Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

"Rupert Candy" wrote in message
...
On Mar 26, 6:55 pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 26 Mar, 18:28, "Lüko Willms" wrote:

Am Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:32:48 UTC, schrieb "Graham Harrison"
auf uk.railway :

Unless you can find a rental office actually at St Pancras

how about at Ebbsfleet...

You know, I don't actually think there are any car rental facilities
at Ebbsfleet, not yet at least. Perhaps there's somewhere in
Northfleet, the adjacent town. I'm sure they'll be somewhere in
Gravesend.

Ah, I knew my visit would be useful! There's an Avis office just
inside the door at Ebbsfleet.

For the information of the OP in California, Ebbsfleet is on the South East
fringe of London. It is a new station that has been built to be served by
Eurostar trains and to allow people not to have to go into the centre of
London. To get there from Cookham you would go through Maidenhead to the
M4 and head in the direction of London until you got to the M25. You would
follow the M25 anti-clockwise (it runs around London) as far as the A2 and
then follow that away from London - on a Sunday morning a bit more than one
hour.
http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisur...ernational.jsp

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

On 26 Mar, 23:02, "Graham Harrison"
wrote:

"Rupert Candy" wrote:

On Mar 26, 6:55 pm, Mizter T wrote:

On 26 Mar, 18:28, "Lüko Willms" wrote:

Am Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:32:48 UTC, schrieb "Graham Harrison"
auf uk.railway :

Unless you can find a rental office actually at St Pancras

how about at Ebbsfleet...

You know, I don't actually think there are any car rental facilities
at Ebbsfleet, not yet at least. Perhaps there's somewhere in
Northfleet, the adjacent town. I'm sure they'll be somewhere in
Gravesend.

Ah, I knew my visit would be useful! There's an Avis office just
inside the door at Ebbsfleet.

For the information of the OP in California, Ebbsfleet is on the South East
fringe of London. It is a new station that has been built to be served by
Eurostar trains and to allow people not to have to go into the centre of
London. To get there from Cookham you would go through Maidenhead to the
M4 and head in the direction of London until you got to the M25. You would
follow the M25 anti-clockwise (it runs around London) as far as the A2 and
then follow that away from London - on a Sunday morning a bit more than one
hour. http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisur...n/at_the_stati...


Two things.

(1) If I was making a journey from Cookham to Ebbsfleet I certainly
wouldn't automatically default to going round the M25, it really is
the long way round. On a sunday morning in particular the traffic
through London is going to be lighter.

(2) I don't really think I'd recommend this option to the OP. If he
wanted to drop his hire car off before getting the Eurostar I'd
suggest doing it somewhere in central London, or at Heathrow if he was
going via there first.

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:32:48 -0000, Graham Harrison
wrote:


"Christopher Barker" wrote in message
...
On a Sunday afternoon in late July my wife and I will be departing from
St. Pancras station in London via Eurostar. Prior to this we will be
using a rental car for a few days, based in Cookham, Berks. We have
not yet booked the car, but before we do so I'd like to ask the group's
advice on the best place to drop it off so that we can then easily get
to St. Pancras with as few rail/taxi/bus transfers as possible.

I've had a car from Alamo, King's Cross in the past.

136/150 Pentonville Road
London, N1 9JL
http://www.alamo.co.uk

Five minutes walk to St Pancras.
Pretty easy to get to from the West - Just approach London on the A40 and
don't turn off.
Drop passengers and luggage off at St. P on the way past.
Outside congestion charging zone.
No 'airport premium' to pay for car rental.
No need to mess about with tubes, oyster cards and all that confusion that
goes with them!

--
HTH,
Fig

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:46:57 -0000, Fig wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:32:48 -0000, Graham Harrison
wrote:


"Christopher Barker" wrote in message
...
On a Sunday afternoon in late July my wife and I will be departing from
St. Pancras station in London via Eurostar. Prior to this we will be
using a rental car for a few days, based in Cookham, Berks. We have
not yet booked the car, but before we do so I'd like to ask the group's
advice on the best place to drop it off so that we can then easily get
to St. Pancras with as few rail/taxi/bus transfers as possible.

I've had a car from Alamo, King's Cross in the past.

