antoine wrote:
Dear readers,
in some months I will come to London again, after 45 years!
The airplane will be landing in Gatwick; which is the best (and cheapest)
means to go to London? If it is a railway, in which station shall I get
off the train to be as near as possible to Chelsea?

This thread is diverting off into so many tangents it's getting painful.
In case you're confused, here's a summary:

There are two lines to London: Victoria is the terminus of one, the
other line goes through the middle of London but London Bridge or
Blackfriars are relevant stations.

Trains to London Bridge/Blackfriars are run by FCC. Trains to Victoria are
run by Gatwick Express and Southern.

You need to buy a ticket for a specific company. Usually Southern tickets
are cheapest, followed by FCC, with the most expensive being Gatwick
Express.

Gatwick Express trains are more frequent, less busy than Southern, with a
bit more luggage space. They're usually a bit faster than Southern, but
often only by about 15 mins. The interior of the trains isn't anything
upgraded compared to the normal Southern trains on the same route.

The best thing to do is to go to a ticket window and ask for a ticket to
your destination. You can buy from the machines, but you need to know
specifically which ticket you're looking for. Apart from Advance tickets
(see below) and not having to queue there isn't much advantage to booking
online.

A 'Travelcard' is a ticket that also allows you to use London tubes, trains
and buses on the day it's valid for. You can get a ticket to London which
incorporates one of these - it may be easier and cheaper than buying an
Oyster card in London for your onward journey (but you'll probably want an
Oyster if staying in London more than a day).

Return tickets are valid for either one day or one month. Sometimes a day
return works out cheaper than a single ticket, and sometimes two single
tickets work out cheaper than a month return. If it doesn't say 'Day' in
the name, a return ticket is valid for one month.

London has 'peak' times, where travel is more expensive. It varies between
train companies, but roughly this means travelling before 0930
Monday-Friday or between 1600 and 1900 (I don't know the specific times for
Victoria or London Bridge). There are no peaks on Saturdays,
Sundays or bank holidays. If you don't care about the details, an 'Anytime'
ticket is valid at all times.

'Advance' tickets are those where you have to travel on a specific train and
you can't (easily) change them afterwards. There may be a few on the
Gatwick route for £5, but they only make sense if you're prepared to book
one a long time after your flight arrives and hang around the airport.

If you can be more specific as to where in 'Chelsea' you mean, we could
provide some suggestions. But essentially you can take an FCC train to
Blackfriars and change to the Circle/District to Sloane Square, or a train
to Victoria and a bus. You can also take the Circle/District from Victoria,
but the tube station is less convenient to manage with luggage.


My personal suggestion (without looking at the fares in detail) would be:
Travelcard on Southern to Victoria, put up with a few stairs, tube or bus
onwards
or
Travelcard on FCC to Blackfriars, tube onwards from there.

Use your Travelcard that day to get about London as necessary, then buy an
Oyster card and start using it the next day.


Hope this is less confusing!
Theo