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Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
"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. We would rather not have to drive into London with it, but have driven in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Milan and Naples during rush hour without disaster, (though not without frustration,) so could pull it off on a summer Sunday afternoon if a better alternative is not forthcoming. (However, is St. Pancras within the congestion fee zone?) The main problem seems to be that all of the stations on the Cookham side of London connect into Paddington, Marylebone, or Euston, so we'd need to then make it through the Underground system with luggage. The fact that one of our party (father) needs to be dropped at Heathrow at 6:30 AM the same day may also figure into our plans, though a taxi from Cookham to Heathrow for them is an alternative. (This raises the possibility of simply dropping the car at Heathrow as we let them off, and taking the Underground from Heathrow to St. Pancras, which looks like it involves a single line (Piccadilly?) and hence no transfers. Is this correct?) Thanks in advance, Chris (in California) Unless you can find a rental office actually at St Pancras (or Kings X which is right next door) almost anything else will involve some traipsing. You'd think that Eurostar or National Rail or EMT would say something about car rental at St Pancras but they don't (as far as I can see). Taking the Piccadilly all the way from Heathrow is a bit slow and the baggage provision is poor but it is a one train ride with no changes. The car rental offices at Heathrow are away from the terminals so drop the car, take the rental car bus o the terminal, get the train. If you take the train from Cookham it's a simple, cross platform (no stairs) change at Maidenhead and then straight to Paddington. From there a taxi wouldn't be too expensive. The underground depends a bit which platform you arrive on at Paddington. On a Sunday I'd expect the train to come ino the main trainshed in which case just walk to the front of the train, across the circulating area (known as "the lawn" although you'll not see any grass) down the short escalator and then it's a flat route to the Circle Line platform. You can buy a through ticket from Cookham to "Zone 1" so you don't need a separate ticket for the underground. If however it arrives out at 14/15(?) just go up the stairs, turn left and down to the adjacent platform which is another underground station on the Hammersmith and City line and get the train from there to St Pancras. A further possibility would be to get onto the underground network at somewhere like Uxbridge or even Amersham. From there the Met runs to St Pancras. http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk might help. |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
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... Cheers, L.W. |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
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. |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
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. There might well be something in Northfleet, there are a few car showroom type places by the football ground, and there might well be a rental place in there. I expect there is somewhere in Gravesend too, or in Dartford. There is a reasonably frequent bus that goes between Dartford and Gravesend that calls at Ebbsfleet Station (the new "fasttrack" buses), so a rental place in either Dartford of Gravesend should leave you with reasonably good access to Ebbsfleet station. Robin (who has the misfortune to visit Gravesend frequently) |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
In message , at 17:32:48 on Wed, 26 Mar
2008, Graham Harrison remarked: 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. If you can drop the car off at Heathrow, I think that's the best option. The Piccadilly line train is approx 1 hour to St Pancras. I can't think of a faster way. After dropoff you might want to try going via the new Heathrow Terminal 5, compared to the centrally located T123. -- Roland Perry |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
On 26 Mar, 20:49, Roland Perry wrote: In message , at 17:32:48 on Wed, 26 Mar 2008, Graham Harrison remarked: 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. If you can drop the car off at Heathrow, I think that's the best option. The Piccadilly line train is approx 1 hour to St Pancras. I can't think of a faster way. 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. 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! |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
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. We would rather not have to drive into London with it, but have driven in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Milan and Naples during rush hour without disaster, (though not without frustration,) so could pull it off on a summer Sunday afternoon if a better alternative is not forthcoming. (However, is St. Pancras within the congestion fee zone?) The main problem seems to be that all of the stations on the Cookham side of London connect into Paddington, Marylebone, or Euston, so we'd need to then make it through the Underground system with luggage. The fact that one of our party (father) needs to be dropped at Heathrow at 6:30 AM the same day may also figure into our plans, though a taxi from Cookham to Heathrow for them is an alternative. (This raises the possibility of simply dropping the car at Heathrow as we let them off, and taking the Underground from Heathrow to St. Pancras, which looks like it involves a single line (Piccadilly?) and hence no transfers. Is this correct?) Thanks in advance, Chris (in California) Unless you can find a rental office actually at St Pancras (or Kings X which is right next door) almost anything else will involve some traipsing. You'd think that Eurostar or National Rail or EMT would say something about car rental at St Pancras but they don't (as far as I can see). There's Avis claiming to be at St Pancras (actually in Eversholt St, beside Euston) - http://www.avis.co.uk/CarHire/Europe...-Train-Station |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
"Mizter T" wrote in message ... That does somewhat depends upon where the car rental dropoff point in Heathrow is really! Most of the car rental companies are on the Northern Perimeter Road. They have complimentary shuttle vans to and from the terminals. Regards David Bennetts Australia |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
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. |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
On 26 Mar, 22:43, 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. How wrong could I be. I even took a look around there last November myself, so I evidently failed to notice that - unless of course it's popped up there since then. |
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 |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
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Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
"Roland Perry" wrote in message ... The problem is that he may already have his Eurostar ticket from StPancras. Not many trains stop at Ebbsfleet, and by all accounts it's very difficult to find from the motorway. That shouldn't be a problem provided a) the train stops there and b) he lets Eurostar know in advance that he intends to join the train at Ebbsfleet instead of St Pancras - at least that was the advice I was given when I asked about joining a train at Ashford instead of Waterloo. If you don't do (b) you're flagged as a 'no-show' at St Pancras and the ticket won't be valid at Ebbsfleet. D A Stocks |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
In message , at 11:41:24 on Thu, 27 Mar
2008, David A Stocks remarked: The problem is that he may already have his Eurostar ticket from StPancras. Not many trains stop at Ebbsfleet, and by all accounts it's very difficult to find from the motorway. That shouldn't be a problem provided a) the train stops there Almost half do, it seems. and b) he lets Eurostar know in advance that he intends to join the train at Ebbsfleet instead of St Pancras I'm not sure how you do that. In the old days it wasn't required (I often seemed to end up with a Waterloo ticket, but getting on the train at Ashford). Although this was First Class and the staff would grumble about having to do a second sitting service. - at least that was the advice I was given when I asked about joining a train at Ashford instead of Waterloo. If you don't do (b) you're flagged as a 'no-show' at St Pancras and the ticket won't be valid at Ebbsfleet. And it doesn't help him find the station given the lack of signposts :( Otherwise, it's probably as good a plan as leaving the car a Heathrow. -- Roland Perry |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
On 2008-03-27, Fig wrote:
I would advise against thinking about a Heathrow drop-off though, you pay a lot more for that. You do? In the places I've rented, you pay extra for airport _pickup_, but airport dropoff is no extra charge. |
Car rental return location with easy London, St Pancras transfer?
On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:29:18 -0700 (PDT),
wrote: I don't know of any car rental depot in central London that is open on Sunday. Hertz on Southampton Row (10-15 minutes walk or short taxi ride to St P) lets you drop cars on Sundays. You park in the attached hotel car park and leave the keys with the hotel concierge. |
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