Transfer: Southampton—London (incl. LHR/LGW) train, car, other?

[njkruzer]

6 minutes ago, Kari and David said:

Thanks for the great tips. I have opted to arrive the night prior and return the next morning to just  collect my mother from the departure hall with no luggage in tow. 

Sounds like a good plan. 

[fstuff1]

On 6/7/2023 at 2:08 AM, gerlox said:

We are docking in southampton in september and we will have our 18 month old and a lot of luggage and want to get to heathrow in the most painless way possible. Should we just get an uber/bolt?

Don't bring the kid :)

Edited June 8, 2023 by fstuff1

[XuGator]

This thread is a wealth of information but am having trouble sifting through all 28 pages. Is someone able to recommend a couple of car / taxi service that will pick us up at the Southampton cruise terminal, stop by stonehenge for a quick visit and then take us on to central london?

 

The only alternative we can think of is to uber from the cruise port to the stonehenge visitor center and then take the train back to London ourselves. I guess in this scenario we just need to figure out where to ditch our larger suitcase for an hour or 2 while we visit stonehenge. Im guessing its not possible to just wheel our luggage around the monument but we would be willing to do that also if it was allowed.

 

Any and all insight would be appreciated.

[gnome12]

20 minutes ago, XuGator said:

This thread is a wealth of information but am having trouble sifting through all 28 pages. Is someone able to recommend a couple of car / taxi service that will pick us up at the Southampton cruise terminal, stop by stonehenge for a quick visit and then take us on to central london?

 

The only alternative we can think of is to uber from the cruise port to the stonehenge visitor center and then take the train back to London ourselves. I guess in this scenario we just need to figure out where to ditch our larger suitcase for an hour or 2 while we visit stonehenge. Im guessing its not possible to just wheel our luggage around the monument but we would be willing to do that also if it was allowed.

 

Any and all insight would be appreciated.

Have you considered International Friends? They generally run trips on disembarkation that spend time at Stonehenge before continuing to London hotels. 

[XuGator]

4 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Have you considered International Friends? They generally run trips on disembarkation that spend time at Stonehenge before continuing to London hotels. 

It doesn’t look like they are available on July 22

[njkruzer]

4 hours ago, XuGator said:

This thread is a wealth of information but am having trouble sifting through all 28 pages. Is someone able to recommend a couple of car / taxi service that will pick us up at the Southampton cruise terminal, stop by stonehenge for a quick visit and then take us on to central london?

 

The only alternative we can think of is to uber from the cruise port to the stonehenge visitor center and then take the train back to London ourselves. I guess in this scenario we just need to figure out where to ditch our larger suitcase for an hour or 2 while we visit stonehenge. Im guessing its not possible to just wheel our luggage around the monument but we would be willing to do that also if it was allowed.

 

Any and all insight would be appreciated.

Does your cruise ship have a transfer excursion?  Sometimes they do.  Otherwise check with car services some of us have used.  We used Meadway.  Not sure if they would stop.  You have nothing to lose by asking. 

[scottbee]

I'm going to add something here, which a lot of visitors to the UK don't quite understand.   The British Rail system is actually multiple different companies, sharing (mostly) the same track. Think of it as different airlines at the same airport.

 

What that means is that the company that operates Southampton Central to London Waterloo (South Western), is a different company than operates Southampton Central to London Gatwick Airport (Southern), which is a different company than operates Southampton Central to Bristol (Great Western).

 

Now the really important part.  If you're buying tickets, you will almost always be able to get the cheapest tickets, without booking fees, on the RAIL OPERATORS website. 

Not 'National Rail' not "Railwhatever", but

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/

and

https://www.southernrailway.com/

 

 

 

 

[Globaliser]

22 minutes ago, scottbee said:

Now the really important part.  If you're buying tickets, you will almost always be able to get the cheapest tickets, without booking fees, on the RAIL OPERATORS website. 

Not 'National Rail' not "Railwhatever", but

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/

and

https://www.southernrailway.com/

 

How do you expect a visitor to work out which Train Operating Company operates on the route they need, especially when every TOC will sell tickets for every other TOC's services? Even Londoners often need to do some research if they want to find out whether their South London service is operated by South Western, Southern or Southeastern.

