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Heatwave: Travel on Thursday: Leeds to Gatwick

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JBuchananGB

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My daughter with her husband and child have tickets on 08:10 LNER Leeds to Stevenage then change to Thameslink depart 10.01 to arrive Gatwick 11.14.
Flight is at about 1 o'clock.
LNER have issued a "do not travel" advice.
What might be a sensible plan?
There is a scheduled connection by departing Leeds at 06:05, with change at Stevenage & City Thameslink, and another at 07:15 ditto.
Should she take one of those instead. Would the Advance ticket for the 08:10 be valid on those?
Or try going Wednesday and book a hotel at Gatwick?
 
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jfollows

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From https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/hot-weather-20260617/

Alterations, easements and advice:​

If you hold a ticket for travel on Tuesday 23 June, Wednesday 24 June or Thursday 25 June, you can use it instead to travel on Friday 26 June. This will be at no extra cost to you and you will not need to change your ticket.

You can also use your ticket to travel earlier in the day on 23, 24 and 25 June - we recommend doing so before 12:00 midday when the temperatures are likely to be slightly cooler. You'll need to keep within the restrictions of your ticket - for example, if you hold an off-peak ticket, please travel only on earlier off-peak trains. If you hold an advance ticket for a specific train operator, you can use this on earlier services with the same operator.

If you decide not to travel on 23, 24 or 25 June, you can claim a full refund with no admin fee charged. You can apply for a refund via the retailer you originally purchased your ticket from.
Click to expand...
Presumably you don’t mean travel today, you don’t actually say. Oh, from the title of the thread I see Thursday (25 June).
 
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ainsworth74

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LNERs current advice is:

Thursday 25 June (Forecast up to 37°C)
  • We strongly advise that you do not travel across the LNER route on this date.
  • Customers with tickets dated Thursday 25 June may use their ticket on LNER services from Tuesday 23 June up to and including Tuesday 30 June.
  • If you have connecting services with another operator, please check with them directly as to what their travel advice is.
  • LNER customers booked to travel on the 25 June – if you no longer wish to travel, you can claim a full refund from your point of purchase. More information is available here.
Click to expand...

The advice for GTR appears to currently be:

Easement and refund advice:

If you hold a ticket for travel on Tuesday 23 June, Wednesday 24 June or Thursday 25 June, you can use it instead to travel on Friday 26 June. This will be at no extra cost to you and you will not need to change your ticket.

You can also use your ticket to travel earlier in the day on 23, 24 and 25 June - we recommend doing so before 12:00 midday when the temperatures are likely to be slightly cooler. You'll need to keep within the restrictions of your ticket - for example, if you hold an off-peak ticket, please travel only on earlier off-peak trains. If you hold an advance ticket for a specific train operator, you can use this on earlier services with the same operator.

If you decide not to travel on 23, 24 or 25 June, you can claim a full refund with no admin fee charged. You can apply for a refund via the retailer you originally purchased your ticket from.
Click to expand...

Travelling on an earlier train would therefore seem to be acceptable as long as they follow the above. I don't think they'll need to book a hotel as they're travelling early enough in the day that it's unlikely that journeys will be heavily disrupted. But keep an eye on things as we don't know what the train plan might look like as things heat up and early morning services might be cancelled due to stock and crew disruption the day before.
 
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thejuggler

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Regardless of weather that timing looks very tight for a flight, less than 2 hours between arrival at Gatwick and flight departure.

The LNER advice is avoid travel if you are able. In this case where it is unavoidable I'd be on an esrlier train south.
 
Haywain

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Given the current conditions the timings are very high risk, with no room for delays built in. I would agree that travelling earlier is a good idea, although I think that travelling the previous evening would be the best option.
 
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ainsworth74

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thejuggler said:
Regardless of weather that timing looks very tight for a flight, less than 2 hours between arrival at Gatwick and flight departure.
Click to expand...
Oh yes I hadn't even clocked that. I wouldn't plan a flight at that distance with that sort of interchange time, I'm not 100% convinced my travel insurance would cover it in the event of a missed departure. Definitely get an earlier train or even stay the night before. I would for a 1300 flight even without possible weather disruption.
 
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Thank you for all your help. As LNER are saying tickets for 25th are valid on 24th I'll recommend they travel on the Wednesday afternoon and find somewhere to stay.
 
AlterEgo

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JBuchananGB said:
Thank you for all your help. As LNER are saying tickets for 25th are valid on 24th I'll recommend they travel on the Wednesday afternoon and find somewhere to stay.
Click to expand...
This would be my first instinct too. East Croydon sometimes has cheaper hotels than Gatwick, if you struggle.
 
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JBuchananGB

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I looked again, and the flight is at 13.50. I planned it for an 11.14 arrival. There was contingency for late arrival at Stevenage if missing the 10.01 departure to catch the 10:17 from Stevenage arrive Gatwick 11.46 or the 10:31 from Stevenage arrive Gatwick 11.44. Still two hours before the flight.
Now this heatwave is throwing everything out.
Ticketing (2 adults one child):
Leeds to Stevenage on the 08:10 Advance Single with Railcard £62.50
Stevenage to Gatwick Off Peak Day Single with Railcard £24.90.
I'll pass on the message about hotels being cheaper near East Croydon.
I wonder if they broke the journey at East Croydon they'd get away with using the original ticket on the Thursday!
 
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Hophead

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Would they be able to stay on the train at Stevenage and change at Kings Cross / St Pancras? While there are Bedford-related cancellations this week, being in London gives more options for onward travel in case of a delay. In the circumstances, you'd hope that flexibility would be forthcoming.
 
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When I planned the itinerary for them, connecting at Stevenage was by far the slickest option. They will be looking at options this evening.
 
30907

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Bear in mind that LNER have also thinned the Leeds service considerably, so check times.
 
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JBuchananGB

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They have opted to travel to Stevenage tomorrow (24th) on the LNER ticket dated 25th, stay at a hotel there and then use the Thameslink ticket on 25th early in the day to get onward to Gatwick. I will check times for them tomorrow. At the moment the LNER web site is showing an hourly service from Leeds to Stevenage on 24th.
 
Deerfold

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I'd recommend getting seat reservations on the LNER website, especially if they want to sit near each other.

We did this yesterday.

We were booked on a train in the afternoon. Between 0730 and 1200 there are 9 trains to London. 6 of them only have 5 carriages. We had booked a reservation on the 1110 but the 1040 hadn't gone when we arrived and we just got it - together there were only 2 unreserved seats which were unused and 2 seats which were reserved from Leeds but unused (in 1st).
 
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JBuchananGB

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They took the 11.10 and are now in Stevenage, looking to catch the 09.30 from there to Gatwick tomorrow morning. Which ran on time today. As my daughter's train travel consultant, having worked out the original itinerary, I really appreciate the helpful advice here, and so do they.
 
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