I will be arriving in London next month - early morning - with Bath as my first destination. There's a lot of information about taking the bus, but it looks like The Trainline goes from Heathrow to Paddington to Bath in just under 3 hours.
Coming off of a long plane ride, the train seems to be the easiest option. Any thoughts on both modes of transportation to Bath?
Thanks so much.
The Trainline is a booking website that charges fees that no-one needs to pay. It is not a train company, forget them.
try the official railway information siteand use a starting point of Heathrow Bus
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search
The train option to Bath actually takes less than 2.5 hours, but the first section is the transfer bus from Heathrow Bus station to Reading railway station. This bus is part of the railway ticketing system.
There are also 2 bus companies that run direct from Heathrow to Bath which seems to be what you need.
But until you say what time on what day of the week you will be arriving we can't go any further.
You also haven't said which terminal you arrive at, which has some relevance to onward travel advice options.
Thank you.
I have a BritRail Pass and didn't know details about the Trainline. I'll check National Rail instead.
We will be arriving on a Sunday morning, around 7 a.m. Not sure of Terminal yet.
We took the bus and it worked great. Our plane actually arrived late and we missed the bus we had pre-booked. They re-booked us on a later bus for a small additional charge. It might not be economic to use a day of your train pass compared to taking the bus (which was pretty inexpensive), but if you have already purchased with that in mind, then train might be the way to go. Generally I prefer train over bus, bus we decided on the bus because no change was required.
Thank you.
Sunday morning, perhaps the direct bus would be better, there's a huge amount of upgrade work going on that railway and Sundays are usually disrupted.
the bus operators are megabus (yes, the ones that have covered half the USA, they're a british company!) but they have a reputation of being a little short on service.
and National Express, who are the main operator in UK and have a better reputation (although that may not mean much)
http://www.nationalexpress.com/en/airports/heathrow-airport.aspx
all buses at Heathrow are based on two main stops, the Central Bus Station and Terminal 5, most serve both but if nothing comes up for one try the other.
Our plane actually arrived late and we missed the bus we had pre-booked. They re-booked us on a later bus for a small additional charge.
National Express no longer do this - you have to pay the flexibility fee at time of booking. Without having done this you need to buy a new ticket if you miss your booked coach.
17 September and much of 16 September in particular have extensive works with Reading station effectively closed.