 

For everyone else: nationalrail.co.uk is a website that's jointly run by the TOCs (together with other parts of the railway system) - so it's official.

 

It's unusual for a TOC's lowest fare not to be visible on nationalrail.co.uk, or to be available only on the TOC's own website. This is why nationalrail.co.uk is always the best first place to start researching, not least because it will then tell you which TOC is operating on the route that you're looking at.

 

In any case, nationalrail.co.uk doesn't sell tickets, so when it sends you to the relevant TOC to buy tickets (as it's set up to do), you will then get a chance to see whether the TOC has any lower fares that it didn't display on nationalrail.co.uk.

 

But if you're going to do this, make sure that you go to nationalrail.co.uk, not anywhere else.

[John Bull]

4 hours ago, scottbee said:

 

Now the really important part.  If you're buying tickets, you will almost always be able to get the cheapest tickets, without booking fees, on the RAIL OPERATORS website. 

Not 'National Rail' not "Railwhatever", but

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/

and

https://www.southernrailway.com/

 

 

Hi, Scotbee,

 

You're wrong on this one

 

Fares (including deals) on https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/  , plus routes, times, platform numbers, intermediate stations, train changes etc ad infinitum, replicate those on the myriad of train operator sites. Ditto other information on things like station layouts, planned engineering works, etc.

And since visitors have no idea which train operator runs which routes, using the National Rail site is far far simpler.

 

The site to avoid is thetrainline, which does (often) cost more.

 

The only websites which potentially offer better prices are those like https://trainsplit.com/ which find routes where - because of illogical pricing by operators - money can be saved by buying separate tickets for different parts of a journey.

For instance for a random Southampton to Glasgow trip changing trains in London, buying separate tickets for the two different trains rather than a thru ticket will save about £13.

Even on some journeys on a single train it's actually cheaper to buy tickets to an intermediate station and separate tickets for the rest of the journey to your destination.

But it's complicated, for those who've not done it before it needs one of those split-ticketing sites, and it's only worth checking for long journeys.

(Split-ticketing between Southampton (or Dover) and central London doesn't save a penny - been checked many times 🙁)

 

JB 🙂

Edited June 9, 2023 by John Bull

[scottbee]

14 hours ago, John Bull said:

Fares (including deals) on https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/  , plus routes, times, platform numbers, intermediate stations, train changes etc ad infinitum, replicate those on the myriad of train operator sites. Ditto other information on things like station layouts, planned engineering works, etc.

And since visitors have no idea which train operator runs which routes, using the National Rail site is far far simpler.

 

The site to avoid is thetrainline, which does (often) cost more.

 

However, you can't actually buy tickets from "NationalRail.co.uk" but they at least redirect to the correct train operator.  My point was more aimed at a bunch of similar sounding sites, and "thetrainline" etc etc

However, there are still some advantages at starting at the train operators site, because often they have special fares - for example Southern had a family rate, and a traveling together rate (both on weekends only), which only showed if you started with a link from their website...

and yes, splitting tickets (like trainsplit) is very worthwhile when using multiple operators, and a great example is Southampton-London Paddington.(via Reading).

[SMF916]

On 6/3/2023 at 3:30 PM, gumshoe958 said:

Don’t panic!

 

Cruise port to rail station in a cab is only about 5-10 minutes. Southampton Central isn’t that big - only 4 platforms linked by a footbridge with elevators so from ship to platform should take no longer than half an hour.

 

Therefore a train at 9:30 should be just fine, given that most ships start disembarkation at around 7 and want the majority of passengers off by 9.
 

Advance tickets are indeed non-refundable and can’t be used on a later train if you miss yours. The 9:30 is currently £14.50 for an advance single but will go up. Otherwise it’s £52 for an anytime single which can be used on any train.

Hi, does anyone else encounter issues buying train tickets? I am having a hard time purchasing tickets on SWR site as it won't let me buy them without creating an account, and when I tried to create an account, it kept saying my address should be in UK. After 2 hours of trying on the website, and on my phone, and even downloaded their app, I'm still unable to create an account - I even faked my country by just put in UK to bypass the initial account creation stage, but then I still got rejected as my credit card billing address is an US address.  Help please? I'm so lost.  Thank you in advance.

