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?
Thank You for a help!

In message , at 19:34:33
on Fri, 15 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
The airplane will be landing in Gatwick; which is the best (and cheapest)

Best and cheapest are not often the same.

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?

Victoria. (So one of the more expensive trains; London Bridge would be
cheaper).
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
19:34:33 on Fri, 15 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
The airplane will be landing in Gatwick; which is the best (and cheapest)

Best and cheapest are not often the same.

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?

Victoria. (So one of the more expensive trains; London Bridge would
be cheaper).

There are two services from Gatwick Airport to London Victoria. Gatwick
Express is (only very slightly) faster and more expensive than the Southern
service between the same stations. Gatwick Express trains take 30 minutes.
The fastest Southern trains to Victoria take 31 minutes despite two extra
station stops.

The cheapest flexible Southern tickets attract an online discount. If you
can be sure what train you can travel on you can buy even cheaper advance
tickets down to £5 single.

You can the collect tickets bought on Southern's web site on arrival at
Gatwick.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
19:34:33 on Fri, 15 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
The airplane will be landing in Gatwick; which is the best (and cheapest)

Best and cheapest are not often the same.

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?

Victoria. (So one of the more expensive trains; London Bridge would
be cheaper).

There are two services from Gatwick Airport to London Victoria. Gatwick
Express is (only very slightly) faster and more expensive than the Southern
service between the same stations. Gatwick Express trains take 30 minutes.
The fastest Southern trains to Victoria take 31 minutes despite two extra
station stops.

The cheapest flexible Southern tickets attract an online discount. If you
can be sure what train you can travel on you can buy even cheaper advance
tickets down to £5 single.

You can the collect tickets bought on Southern's web site on arrival at
Gatwick.

There's also the DaySave advance £14 ticket if you don't want to commit to
a particular train:
http://www.southernrailwaytickets.co...=TicketDetails

Thank you for your answers; the are very helpful.
I think that it is non possible to estabilish before exactly
the time for the train; the airplane could be a little late, or the suit
case not soon in my hands, or, or ,or. So the best thing to do is to buy
a ticket for that day but not for one particular time.

In message , at 19:52:52
on Fri, 15 Feb 2013, remarked:

If you can be sure what train you can travel on

Never a great idea when flying in, especially at Gatwick and doubly so
if you have any checked bags at Gatwick.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 05:46:50
on Sat, 16 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
I think that it is non possible to estabilish before exactly
the time for the train; the airplane could be a little late, or the suit
case not soon in my hands,

Very wise.

or, or ,or. So the best thing to do is to buy a ticket for that day
but not for one particular time.

There is no discount for buying an "any train" ticket ahead of time.

My own choice (if leaving Gatwick after 9.30am) would be to get a One
Day Travelcard Off-Peak Southern-only £15.20, which will allow travel on
any direct train *except* Gatwick Express to Victoria, but *including*
the London Underground train to Chelsea, and any other bus/Underground
for the rest of the day.

Cheaper, but taking longer (change at Blackfriars) is a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak FCC-Only £13.00, which is valid on all
bus/Underground as before, but only on FCC (First Capital Connect)
trains from Gatwick to London (via London Bridge).

If you want to be able to choose to travel on either Southern or FCC,
then the equivalent ticket to those mentioned above is £15.90, but it
still doesn't allow travel on Gatwick Express.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 05:46:50
on Sat, 16 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
I think that it is non possible to estabilish before exactly
the time for the train; the airplane could be a little late, or the suit
case not soon in my hands,

Very wise.

or, or ,or. So the best thing to do is to buy a ticket for that day but
not for one particular time.

There is no discount for buying an "any train" ticket ahead of time.

My own choice (if leaving Gatwick after 9.30am) would be to get a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak Southern-only £15.20, which will allow travel on any
direct train *except* Gatwick Express to Victoria, but *including* the
London Underground train to Chelsea, and any other bus/Underground for the rest of the day.

Cheaper, but taking longer (change at Blackfriars) is a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak FCC-Only £13.00, which is valid on all
bus/Underground as before, but only on FCC (First Capital Connect) trains
from Gatwick to London (via London Bridge).

If you want to be able to choose to travel on either Southern or FCC,
then the equivalent ticket to those mentioned above is £15.90, but it
still doesn't allow travel on Gatwick Express.

I think that's good advice. For the benefit of the OP, you can take a
single train from either Blackfriars or Victoria to Sloan Square in
Chelsea, which may be close to where you want to go, and you can also get
buses from there or Victoria to get you closer to your destination. There
is a useful web site, the TfL Journey Planner, to help you pick your route:

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/use...T2?language=en

Note that this is a multi-lingual site, so you might be able to use this in
your native language if you prefer (just change the "en" at the end).

In article ,
(antoine) wrote:

Thank you for your answers; the are very helpful.
I think that it is non possible to estabilish before exactly the time for
the train; the airplane could be a little late, or the suit case not soon
in my hands, or, or ,or. So the best thing to do is to buy a ticket for
that day but not for one particular time.

All too true with air travel! Get the £12.80 Southern-only ticket to
Victoria. Buying online from www.southernrailway.com attracts a discount.

However, you will have a fixed departure time for the return trip so a
ticket tied to a specific train would be much more practical and wouldn't
cost more than £10, maybe only £5.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article
,
(Recliner) wrote:

wrote:
In article ,
(Roland Perry) wrote:

In message , at
19:34:33 on Fri, 15 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
The airplane will be landing in Gatwick; which is the best (and
cheapest)

Best and cheapest are not often the same.

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?

Victoria. (So one of the more expensive trains; London Bridge would
be cheaper).

There are two services from Gatwick Airport to London Victoria.
Gatwick Express is (only very slightly) faster and more expensive
than the Southern service between the same stations. Gatwick
Express trains take 30 minutes. The fastest Southern trains to
Victoria take 31 minutes despite two extra station stops.

The cheapest flexible Southern tickets attract an online discount.
If you can be sure what train you can travel on you can buy even
cheaper advance tickets down to £5 single.

You can the collect tickets bought on Southern's web site on
arrival at Gatwick.

There's also the DaySave advance £14 ticket if you don't want to commit to
a particular train:

http://www.southernrailwaytickets.co...e.php?sEvent=T
icketDetails

Triffic! I was looking at their web site journey planner (Webtis) on
southernrailway.com which doesn't mentioned it.

However, as we should probably assume the OP is not returning to Gatwick on
the same day, he will have cheaper flexible one-way options at £12.80
upwards online. It may be that the fixed train time option would be more
practical for the return trip to Gatwick.

--
Colin Rosenstiel