136/150 Pentonville Road
London, N1 9JL
http://www.alamo.co.uk

Five minutes walk to St Pancras.
Pretty easy to get to from the West - Just approach London on the A40
and don't turn off.
Drop passengers and luggage off at St. P on the way past.
Outside congestion charging zone.
No 'airport premium' to pay for car rental.
No need to mess about with tubes, oyster cards and all that confusion
that goes with them!

Scrub all that, they're not open Sundays!
I would advise against thinking about a Heathrow drop-off though, you pay
a lot more for that. What about Park Royal? Easy to get to from the West
and also on Piccadilly line, but closer to town. Loads of rental places
there.

--
Fig

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

Am Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:02:30 UTC, schrieb "Graham Harrison"
auf uk.railway :

For the information of the OP in California, Ebbsfleet is on the South East
fringe of London.

also: not every Eurostar train calls at Ebbsfleet.


Cheers,
L.W.

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:22:16 +0000, John Watkins
wrote:



There's Avis claiming to be at St Pancras (actually in Eversholt St,
beside Euston) -
http://www.avis.co.uk/CarHire/Europe...-Train-Station


About the same distance in the other direction there's a big National
car rental site on Pentonville Road - go to
http://www.nationalcar.co.uk/Locations/630/uk and choose Europe /UK /
London / Kings Cross.

Nevertheless I tend to support the views of others in the thread who
recommend not driving in London.

If the original poster comes into Paddington, whether from Cookham or
Heathrow, bus 205 is a convenient alternative to the Underground from
Paddington to St Pancras.

Others have pointed out that from Heathrow to St Pancras, the
Piccadilly Line is straightforward, and as quick as any other route.
However be aware that you'll need to haul any luggage up an escalator
from the tube at King's Cross. So train to Paddington then bus or
even taxi might be worth considering if you've got heavy luggage.

Martin

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

In message
, at
14:07:42 on Wed, 26 Mar 2008, Mizter T remarked:
Heathrow Express to Paddington then Hammersmith & City or Circle line
to St. Pancras would likely be quicker, though not by that much, and
would of course be a whole lot more expensive. I'd recommend the
Piccadilly line.

Remembering that it's a Sunday, I wouldn't bet on a high frequency of
trains on the Circle or H&C. And with luggage to shift as well.

After dropoff you might want to try going via the new Heathrow Terminal
5, compared to the centrally located T123.

That does somewhat depends upon where the car rental dropoff point in
Heathrow is really!

Most of them are apparently along the north perimeter road, so T5 is the
closest. Hence my suggestion. Also bearing in mind that the railway
station at T123 isn't actually *at* any of the terminals, so you'd need
to guess one and then walk (after being dropped off).
--
Roland Perry

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

In message , at 23:02:30 on
Wed, 26 Mar 2008, Graham Harrison
remarked:
For the information of the OP in California, Ebbsfleet is on the South East
fringe of London. It is a new station that has been built to be served by
Eurostar trains and to allow people not to have to go into the centre of
London.

But be careful - only some of the trains stop there!
--
Roland Perry

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

In message , at 17:32:48 on Wed, 26 Mar
2008, Graham Harrison
remarked:
is St. Pancras within the congestion fee zone?)

It's just outside (it's on the road that's forms the edge of the zone,
so you don't need to go inside the zone). But the Congestion Charge
doesn't apply on Sundays.

The drive from Cookham, via M4/M25/M40/A40 to St Pancras is very
straightforward, if you can find somewhere to drop the car off.

--
Roland Perry

Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
 

The good news.
Eurostar do have a partner agreement with Avis. Although the Avis
depot is at Euston, Avis say they'll refund the taxi fee for the
transfer to St P
The bad news.
That Avis depot is not open on Sunday.
I fail to see what use this 'partner' agreement is if the depot isn't
open to meet trains. At airports, these agreements always stipulate
that the rental depot hours match the times that flights arrive/
depart. Eurostar don't seem to have thought this through...

I don't know of any car rental depot in central London that is open on
Sunday. (The Alamo depot mentioned by another poster is also closed
on Sunday).

However - the Avis depot at Ebbsfleet is open on Sundays.... That
might be the option to go for. Unless you are very familiar with
driving in central London, I would strongly suggest you should use the
M25