[snowballs mom]

On 6/8/2023 at 4:01 PM, XuGator said:

This thread is a wealth of information but am having trouble sifting through all 28 pages. Is someone able to recommend a couple of car / taxi service that will pick us up at the Southampton cruise terminal, stop by stonehenge for a quick visit and then take us on to central london?

 

We did this last November using https://westquaycars.com/. We had two hours at Stonehenge and had them pre-purchase the entry tickets for us. I was happy with their service and plan to use them again next summer.

[Globaliser]

4 hours ago, scottbee said:

However, there are still some advantages at starting at the train operators site ...

 

There's still a chicken-and-egg situation here. How do you know which company is your train operator? The answer is to start at nationalrail.co.uk.

 

2 hours ago, SMF916 said:

I am having a hard time purchasing tickets on SWR site as it won't let me buy them without creating an account, and when I tried to create an account, it kept saying my address should be in UK.

 

Thinking off the top of my head, one possible workaround is to see whether any of the other train operating companies will allow you to create an account and buy a ticket. In most cases, the fare will be the same whichever train operating company you buy from - but it is worth checking this before you actually buy the ticket.

 

You can find a list of train operating companies here on the nationalrail.co.uk website.

[Cotswold Eagle]

On 6/9/2023 at 8:41 AM, scottbee said:

Not 'National Rail'

🤷‍♂️

7 hours ago, scottbee said:

However, you can't actually buy tickets from "NationalRail.co.uk" but they at least redirect to the correct train operator.  My point was more aimed at a bunch of similar sounding sites, and "thetrainline" etc etc

Actually, National Rail now gives you the choice of any of the TOCs (and authorised third party retailers), via a dropdown menu, so you can buy from your preferred one. There's no such thing as the "correct" one, although it defaults to the TOC for the service you are booking (assuming a single operator for your journey). 

 

6 hours ago, SMF916 said:

I am having a hard time purchasing tickets on SWR site as it won't let me buy them without creating an account, and when I tried to create an account, it kept saying my address should be in UK.

I have seen this sort of comment before about SWR - it is odd, as they have an international address finder on the registration page, which works really well for a dummy American address I tried, but then it is giving me the same error, requiring a UK address!

 

Globaliser has the answer - find a TOC that works for you and use that. If I remember correctly, people have had success with Great Western, a bit of searching might throw up a good strategy. This is also why Trainline is sometimes recommended - it has a reliable international interface, apparently, which may be worth their add-on fees to you. 

[helovestrains]

I am looking at travelling by train from Southampton to Glasgow on Saturday 02 September (tickets are unavailable as of yet).  I have been looking at the website thetrainline.com  Prices are quoted in Canadian dollars so I should be able to purchase through this site in Canadian dollars which I am thinking is a plus.  Is this site reliable?  Or should I use another site to purchase tickets when available.   Should I be looking at standard or first class tickets?  Any advice will be appreciated.  Thanks 

[John Bull]

1 minute ago, helovestrains said:

I am looking at travelling by train from Southampton to Glasgow on Saturday 02 September (tickets are unavailable as of yet).  I have been looking at the website thetrainline.com  Prices are quoted in Canadian dollars so I should be able to purchase through this site in Canadian dollars which I am thinking is a plus.  Is this site reliable?  Or should I use another site to purchase tickets when available.   Should I be looking at standard or first class tickets?  Any advice will be appreciated.  Thanks 

 

 

The National Rail or train operator's sites are the place to book (they quote identical fares)

Thetrainline is legit. but targets foreign visitors and usually charges a middle-man's fee.

And like with any organisation, you should always aim to be charged in local currency because your card supplier's currency conversion is always better - often massively better - than a merchant's.

 

You can check the fare for an earlier date, it is unlikely to change.

 

JB 🙂   

[helovestrains]

JB, thanks for your reply.  I hadn't considered the conversion rate.  

