My husband and I are having a day out in London on Friday. We are coming from the darkest depths of Somerset = £330 return. I was wondering whether it would be worth driving most of the way and getting a cheaper train ticket?
Reading return looks like it would be £100. (Still expensive).But how easy is it to get to and park at Reading Train Station for say 10am.?
Any other suggestions along A303 or M4 greatly received.
TIA
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I generally pre book parking near a tube station.
Parking in Ealing Broadway shopping centre is only £1 per hour and then you can jump on the tube into town. Not far off the M4.
Best Park and Rides are basically parking in a shopping centre.
E.g. Westfield shepherds Bush
Otherwise, Park and Ride Headington Oxford and take a coach right into London- v frequent service.
Otherwise, do a bit of research on free parking in London boroughs and where does not have residents’ permits – park on the street free and walk to the nearest tube station.
Google Streetview is your friend, but check there is no borough-wide controlled parking.
If you’re trying to leave before 9.30 Friday that’s considered peak time so costs a fortune
1. Have you tried South West line?. Andover or Basingstoke likely cheaper than Reading
2. Two together Railcard is £30, can often save more than the Railcard price and lasts a year
3. Car park at Richmond is easy to get to, at the end of the M3 and on the district line
Also dunno where in Somerset you are but shout out to Berry’s coaches. They cover quite a lot of Somerset now but no use if you’re North
Yes it’s called ‘the home counties’
Parking at Reading station is expensive – I worked near the station and ended up parking at Slough station and taking the train to Reading – still cheaper than parking at Reading and avoided the terrible Reading rush hour traffic.
Parking at Maidenhead or Slough station is a lot cheaper (less than £10 all day), and the train prices are also substantially cheaper – £14 return from Maidenhead after 9:30, or £11:50 from Slough. They’re both on the new Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) so there are plenty of trains, although they do stop at all stations. However, you can use the same tickets on the GWR express trains and if you can time it to catch one of them rather than an Elizabeth Line train then the seats are softer and it can take as little as 18 minutes from Maidenhead or 13 minutes from Slough.
Check the train (GWR?) website again, surely you can get lower than £165 return, if you are perhaps prepared to start out say at 10am.
It’s called Southampton airport parkway.
A cheap day return from Reading to London is about £22.
Do you have a two together rail card?
I’d perhaps look at a station on the Southampton to London line.
I know some places inside the m25 but if I mention them they may get popular and go resident only
Have you considered coach travel? Could park in somewhere like Taunton or Bridgwater and get the Berry’s Superfast?
Coming from Somerset you could use A303/M3 and use parking at Farnborough station then train to Waterloo. Don’t go into Reading, it’s very expensive to park there, instead park at Mereoak Park & Ride which is very cheap to park all day and close to J11 M4, get bus to Reading train station then train to Paddington. I’ve done both of those trips, Farnborough would be my first choice simply for ease of getting back on the road to Somerset.
It’s more accessible from the A3 than M3 but Surbiton is pretty good.
There’s a car park which isn’t stupidly expensive and there’s a fast train to Waterloo which gets you there in about 20 minutes.
Weekday parking in Shepherd’s Bush Westfield the most you’ll pay is £15 for 14-24 hours. It has both Central line and Overground stations so you’re very well connected to the rest of London, and tapping in/out with your bank card all day will be capped at a maximum rate. Doesn’t factor in your fuel to get to the shopping centre but it’s probably one of the cheapest options so close by!