Getting to DrupalCon (East Croydon) from airports
There is a train station close to Fairfield Halls, called East Croydon. The Gatwick Airport is very close, two train stops with http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/ (towards London Bridge) or http://www.southernrailway.com/ (towards London Victoria).
Heathrow: http://www.metrobus.co.uk/timetable.php?route_id=97&type=week
Luton: again http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/ towards Brighton
London City: I think DLR to Shadwell, Overground to West Croydon and then the tram to East Croydon. There are other routes, see the planner below and also http://www.tfl.gov.uk/
Stansted: I have no idea, http://www.transportdirect.info/Web2/Home.aspx does not give me any good choices but then again this site didnt find the simple Heathrow connection either.
Comments (11)
To DrupalCon via Southampton
I'll come to DrupalCon by plain from France. I'll take the airport "Southampton".
Somebody has got experience to go from Southampton to East Croydon ?
Thank for your help .....
See you in London.
Paul
Avoid Central London!
[EDIT] I see there is already an official page with transport directions. I therefore will restrict my comments to responses to this discussion and some suggestions for improvements to the official page.[/EDIT]
To those commenters who suggest it is easier to go into central London, as a Londoner who has given directions to many visitors over the years, I must disagree. Clear instructions are all you need to help people get to Croydon, and from both Heathrow and Gatwick it really could not be simpler.
Whilst some people (including myself) love to explore a new city on arrival, many find it very very difficult to find their way around foreign and unfamiliar transport systems. In the interests of helping people get to the start of Drupalcon on time and in a good mood, let's provide transport information that is as close to foolproof as possible!
It is very bizarre to suggest going from GATWICK AIRPORT to East Croydon via Central London! Have you seen a map?!! All Southern and First Capital Connect trains from Gatwick towards London and St Albans stop at East Croydon.
LUTON AIRPORT has direct trains to East Croydon so again there is no point recommending that people do anything other than take the direct train towards Brighton and get out at East Croydon. Again, this is the fastest, cheapest and easiest option.
There is a frequent bus from Luton Airport to the railway station called Luton Airport Parkway. It looks like there are rail ticket machines at the airport that would let you buy a through ticket to include the bus link and the train.
The Anytime Return (round-trip) combined bus and rail ticket from Luton Airport to Croydon Stations is £31.50.
In the late evenings and at weekends there are no trains through London on this line. You would need to take the train from Luton into London St Pancras and from there take the London Underground Northern Line to London Bridge, and then a train to East Croydon. Your ticket will be valid for this whole journey, too.
The UK journey planner probably didn't recommend the X26 bus from HEATHROW AIRPORT to East Croydon because other journeys are faster. But the bus is very simple, comfortable and cheap (£2.20 cash fare, coins or small notes only*), albeit a 92 minute journey from Heathrow Central to East Croydon. (It goes around the southern suburbs of London so unfortunately you won't see any significant sights in that time.)
Compare this with either (a) train to Paddington, underground train (possibly including one change of line) to Victoria, train to East Croydon, or (b) underground train, change of underground train and then a train to East Croydon - and there's not going to be much of a time saving, a lot more walking, and a much greater ticket price, by going via Central London.
* If you plan to travel around London at all during your stay, then use an Oyster Pay-as-you-Go card instead of paying cash. You pay a £5 deposit (refundable at ticket offices at the end of your stay) and then you have to load credit onto it which you can then use to pay for all public transport services (bus, tram, train, underground, DLR) in London zones 1-6, usually for much less than the cash fare. There is also a daily cap on fares, after which any further journeys you make using the card will automatically be free. Apparently you can buy it online and have it sent to you in 58 countries worldwide, or you can buy it on arrival at Heathrow Airport's "Terminals 1, 2, 3" Underground station.NB The Oyster card cannot be used on train journeys to/from Stansted, Gatwick or Luton airports because these are outside the London fare zones. The Fairfield Halls is in London fare zone 5.
If you arrive at STANSTED AIRPORT there are a few options by train. Others are slightly faster (e.g. changing at Vauxhall/Clapham or Liverpool Street/Farringdon to save 10-15 mins) but the following is going to be the easiest to not get lost, minimise walking and it costs the same as the others:
Take a train from Stansted Airport (the railway station is underneath the arrivals terminal) towards London, change at Tottenham Hale onto London Underground's Victoria Line, travel southbound to Victoria station and from there go up to the National Rail station and take a fast train (from platforms 15-19) to East Croydon. This takes about 2 hours.
You can buy a ticket from the rail ticket machines at Stansted Airport to "Croydon Stations" (ticket machines at the station accept all major cards, and cash). The same ticket is valid on all three variants of the above route and includes the underground train transfer.
It's cheaper to buy a return ticket to cover your journey back to Stansted at the end of Drupalcon as well.
LONDON CITY is not particularly easy - but a slightly easier route than suggested here would be to take the DLR to Shadwell, then Overground to Norwood Junction and from there a train to East Croydon.(This avoids the train to tram interchange at West Croydon which is a very long and poorly signposted walk unless you can convince staff to let you out of the wheelchair exit).
Hope that helps.
I will not personally be needing any of these as my home town is a couple of miles away from the Fairfield Halls and I'll probably be cycling in from the guest bedroom at my parents' house! :)
Thanks a lot martin_q for the
Thanks a lot martin_q for the detailed information! I can now say it worked perfectly for both trips...
Take the train
All of the airports have train connections to the centre of London – Gatwick Express, Heathrow Express and Stanstead Express are the fastest, but are slightly more expensive than a normal train
Once in London, again the train is quickest – London Victoria or London Bridge to East Croydon is about 13 – 15 minutes. East Croydon is a 5 minute walk from FairField Halls.
The National Rail website is very helpful to plan journeys across the entire UK rail network: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk
We will be adding some travel information to the site very soon to help with this.
Please
note how carefully I researched connections from airport that do not require going through Central London nor a lot of transfers. While speed is great, getting lost in Central London while jetlagged is not so.
I understand your comment,
I understand your comment, but central London transport is actually really good. Its probably easier to go into central London because the connections (including the first boarding) will be more obvious. It will be near impossible to end up on the 'wrong' train to any of the major London terminals (Victoria for Gatwick, Paddington for Heathrow, Liverpool Street for Stansted) and from those you can make any necessary connections (at most 2) without ever leaving a station. Head for Victoria (which in both cases only involves getting the Circle line) and catch the first train to East Croydon.
In my experience trying to work my round the outside is harder.
Trains to East Croydon
It's worth knowing that East Croydon can be reached by more than one train. Check on the electronic signage board at the platform that East Croydon is one of the first stops to make sure that you arrive quickly. If you get onto a train where East Croydon is one of the last stops, it may take you more than an hour. By contrast, it's will probably take less than 15 minutes if you get onto a train where it's one of the first stops. It is worth waiting for a fast train.
National Express (the coach /
National Express (the coach / bus) goes lots of places from the airports too.
http://www.nationalexpress.com/coach/Airport/index.aspx
Stansted
I found this http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/ transit planner finally and it finds not-so-horrible connections. Also, if you want to avoid finding your way in Central London, an unusal solution would be to transfer to Luton http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/luton_stansted_transfer.htm and take the train from there.
central london
chx in my experience it is far easier to get lost outside of central london than in central london - it really is much much easier to move from the centre of the hub outwards rather than try to circumvent it.
Fine, except...
... there is a direct bus from Heathrow to East Croydon
... you would go past East Croydon when trying to get from Gatwick to Central London
... you would get to East Croydon by simply staying a little longer on the same train that took you from Luton into Central London
(see my main post)