Heathrow > Central London > Winnersh

[Bossworld]

Hi there,

Going on a work trip next month and still trying to figure out if there's a more cost effective way to do my journey.

Flying down to Heathrow on Sunday 23rd September, arriving middle of the afternoon so I'd like to spend a few hours in Central London (Zone 1) before heading onto my hotel at Winnersh Triangle.

I have to buy tickets using a corporate credit card, which unfortunately isn't contactless.

As far as I can see, I can get a tube single to Covent Garden for £6 from Heathrow at about 3pm.

There is a train journey (circa 1 hour) from Paddington to Winnersh Triangle, which calls at Slough and requires a change at Reading. Thinking around 7:30pm. Cost is £20.20 (which I'm sure has gone up by about £5 since I first looked)

The only alternative I can see, is to get a Zone 1-6 Travelcard for about £12, and try and get out to somewhere like Twickenham, from which I can get a convoluted train journey for about £11 on top.

Is there anything obvious I'm missing that would allow use of a zone 1-6 travelcard, and mean a short hop onwards at the edges of the 1-6 boundary?

Many thanks

 

[FenMan]

Hi there,

Going on a work trip next month and still trying to figure out if there's a more cost effective way to do my journey.

Flying down to Heathrow on Sunday 23rd September, arriving middle of the afternoon so I'd like to spend a few hours in Central London (Zone 1) before heading onto my hotel at Winnersh Triangle.

I have to buy tickets using a corporate credit card, which unfortunately isn't contactless.

As far as I can see, I can get a tube single to Covent Garden for £6 from Heathrow at about 3pm.

There is a train journey (circa 1 hour) from Paddington to Winnersh Triangle, which calls at Slough and requires a change at Reading. Thinking around 7:30pm. Cost is £20.20 (which I'm sure has gone up by about £5 since I first looked)

The only alternative I can see, is to get a Zone 1-6 Travelcard for about £12, and try and get out to somewhere like Twickenham, from which I can get a convoluted train journey for about £11 on top.

Is there anything obvious I'm missing that would allow use of a zone 1-6 travelcard, and mean a short hop onwards at the edges of the 1-6 boundary?

Many thanks

Buy a Winnersh Triangle to London Off Peak Day Z1-6 Travelcard online and collect the ticket before you start your travels:-
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=WTI&dest=PAD&grpd=0035&tkt=ODT

This is valid for travel from Heathrow to London on the Tube and Heathrow Connect and when leaving London is valid via Paddington/Reading or the slower route from Waterloo.

 

[mmh]

The easiest way to do this is probably to buy a zone 1-6 off-peak travelcard at Heathrow (12.70), and an off-peak day single from "Boundary Zone 6" to Winnersh Triangle at Paddington (14.00)

(There's also a slightly cheaper Winnersh Triangle to London Zones 1-6 travelcard available, for 25.00, but you'd need to have bought that before you arrive at Heathrow - I can't persuade the handful of booking websites I just tried to offer it either)

 

[swt_passenger]

Buy a Winnersh Triangle to London Off Peak Day Z1-6 Travelcard online and collect the ticket before you start your travels:-
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=WTI&dest=PAD&grpd=0035&tkt=ODT

This is valid for travel from Heathrow to London on the Tube and Heathrow Connect and when leaving London is valid via Paddington/Reading or the slower route from Waterloo.

Good plan, however it’s TfL Rail rather than Heathrow Connect, since May...

 

[FenMan]

Good plan, however it’s TfL Rail rather than Heathrow Connect, since May...

You are quite right!

 

[Bossworld]

Thank you everyone much appreciated. I couldn't find the other ticket on Thetrainline.com unless it's available elsewhere. If not I'll do the £12 + £14 option.

 

[Joe Paxton]

The easiest way to do this is probably to buy a zone 1-6 off-peak travelcard at Heathrow (12.70), and an off-peak day single from "Boundary Zone 6" to Winnersh Triangle at Paddington (14.00)

(There's also a slightly cheaper Winnersh Triangle to London Zones 1-6 travelcard available, for 25.00, but you'd need to have bought that before you arrive at Heathrow - I can't persuade the handful of booking websites I just tried to offer it either)

Thank you everyone much appreciated. I couldn't find the other ticket on Thetrainline.com unless it's available elsewhere. If not I'll do the £12 + £14 option.

