London to Oxford

[super_sprinter]

Hi all

My friend and I are going to Oxford. We're planning to leave on 17th March and come back on the 20th.

We'll be travelling separately from work and will meet up at Liverpool Street at approx 6pm on Friday night.

My friend has a Gold Card, so onward travel suggestions from London to Oxford are much appreciated. We shouldn't have too much luggage, but would like to reserve seats if possible. I believe that services from Marylebone and Paddington both take about an hour.

I usually go away during weekdays to avoid it being too busy. I imagine Friday night will be pretty busy, so any advice on the less-busy services would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Joe Paxton]

GWR trains out of Paddington on Fridays are busy, just how it is. However quite a few commuters will get off at Reading (and Slough if it calls there).

The Chiltern service is to Oxford is new so not familiar with the loadings, however I did read some suggestions that it's already a bit of a victim of its own success.

 

[route:oxford]

We'll be travelling separately from work and will meet up at Liverpool Street at approx 6pm on Friday night.

From Liverpool Street, take the Underground round to Baker Street, then walk to Stop P on Marylebone Road. The X90 runs every 15 minutes and by the time you get to Marylebone Road, the journey to Oxford will be around 60 minutes and will cost around £20 return.

 

[some bloke]

Depending on various things including whether you are happy taking longer and when you want to come back, you could book Megabus from Victoria return at £16.50 for both of you, or £4.50 if you left later.

 

[some bloke]

Megabus option:

https://uk.megabus.com/JourneyResul...inboundPcaCount=0&promotionCode=&withReturn=1

 

[W-on-Sea]

I'd be inclined to go via Marylebone.

For a couple of reasons: it's cheaper (you can use off-peak tickets on any train: from Paddington you are mostly restricted to slower trains until after 7pm).

And, in my experience (albeit leaving London between 5pm and 6.30pm, and on Wednesdays rather than Fridays), it's not so busy. The timetable on Chiltern Railways' website actually shows which of type of trains are used on which service - I think the first one after 6pm is a "silver" train - which is to say: very long and cosy. Not sure you'd be able to get from Liverpool Street to Marylebone quite for that, though.

I'd definitely advise against getting one of the coaches out of London on a Friday night - the A40 can be horrendous, particularly the stretch within Greater London. It's not unusual for it, when traffic is heavy, as it usually is at that time on a Friday evening, to take as much as an hour to get from Marble Arch to the outskirts of London.) If you really were looking to make a saving by using a coach, you could save time by getting the tube to Hillingdon, and picking up the coach there - but it's a bit of a hassle, not least as the coach stop is not so very close to the tube station. But really, with a gold card, the difference in cost is not enormous, anyway, so I'd take the train.

 

[super_sprinter]

GWR trains out of Paddington on Fridays are busy, just how it is. However quite a few commuters will get off at Reading (and Slough if it calls there).

The Chiltern service is to Oxford is new so not familiar with the loadings, however I did read some suggestions that it's already a bit of a victim of its own success.

Thanks. Yes, I did think that Paddington would be very busy on a Friday night. I've had a look at the GWR website and the tickets seem more expensive than the option via Marylebone.

From Liverpool Street, take the Underground round to Baker Street, then walk to Stop P on Marylebone Road. The X90 runs every 15 minutes and by the time you get to Marylebone Road, the journey to Oxford will be around 60 minutes and will cost around £20 return.

Is this bus journey quicker than walking and/or taking the Bakerloo line?

Megabus option:

https://uk.megabus.com/JourneyResul...inboundPcaCount=0&promotionCode=&withReturn=1

Thanks for this, I hadn't thought of this option.

I'd be inclined to go via Marylebone.

For a couple of reasons: it's cheaper (you can use off-peak tickets on any train: from Paddington you are mostly restricted to slower trains until after 7pm).

And, in my experience (albeit leaving London between 5pm and 6.30pm, and on Wednesdays rather than Fridays), it's not so busy. The timetable on Chiltern Railways' website actually shows which of type of trains are used on which service - I think the first one after 6pm is a "silver" train - which is to say: very long and cosy. Not sure you'd be able to get from Liverpool Street to Marylebone quite for that, though.

I'd definitely advise against getting one of the coaches out of London on a Friday night - the A40 can be horrendous, particularly the stretch within Greater London. It's not unusual for it, when traffic is heavy, as it usually is at that time on a Friday evening, to take as much as an hour to get from Marble Arch to the outskirts of London.) If you really were looking to make a saving by using a coach, you could save time by getting the tube to Hillingdon, and picking up the coach there - but it's a bit of a hassle, not least as the coach stop is not so very close to the tube station. But really, with a gold card, the difference in cost is not enormous, anyway, so I'd take the train.

Thanks. Chiltern does look like a good option with £18.60 each on the Gold Card and seats can be reserved.

