In article , Brian Watson
writes
Rather than drive him all the way "dahn sarf", I thought I could drop him at
Reading or Heathrow or similar and he could make his way on to Surbiton from
there.

None of those are terribly helpful (to you, never mind him). Reading
station is a *long* way from the M4, for example. The quickest way from
Bristol to Cambridge is via Birmingham :-(

Having lived in Surbiton, it's a real pain to get to from the NW.

A compromise might be Chertsey (maybe ten minutes more out of your way
than Heathrow, and half an hour by train to Surbiton with a change at
Weybridge).
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