Search for a return journey from Winnersh to London. The Trainline and most other booking sites will offer the Off-Peak Day Travelcard as one of the ticket choices.

Don't actually book using the Trainline, it has entirely avoidable fees. If you like the Trainline interface, use one of the TOC sites that use the Trainline back-end, e.g. Crosscountry, East Midlands Trains, Greater Anglia, ScotRail etc.

 

[CatfordCat]

A couple of things -

One of the options for a travelcard from Winnersh Triangle is only valid on the route via Staines and Twickenham towards Waterloo, and is not valid via Reading / Paddington. The "any permitted routes" one is valid via Paddington and Reading but costs 25.00 not 24.40.

If you want to come back via Paddington, make sure you get the right one.

Alternatively, if the bit of central London you want is closer to the south bank than Paddington (it's further away from much of central London than it looks), then there may not be a lot in it for time, as there's only a train every 30 minutes from Reading towards Winnersh Triangle, so the time you spend on the slowish train from Waterloo can be equalled by the time getting to Paddington and waiting at Reading.

Also, depending on what time you want to head to Berkshire, I've just tried asking National Rail Enquiries, and with the version via Paddington, it's saying it's not valid for travel on trains leaving Paddington in the afternoon peak on the 'off peak' travelcard. This restriction does not seem to apply if you come back via Waterloo.

Someone may be able to offer more advice on what the rules are about return travel via Paddington.

National Rail Enquiries is giving me the option to buy either version of the off peak travelcard - you need to start by asking for a journey from Winnersh Triangle (after about 9 am) to somewhere the other side of London (Catford works for this) Starting your journey at Heathrow on the underground (I'm not sure whether Heathrow Connect is part of travelcard these days - fairly sure Heathrow Express is not) is perfectly fine.

 

[yorkie]

A search on Trainsplit for a return journey from Winnersh Triangle to Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 comes up with a £25 Travelcard, which is the one valid via either route.

You can collect the tickets at Heathrow.

 

[mmh]

Someone may be able to offer more advice on what the rules are about return travel via Paddington.

Sadly, I can because I've been confused by this before. The travelcard has the same restriction code (C7 - http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/C7 ) as many fares from Paddington in the evening, it's not a restriction based on time, but individual trains, which effectively for the person asking what's best means they wouldn't be able to get a fast train to Reading before 1930. The off-peak BZ ticket only has morning restrictions.

In short, it's complete nonsense

I didn't think to try searching for a cross-London journey to within the travelcard zones, which was a bit stupid of me. The sites often plugged on here gave me dozens of London + options, none of which were what I wanted.

 

[A Challenge]

You could buy an inboundary travelcard (£12.70) and a single from Boundary Zone 6 to Winnersh, which is £10.70 (combined £23.40) routed VIA ASCOT or £14.50 (combined £27.20) VIA SLOUGH. This means that it is less to go via Staines and Ascot as that is £24.40 for the Off Peak travelcard, but isn't worth it against the Super Off Peak (both routed VIA STAINES), if you know you won't be leaving until at the earliest the 19:05 from London Waterloo. The same is true from Paddington (but with the routing ANY PERMITTED (£25) (the travelcard is only cheaper if you need the Off Peak (departing on any fast up to and including the 19:15)

All prices assume no Railcard, and I know this covers options already suggested.

 

[Bossworld]

Thanks everyone, I'll get the £25 travelcard (labelled as Winnersh > London 1-6) and pick up from Heathrow rail station, taking the tube from T5 into London. Think all your hard work proves that there's very little that can be done to bring the price down by anything more than a couple of quid.

Our work's travel tool seems to allow for this ticket to be booked (see previous poster's point about websites that use the Trainline's interface).

I'm travelling on the Sunday so don't think there's a peak period? Could well be wrong though.

 

[FenMan]

Thanks everyone, I'll get the £25 travelcard (labelled as Winnersh > London 1-6) and pick up from Heathrow rail station, taking the tube from T5 into London.

I'm travelling on the Sunday so don't think there's a peak period? Could well be wrong though.

There are no Sunday restrictions with the Off Peak Any Permitted i.e. the £25 ticket.
There are restrictions for the cheaper Weekend Super Off Peak Via Staines ticket.