On May 5, 9:58*pm, Mark Goodge
wrote:
I have a meeting in London on Wednesday afternoon next week. Normally,
when I need to go to London I take the train since that's by far the
quickest option from where I live, but in this case I'll be starting
from the middle of nowhere in Worcestershire and returning thence
afterwards. Trains from that part of the country to London seem to be
universally crap, so my plan is to drive to somewhere on the edge of
the capital and train/tube the rest of the way.

So, does anyone have any recommendations for a good station to use as
a P&R? Essential requirements a reasonably easy access from the
M40, plenty of parking spaces so I can be sure of getting one in the
early afternoon on a working day, a reasonably frequent service to the
centre so I can just turn up and ride without needing to plan to catch
a particular train, and a not-too-lengthy jurney time from there to
Westminster. Someone else will be picking up the tab so parking
doesn't have to be free.


The obvious place when coming in on the M40/A40 into London is
Hillingdon Underground station on the Metropolitan and Piccadilly
lines - it's not far from where the M40 crosses the M25 and becomes
the A40 - you take the turn-off for Hillingdon, and I'm pretty sure
the Underground station is also signposted from the A40 too - see this
map:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/oldmap.sr...&y=184750&lm=1

Take a Metropolitan line train (*not* a Piccadilly line train - that's
the round the houses route) which will convey you to Finchley road,
where you can make an easy cross-platform interchange onto the Jubilee
line straight to Westminster station (alternatively if you miss
Finchley Road you can change at Baker Street for a not-quite-so-
straightforward interchange to the Jubilee). TfL journey planner
estimates the total journey as being around 50 minutes - both lines
have frequent services (though coming back from Finchley Road/ Baker
Street on the Met line do make sure you're on a train heading to
Uxbridge!).

FWIW here's the Tube Map - Hillingdon's in the top left/north west
corner, one station east of Uxbridge:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...d-Tube-map.gif

All that said I can't give you comprehensive gen on the parking
situation there, all I can say is what I can glean from the TfL
website - that there's a car park with 283 spaces and it'd cost you a
maximum of £3.70 during weekdays, see:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/tubestationcarparks/

I don't however know how quickly this fills up in the morning, nor
what the deal is with regards to the possibility of on-street parking
nearby - perhaps someone else knows this?

(If you were to arrive after 0930 weekdays and don't have an Oyster
card then get a zones 1-6 off-peak Day Travelcard at a cost of £7.50
rather than 2x £4 single tickets, though obviously there isn't much in
it but it'd save a bit of hassle and would give you the freedom to go
elsewhere should you want that.)


The other more leftfield suggestion I have is that of possibly parking
in the village of Lewknor - which is just off junction 6 of the M40 -
and then catching the frequent Oxford Tube coach service into London,
which ends up at Victoria Coach Station not far from Westminster.
However I have absolutely no idea what the parking situation is there
- one suspects the villagers aren't exactly going to be keen on it,
and other people will of course have had the same idea too... but I
guess it might work if it's early enough, I don't know. Do others?