[scottbee]

18 hours ago, helovestrains said:

I am looking at travelling by train from Southampton to Glasgow on Saturday 02 September (tickets are unavailable as of yet).  I have been looking at the website thetrainline.com  Prices are quoted in Canadian dollars so I should be able to purchase through this site in Canadian dollars which I am thinking is a plus.  Is this site reliable?  Or should I use another site to purchase tickets when available.   Should I be looking at standard or first class tickets?  Any advice will be appreciated.  Thanks 

 

It's important to understand that the ticket would involve two or three different train operators.  Looking (for example) for Saturday Aug 5; National Rail (and Southwestern who are the primary operator at Southampton) don't even show a price right now.  For journeys that involve multiple train operators, I would recommend you do visit other sites, especially those that specialize in split ticketing (buying each operators ticket separately).

 

However, understand that Southampton->Glasgow is generally going to route you on
Southampton -> London Waterloo
London Euston -> Glasgow

and it will be up to you to get across London with your luggage.

For a journey like this, you might want to consider flying from SOU/Southampton (not London) airport, which is just a few miles from the cruise terminal

[Cotswold Eagle]

40 minutes ago, scottbee said:

Looking (for example) for Saturday Aug 5; National Rail (and Southwestern who are the primary operator at Southampton) don't even show a price right now.

That’s because the random date you have selected is likely to be affected by works on the West Coast Mainline, as the bulletin on National Rail clearly indicates. 

 

40 minutes ago, scottbee said:

However, understand that Southampton->Glasgow is generally going to route you on
Southampton -> London Waterloo
London Euston -> Glasgow

Well, that’s one of the routings, but a potentially better one (which clearly comes up as a one change option) is Southampton-Birmingham New Street-Glasgow. Unfortunately, this is the route affected by the works, which is also the reason it’s not showing for the date in September. 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Cotswold Eagle

[Cotswold Eagle]

36 minutes ago, scottbee said:

I would recommend you do visit other sites, especially those that specialize in split ticketing (buying each operators ticket separately).

The Trainline, which the poster said they were checking, does offer split ticketing. In any case, connections on different operators is not generally what is meant by split ticketing. 

[Cotswold Eagle]

19 hours ago, helovestrains said:

I am looking at travelling by train from Southampton to Glasgow on Saturday 02 September

You are just on the cusp of a final working timetable being published for that weekend, I think. Maybe give it a few days and check again. It may be that the best routing will be via London, in which case I would always check each leg myself - avoid any suggested routes that divert you via Reading to Paddington, I think, as that seems an unnecessary change. 

[irisbax3]

I have purchased a flexible roundtrip National Express bus tickets for LHR to Southampton on 6-21-23 and Southampton to LHR on  7-7-23. They sent me a notice that the 7-7-23 portion was changed from 10 am to 11:45 am. This time change does not work for us as it will get us to the airport too close to our 5 pm flight back to LAX.

Has anyone had experience in canceling only the return portion of the bus ticket?  I am so stressed over this. I'm not sure how to proceed. 

[gumshoe958]

10 minutes ago, irisbax3 said:

I have purchased a flexible roundtrip National Express bus tickets for LHR to Southampton on 6-21-23 and Southampton to LHR on  7-7-23. They sent me a notice that the 7-7-23 portion was changed from 10 am to 11:45 am. This time change does not work for us as it will get us to the airport too close to our 5 pm flight back to LAX.

Has anyone had experience in canceling only the return portion of the bus ticket?  I am so stressed over this. I'm not sure how to proceed. 

There is a 9:45am service which still has 2 seats available so you could call up and ask to be moved on to that one.

[irisbax3]

4 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

There is a 9:45am service which still has 2 seats available so you could call up and ask to be moved on to that one.

Thanks so much for your timely response. I'm trying to figure out how to call from Los Angeles. With the time difference, do you know if someone would answer the phone at this time?

[gumshoe958]

17 minutes ago, irisbax3 said:

Thanks so much for your timely response. I'm trying to figure out how to call from Los Angeles. With the time difference, do you know if someone would answer the phone at this time?

This number is allegedly open for 6 more minutes (8pm UK, midday PST):

 

+44 3717 81 81 81

 

Failing that it will reopen at 8am UK, midnight PST.