Luton Airport Parkway to Cardiff Central - 2 changes, same arrival/depart times

[whole diary]

[Ecosmith]

I recently booked a return from Luton Airport parkway to Cardiff Central using FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) online bokking system.

AFTER I had completed the transaction, I received an email with details of my trip.

2 changes, fair enough. LAP to St Pancras, then a tube to paddington, then my train to Cardiff.

The trouble is, the arrival time for my LAP-StPancras train is the exact same time as my tube departure to paddignton, which arrives there at the exact time my Cardiff train departs.

Any advice?

Eco

[bobm]

It's a quirk of the system.  It doesn't provide arrival and departure times for the Underground, although at first glance it appears to.  Providing you have 35-45 mins between your arrival at St Pancras and departure from Paddington you should be fine.  It should take 14 mins between the two - but that doesnt allow walking at each end or waiting for the Underground train.

[Ecosmith]

I arrive at St pancras at 17:52, and my Cardiff train departs Paddington at 18:45

So that seems to be ok then.

I'd call it something a little more harsh than a 'quirk', myself

Thanks for the reassurance. I was envisaging an argument with a conductor on a later Cardiff train.

Eco

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for raising an interesting point there, Ecosmith - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum! 

[JayMac]

And just to reassure you should you face delays.

If you hold a through ticket and your journey is delayed to St Pancras, or on the underground, such that you'd miss your onward booked connection, you will be entitled to take the next available service to Cardiff from Paddington

[Ecosmith]

Cheers for that tip.

Just to really ease my mind, if the arrival tim for the LAP to St Pancras is followed, will i be able to get from St Pancras to my train at Paddington in 53 minutes without sprinting?

Eco

[inspector_blakey]

Should be pretty straightforward. I've made it from PAddington to St Pancras Domestic in 20 min before with a friend who's somewhat older than me, had to buy a tube ticket, then left his staff pass behind at the booking office I did nearly kill him sprinting up the escalators from the Underground though...

[JayMac]

53 minutes is comfortably beyond the minimum allowed cross-London transfer time for St Pancras to Paddington which is 45 minutes.

Easily done by tube. Circle or Hammersmith & City Line, Kings Cross St Pancras - Paddington takes 10 minutes. 10 minutes each end to get to and from the tube is plenty.

[bobm]

you hold a through ticket and your journey is delayed to St Pancras, or on the underground, such that you'd miss your onward booked connection, you will be entitled to take the next available service to Cardiff from Paddington

That's a useful tip - didn't realise delays between mainline terminals was a valid reason.  Thanks

[paul7575]

I arrive at St pancras at 17:52, and my Cardiff train departs Paddington at 18:45
I'd call it something a little more harsh than a 'quirk', myself

I think 'tube' should be translated as a composite interchange time.  Should this be retitled? I don't think so.

If they really did have to show a realistic 'tube train travelling time' the listed interchanges would start getting too complex, as they'd have to deal with the complexities of walking/waiting times to get to the wide range of underground platforms, and at underground interchanges.  And of course the time spent walking around massive mainline concoursees becomes significant, so the time will include whatever the minimum interchange time is at two mainline stations as well anyway.  Your three leg journey would end up with five legs, a north south interchange between say Waterloo and Kings Cross could easily have 7 legs.

So far too much information for most people, so they just have a matrix of overall times for cross london transfers.  All the times are shown in the commercial information section of the National Rail timetable, page 44 of this:
 
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/eNRT/Dec11/Commercial_Information.pdf

Paul

[grahame]

Those of us "in the know" can just smile at the zero connection times given at London interchanges on and off the underground. But for people who aren't familiar with the system, it can be a very real worry. I've been asked about this by concerned newcomers to UK^▸ (United Kingdom) rail travel in the past.

Undergrounds run to a timetable, just like other trains do, and I would like to see real times and interchange points shown, possible with a footnote that "these trains are frequent and may catch one a few minutes earlier or later".  It would be especially useful at weekends, where there are engineering works on the underground;  the weekend before last, for example, I walked up to the H&C platforms at Paddington just to find that nothing was running beyond Edgware Road.  A long walk to and fro would have been saved had the train planner offered me a Paddington - Oxford Circus - King's Cross routing.

[eightf48544]

The TFL^▸ (Transport for London) website will give you actual tube times and bus/tram/DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) times.

Also remember you'll be dumped on Platform 16 at Padd From Circle or H&C unless you change at Edgware Road. So you need add in the walk but you should be able to catch your Cardiff train from the footbridge so needn't walk all the way to the main barriers unless you've time for a beer.

Don't forget if you've plenty of time and abus pass the 205 bus is quite an interesting FREE  way of travelling from Paddington to Marylebone, Euston Kings Cross/Pancras it's a bit far for Liverpool Street. But you don't get the alternative trains as per a through ticket, if you miss your chosen train.

[MarkyMarkD]

I don't know why TFL^▸ (Transport for London) don't offer the option of using through-London National Rail tickets by bus (other than on occasions that there are no tube trains).  Given that bus is cheaper and generally less crowded than train, I can't see what they would lose by allowing this?

[bobm]

Inability to read the coding on the tickets to prevent re-use might be the biggest issue.