AlwaysonBA663

National Express coaches now stop at Mereoak Park and Ride near to Junction 11 of the M4 due to the traffic caused by the newly opened IKEA at Calcot. This has been happening for a month or so. So no bus connections to Newbury or under anywhere else I think. Railair to Reading and then an onward train to Newbury would be your best bet.

Railair drivers are usually pretty good, and know all the traffic short cuts if there is bad traffic on the M4 (I've seen them on some very unlikely roads). An early bird return (booked more than 2 months out) is only £15 and is fully flexible though not refundable.

headingwest

Damn, that's a pain in the backside. I'll book the Railair coach and hope he'll be able to figure out which train to get on!

Thanks for the quick reply AlwaysonBA663, I had a feeling that they'd done away with that stop. Certainly not very practical now for passengers west of Reading.

Rami Tamimi

Personally I found it more convenient to go via Paddington when going LHR>Newbury. One can buy a LHR>Hayes&Harlington ticket and then a PAD>NBY retrurn (only GBP0,05 more expensive then a Single),which covers Hayes>Paddington sector.

headingwest

Yes, I would probably go that way too, but my father would get too confused. Best to stick to what he knows.

Rami Tamimi

So he normally goes via Reading station? RDG is harder to navigate then PAD ,especially with the platform numbering post renovations. Also those Newbury/Basingstoke platforms for the local/stopping trains are fairly far away from the entrance. This is only my opinion though.

jedikiah

Technically you should buy a NBY-PAD return instead as otherwise you are using (part of) the return portion before the outward which is not allowable strictly. Unlikely to be picked up but I have heard of people falling foul of this.

Rami Tamimi

Yeah,you are right.

In this scenario the inspector on Heathrow Connect would stamp/scribble on NBY-PAD "sector" (which covers Hayes-PAD,because one can brake the NBY-PAD journey in Hayes) and your PAD-NBY sector would be "clean".

By the way I was in T5 a few days ago and saw a ticket vending machine selling tickets to all National Rail destinations. I only recall seeing HEX/LU machines in the past. So this means one can now pick up tickets purchased online in LHR right?

jedikiah

Yes ticket machines have been at all terminals for a little while now:

Terminal 2 and 3: Opposite the Heathrow Express Ticket desk in the Central Terminal area - after you enter the station and before the lifts to platform level.

Terminal 4: on the Arrivals level opposite the Heathrow Express Ticket desk.

Terminal 5: to the left of the ticket desk on Arrivals level. Another at platform level opposite from the lift exit.

expatboy

The RDG-NBY trains go every half hour during the day - one an hour is a semi-fast to Bedwyn from PAD, the other is a stopping service that shuttles between RDG and NBY stopping at all stations. Takes about half an hour or so from Reading. The Bedwyn trains will usually be Platform 7B, departing around 48 mins past the hour, while the stoppers are from Platform 1 at 12 mins past the hour.

There are additional services to the West Country that will stop at NBY, but beware as the odd one stops at Reading with the next stop Taunton - so don't do what a colleague did and jump on a West Country-bound train at Paddington assuming it will stop at Newbury...!

Your Dad could get the RailAir to Reading and there will be people there to direct him. Otherwise it's a trip into Paddington and a change there. Or a Cab all the way. Cabco take bookings and I think a trip to/from LHR from Newbury will set you back around £90?

stut

Reading is a big station, but not overly complex. See here for an idea:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/statio...ationPlan.aspx

Newbury trains will go from one of the through platforms as they come from London (usually 7B as noted above). The A/B designators indicate which end of long platforms to use (A is east, B is west) as opposed to being distinct platform faces.

expatboy

In addition, in general there should be no need to use the lifts, as platforms 1-7 are all on the same level as the main station entrance, and there is step-free access from the Railair stop (albeit up a slope instead). The best entrance is the newer one to the left of The Three Guineas pub - closer to platforms 7B and 1.

Reading station really is much improved these days, and I was lucky enough to be living in Brisbane while they did the renovations, so was spared the inconvenience

Arctic Troll

Technically the "clean" Paddington-Newbury ticket is only valid if the Newbury-Paddington ticket is also "clean".

Scribbles on the Newbury-Paddington ticket invalidate both. It's common enough for people to be caught out this way.

Rami Tamimi

On a NBY-PAD RT,you are using the OUTbond NBY-PAD portion for the HEC. They will scribble on it and then it will be retained by the barrier at PAD,just like if you came from NBY. On the PAD-NBY train you just show the "inbound" portion,which is perfectly legal.