Hello. I'm planning a visit to England in a few months, and I will
be staying in Essex but making a number of trips to London and other
places on the other side of London. I had been under the assumption that
the various Britrail passes included the Underground for the same reason
that point-to-point tickets do; you have to transfer between mainline
stations in London for so many cross-country journeys. Plus, I thought I
had done it before in 1997. But when I went to verify that just now, it
seems I was wrong (mainly postings in this group and others; the railpass
web sites don't mention the restriction much).

This seems counterintuitive (why should you have to buy and carry two
different passes to truly be able to travel around England by rail when
point-to-point passengers only need one). Is there no combination pass?

I'm considering either a London Plus 7-day and Heathrow Express, or
England flexipass 8 day since I expect to travel by rail 7 days out of 9.
Are there any Underground passes available at a discount to non-UK
residents? If I want the option for free range over the whole network is
the 7-day pass at http://www.londontravelpass.com/ my best bet?

--
Peter Scott

Where in Essex will you be staying? A pretty big chunk of what is still
termed Essex (Ilford, Romford, etc) is actually in Greater London, and
consequently you can get a Travelcard that will work right across the
city.

Jonn

On Mon, 15 May 2006 14:00:26 -0700, jonn.elledge wrote:
Where in Essex will you be staying? A pretty big chunk of what is still
termed Essex (Ilford, Romford, etc) is actually in Greater London, and
consequently you can get a Travelcard that will work right across the
city.

Sorry, no: east coast.

--
Peter Scott

On Mon, 15 May 2006 15:34:35 GMT, Peter Scott wrote:

I'm considering either a London Plus 7-day and Heathrow Express, or
England flexipass 8 day since I expect to travel by rail 7 days out of 9.
Are there any Underground passes available at a discount to non-UK
residents? If I want the option for free range over the whole network is
the 7-day pass at http://www.londontravelpass.com/ my best bet?

Where are you likely to be travelling on the tube? You may well find
a zone 1-2 travelcard adequate, especially if you are using Heathrow
Express to get to the airport and using national rail to get to your
base in Essex: you can find the full range of 7-day fares for
different zones at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...avelcard.shtml .
These prices apply if you buy your ticket in London. I'm not aware of
any special deals for visitors to the UK. If anything, in the past,
the prices quoted by non-UK agents have been on the high side; the
prices on the website that you quoted are however exactly the same as
the zone1-6 prices you would pay in London.

Martin

On Tue, 16 May 2006 07:44:03 +0100, Martin Rich wrote:
On Mon, 15 May 2006 15:34:35 GMT, Peter Scott wrote:
I'm considering either a London Plus 7-day and Heathrow Express, or
England flexipass 8 day since I expect to travel by rail 7 days out of 9.
Are there any Underground passes available at a discount to non-UK
residents? If I want the option for free range over the whole network is
the 7-day pass at http://www.londontravelpass.com/ my best bet?

Where are you likely to be travelling on the tube? You may well find
a zone 1-2 travelcard adequate, especially if you are using Heathrow
Express to get to the airport and using national rail to get to your
base in Essex: you can find the full range of 7-day fares for
different zones at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...avelcard.shtml .

Ah, but if I get a zone 1-6 pass I don't need a Heathrow Express because I
can get there on the Picadilly Line; that makes the London Plus pass more
attractive than the England flexipass because I may have only one trip
outside the London Plus area, and I only pay for the portion of that trip
outside the area, I believe.

Or is there some catch to accessing Heathrow via the Underground that I
should be aware of?

--
Peter Scott

In message of Tue, 16 May 2006
13:10:16 in uk.transport.london, Peter Scott writes
[snip]

Or is there some catch to accessing Heathrow via the Underground that I
should be aware of?

It take's forever - about an hour from King's Cross - and is
uncomfortable - noisy and hot. OTOH, the train is expensive and inflicts
television on its customers unless they are careful about their choice
of carriage. YMMV.
--
Walter Briscoe

On Tue, 16 May 2006 13:10:16 GMT, Peter Scott
wrote in :

Or is there some catch to accessing Heathrow via the Underground that I
should be aware of?

Apart from taking some while longer, the Tube doesn't currently go to
T4; you need to get a shuttle-bus from Hatton Cross until September, or
transfer to the HEX at the central area (some distance on foot/travellator)
for a free ride across.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. ] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

On Tue, 16 May 2006 17:24:57 GMT, Peter Scott
wrote in :
On Tue, 16 May 2006 14:38:53 +0000, Dr Ivan D. Reid wrote:
Apart from taking some while longer, the Tube doesn't currently go to
T4; you need to get a shuttle-bus from Hatton Cross until September, or
transfer to the HEX at the central area (some distance on foot/travellator)
for a free ride across.

Oh peachy. Thanks very much - that's exactly the sort of thing I needed
to know and couldn't find out any other way.

I got "caught out" not remembering that last year sometime when
HEX broke down while I was in the T123 platform. The Hatton Cross shuttle
wasn't burned into my consciousness, so I ended up wasting some of PPARC's
grant money on a taxi across to T4 -- it was a Sunday and the bus service
between terminals was abysmal.

Something else I should know about before using the Tube for getting to
and from an airport - I haven't been on it since before 7/7/05; are there
now new security restrictions or inconveniences for someone boarding with
two large suitcases?

Not on the Tube, but don't go wandering away from your bags to
find a seat. Currently at LHR they have "extra" security measures, which
mostly seem to consist of asking you to pass your laptop through the X-ray
machine separately from its padded bag. It was slow earlier this year but
no hassle a couple of weeks ago -- possibly seasonal variations as I typically
fly to Geneva on Sundays.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. ] Room 40-1-B12, CERN

On Tue, 16 May 2006 13:10:16 GMT, Peter Scott wrote:

Ah, but if I get a zone 1-6 pass I don't need a Heathrow Express because I
can get there on the Picadilly Line; that makes the London Plus pass more
attractive than the England flexipass because I may have only one trip
outside the London Plus area, and I only pay for the portion of that trip
outside the area, I believe.

Or is there some catch to accessing Heathrow via the Underground that I
should be aware of?

As others have said, it's slower, and particularly slow and awkward if
you're going to/from terminal 4 before September. Conversely, even if
you just get a zone1-2 pass the tube will still be much cheaper than
Heathrow Express to/from Heathrow; you just buy individual tube
tickets from Heathrow to the edge of zone 2. And a zone 1-2 pass for
a week plus individual tickets to/from Heathrow on the first and last
days will be much cheaper than a zone 1-6 pass for the whole week.

The cheapest and easiest way to do this is to use an Oyster card. If
you buy your travelcard at a tube station it will come on an Oyster
card anyway. If you choose a zone 1-2 Travelcard then just load
enough prepay value to cover the extra trips to/from Heathrow (£2 to
£3.60 depending whether you are going in the peak or not) onto the
same card.

You rightly note that for train journeys that take you a little way
outside London you only need to pay for the part not covered by the
travelcard. However I think the difference between the fare from the
outside of zone 2 to (say) Southend, and the equivalent from the
outside of zone 6, is very small.

Martin