kt74

Apologies if posted somewhere before and thanks to a colleague for flagging to me, but if any of you have availed yourself of the excellent £150 club fares from LGW over Christmas, best start thinking about how you will get to the airport...

There will be no trains anywhere in the vicinity of LGW from Xmas Eve till 4 January. See here and here

This is really very inconvenient, and there doesn't seem to be any sympathy or alternative plans put in place by Gatwick (their Twitter reply to me was "Take a look at our website for travel options"...). No idea how I will get there from Central London, and I foresee chaos on the "90 minute journey" from Victoria via East Grinstead (oh the glamour)

Just guessing, but this is, I presume, a busy time of year for flying, and a couple of replacement buses from East Grinstead simply ain't going to cut it... And to think, they want us to give them another runway #LGWObviouslyNot

OverTheHorizon

Not glamorous but bearable: National Express operate the A3 coach service from Victoria to Gatwick.

Takes about 90 minutes I think, but once you're on it, you're on it...

csutter

Just saw it this morning on HfP, and of course I availed myself of the £150 CE fares to get home for Christmas. Great.

Although - as much as I hate that airport - I don't agree LGW are to blame for the poor replacement options laid on by Thameslink.

chistery

HEX is closed too 25-28th Dec as well, with changes on other days

https://www.heathrowexpress.com/time.../service-plans

Richmond_Surrey

Well, I'd better book parking before everyone else decides to do this ... I didn't plan to use train anyway but parking might go up in price.

bibbju

Good tip, thanks for this. Just booked my Pod parking as a result.

Basi1

Direct(ish) trains are running to Gatwick over Christmas but they are going via Epsom and Horsham every 30 minutes. They do still take 90 minutes but it is an alternative to the rail replacement bus.

Have to get to and from Gatwick between Xmas and New Year but haven't decided which way I will go.

Last time this happened the bus option wasn't too bad.

daftboy

SIGH

kt74

True, but you'd think that Govia Thameslink, which now has a monopoly on London-to-Gatwick services (GEx, Thameslink, Southern), would have consulted the airport, and that Gatwick would be offering advice to passengers. One in three people goes to Gatwick by train. Over the closure period, I make that about 250,000 passengers who will get a nasty surprise when they turn up at the station. There is no information about this on the LGW website whatsoever. Wonder how many missed flights there'll be as a result?

No, you're absolutely right. However, you can also get to Heathrow by tube, and a minicab from Central London will set you back less than half the price of Gatwick

francismc

Thanks for the 'heads-up' - travelling from London Bridge to Gatwick on the 2nd. That's going to be fun

luxurytravelled

Thankfully I get back on the 23rd from Venice, but at a time when a lot of people are travelling to/from the airport into London.... 250,000 = a lot of coaches!

kdhurst380

It's quite standard for most if not all of the rail network to shut down for at least the 25th & 26th and I think New Year's Day too. Nothing has been cancelled, more likely nothing was ever planned.

13901

I'll never understand how a city of 8.something million can turn into a village over Christmas and Boxing day. Not even Rome's beleaguered metro shuts down for the entire 25th, and you'd be excused that the festivity has a bigger impact over there than in London, wouldn't you?

London has one the most expensive and least reliable mass transit systems amongst what you'd call world cities. For instance, yesterday's Heathrow to Hammersmith took 55 minutes and 12 red signal stops, enough time for me to wonder where the hell the 24h Tube we were supposed to get in September had gone.

...aaaaaand relax.

cattp

You think the tube was bad in your case? All I had to do was land at Heathrow 7pm Thursday evening and get to my car at Stratford International via HS1 train & Piccadilly line. PL Tube broken down just as I got on the train at Heathrow so everyone forced onto HC to Paddington *So overcrowded* - It was an embarrassment for me as a citizen to see tourists treated in such bad train conditions. Journey took 40 minutes to Paddington. Then another 40 just to get to St Pancras and a quick 10 minutes out to Stratford. With transferring, the journey took over two hours for what should have been 50 min or less!

Options to get to Gatwick:
National Express Coaches
MegaBus Coaches
easyBus services
Tube to Croydon area or other services to Clapham & Taxi from there
Taxi

rcspeirs

"It's quite standard for most if not all of the rail network to shut down for at least the 25th & 26th and I think New Year's Day too. Nothing has been cancelled, more likely nothing was ever planned."
I think you've missed the point. The engineering works at Purley are from Dec 24 to start of play on 4 January, that's far longer than the standard Christmas shutdown.
There are through trains from Victoria to Gatwick during the works but they'll go a roundabout diversion route via Horsham and take 90 minutes.