 trips into London by train.
We are 2A and 2C, (8 &15yrs), and have a F&F railcard.
We are thinking about parking at Bognor regis about 9:30 and getting train there into London and travelling back early evening.
On the Southern railway website we can get a Super Off Peak Day Travelcard for £39.30
Or a Off Peak Day Travelcard for £56.55.
The main difference I can see is that the more expensive one allows slightly earlier return travel to Bognor regis in the evening.
Is this a ticket that will change in price ie. should I buy it now incase it's more expensive closer to the time?
With it being an off peak travelcard, does this mean that even the tube and buses &DLR also cannot be used during certain times?
Is it between 16:29 and 19:02?
In which case would it be feesible to use an oyster card if we needed to travel during restricted times? Would we all need oyster cards or just 1?
Sorry for all the questions - We have never been to London before, the pubic transport seems like a complete minefield, compared to here in Scotland!
Any help/advice appreciated, thank you
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I would politely ask you the following in case you haven't realised how long it takes to travel to London from Pagham.
Is this is your only chance to visit London from Scotland?
It is a wonderful city and well worth visiting but it is at least 2 hours each way from Pagham and then however long it takes to go by bus and tube around London. That is a large chunk of the two of your seven days in Pagham.
There is more than enough to do in and around Pagham in a week.
The area is full of wonderful coastal walks including Pagham Nature Reserve. Chichester and Arundel are well worth visiting. There is a Wetlands Centre at Arundel full of bird life. The South Downs are nearby. Portsmouth has the Historical Dockyard. Brighton is also well worth visiting.
If you can, do London on a separate trip and stay somewhere a lot closer than the south coast.
Enjoy your visit whatever you decide to do.
Elsest son is really keen to visit some stadiums while we are in the south this year so we plan to do a Wembley your on one of the trips into London, and youngest son is keen to go on London eye and madam Tussaud’s on another day.
We also have a night booked at LEGOLAND Windsor which oldest son plans to swap one day there for an emirates tour instead.
I personally wouldn't buy underground travel from the train line. You can buy oyster cards in advance of travel on the TFL website which is then delivered to your home address (£5 deposit), look for the tourist cards which you can give back and get your deposit and unused credit when you leave.
Your youngest can travel free on the tube (11 and under) and your eldest is eligible for a children's fare (16 and under). pay as you go is capped so you will not pay more than a daily travel card would cost, and potentially pay less than one.
I would recommend downloading the citymapper.com app for journey planning in London, it's much better than the TFL website and even tells you how much a journey will cost.
Hope you have a great time.
Qualification - I grew up in Chichester and have lived and worked in London for over 10 years
The £3 deposit required to purchase a Visitor's Oyster Card is not refundable.
I would suggest that the two adults use a Contactless Payment card, you will need one each, and the eldest child gets a paper one day Travelcard on arrival in London.
Your travel will cost no more this way and will avoid the hassle of pre-loading cash onto Oyster cards and then seeking a refund of any unused balance left on the cards.
The Southern route from Bognor to Victoria shows on their site as taking 1hr 35mins, and the Havant to Waterloo is approx 1hr 20mins.
Are those times fairly reliable?
I'm finding the National rail website really confusing though with all the different ticket types & prices! It'd be ok if we were booking specific train, but I think we'd be better suited to travelling on any train, and off peak.
Super off peak day return is £56.25 And a Super off peak travel card is £67.10. Would that travelcard be more cost effective than using the day return, plus 2x contactless, plus one child travel card?
The Super Off-Peak Day Travel Card is a good deal. You catch the 9.29 from Bognor. Returning you can't come back in the rush hour, the earliest after the peak is the 19.36 from Victoria. Before the peak the latest is the 16.06. You might want to wait until the 19.36 to save about £20!
The time restrictions only apply to the train journey between London & Bognor. The Travel Card part of it is not affected. You can go anywhere in Zones 1-6 all day.
Suggestions to purchase weird combinations of paper tickets, Oyster cards for children, contactless for adults only make things complicated. With Travelcards in hand you can go anywhere you like all day on bus, tube, train or tram.
The Travelcard prices do not change, You might as well buy them at Bognor station on the day of travel, however the price being offered by the Southern web site seems to have a discount applied, perhaps for buying on-line from them. The published price for 2A, 2C with F&F Railcard for Super Off-Peak Travel Card is £42. Likewise the published price for the Off-Peak Travel Card is £61.40.
I hope this is helpful.
Many thanks for that, you make the travel card certainly sound a bit easier and less fuss.