 

[higthomas]

Is this bus journey quicker than walking and/or taking the Bakerloo line?

The X90 isn't a bus from Baker street to Marylebone, it goes from Baker street to Oxford every 15 minutes. An return fare would cost £20. There are also buses from Shepherds bush to Oxford for the same price. With a coach ticket you can get a free local bus journey in Oxford.

Which method you take depends where in Oxford you're going. Bearing in mind with the coaches you get a free bus journey in Oxford. I'd say if going to east Oxford (Headington, Cowley) I'd take the coach and change onto an appropriate local bus; North Oxford (Summertown, Kidlington), I'd take the train from Marylebone, get off at Oxford Parkway and get the bus; and if going to central or west Oxford take the train to Oxford main given what time you're leaving London.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Chiltern does look like a good option with £18.60 each on the Gold Card and seats can be reserved.

You can't reserve seats on Chiltern.

 

[Hadders]

As far as I know Chiltern don't do seat reservations. You'll probably end up with a 'counted place' reservation.

 

[super_sprinter]

The X90 isn't a bus from Baker street to Marylebone, it goes from Baker street to Oxford every 15 minutes. An return fare would cost £20. There are also buses from Shepherds bush to Oxford for the same price. With a coach ticket you can get a free local bus journey in Oxford.

Which method you take depends where in Oxford you're going. Bearing in mind with the coaches you get a free bus journey in Oxford. I'd say if going to east Oxford (Headington, Cowley) I'd take the coach and change onto an appropriate local bus; North Oxford (Summertown, Kidlington), I'd take the train from Marylebone, get off at Oxford Parkway and get the bus; and if going to central or west Oxford take the train to Oxford main given what time you're leaving London.

Ah, yes. My apologies; I misread the post. We haven't sorted out our accommodation as yet. I think we'd both prefer the train, but we can look into the bus options.

 

[super_sprinter]

You can't reserve seats on Chiltern.

As far as I know Chiltern don't do seat reservations. You'll probably end up with a 'counted place' reservation.

Thanks for this information. This 'Reservations Available' message pops up in the dialogue box on Chiltern's website (attached).

Does this mean it's a counted place reservation? What's the difference, please?

 

[causton]

Thanks for this information. This 'Reservations Available' message pops up in the dialogue box on Chiltern's website (attached).

Does this mean it's a counted place reservation? What's the difference, please?

Yes.

Reservations need to be there for Advance tickets to be sold. These can be either:
Counted place - you are booked to one train but can sit anywhere, commonly shown as coach ** and seat *** (or 00 and 000).
And standard reservations are... self-explanatory

 

[super_sprinter]

Yes.

Reservations need to be there for Advance tickets to be sold. These can be either:
Counted place - you are booked to one train but can sit anywhere, commonly shown as coach ** and seat *** (or 00 and 000).
And standard reservations are... self-explanatory

Thanks. So it's not as much of a guarantee of a seat as a standard reservation?

 

[causton]

Thanks. So it's not as much of a guarantee of a seat as a standard reservation?

It's not any guarantee. You may not get a seat at all! It just means you have to take that particular train.

 

[super_sprinter]

I see. Interesting. I'm glad I brought the reservations thing up. I've only had experience of using reservations on Virgin WC and EC with Advances. I wasn't aware of this type of reservation.

 

[Hadders]

I see. Interesting. I'm glad I brought the reservations thing up. I've only had experience of using reservations on Virgin WC and EC with Advances. I wasn't aware of this type of reservation.

It's a workaround so that TOCs that don't have reserved seating (e.g. Most regional and suburban operators) can offer Advance fares.

The train will then show that reservations are possible - not a problem for an Advance ticket but it does mean an erroneous reservation can be made by an unsuspecting passenger with a flexible ticket.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I'd just go for Chiltern from Marylebone. You could probably catch the 1850.

The Oxford express coach services are good, but they aren't immune to traffic, especially on a Friday evening.

 

[super_sprinter]

Thanks to all for the advice on this.

We went out from Marylebone on the 16:18 to Oxford. We were at MYB by about 4pm so had plenty of time to board and find a seat. I think it was a 168 on the way out – pretty comfortable and only a slight delay into OXF.

Travelled back to Paddington on a 180, which seemed like a much quicker journey, even though there was only 5 mins or so in it.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Good stuff.

Out of curiosity, how busy was the Friday train out of Marylebone? Obviously a 1618 departure is a bit before prime commuting time.

 

[super_sprinter]

Good stuff.

Out of curiosity, how busy was the Friday train out of Marylebone? Obviously a 1618 departure is a bit before prime commuting time.

It wasn't too bad. We ended up in the front carriage. Most people had seats and there were a few that decided to stand after boarding, even though there were still seats available. It wasn't packed or uncomfortable by any means.
I did think we would be travelling much closer to rush hour, but we were able to leave just that bit earlier, which worked out well.