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Piccadilly Madness...Travel from Heathrow to Covent Garden? And reliability of Citymapper?

Hi Everyone-
We're very excited about our trip this week to London, and we're not going to let some Underground craziness get us down! Our first order of business is to get from the airport to our hotel (we'll worry about the reverse trip when the time comes, and I had already half-decided to get a shuttle even before this week's issues). Our hotel is basically equidistant between the Leicester Square and Charing Cross Tube stops, so before this recent unpleasantness we were simply planning on taking the Underground from Heathrow to Leicester Square on the Piccadilly line (as we've done before). Here's what I see as our options in the current state:
1. Hope that the disruption and serious delays that we're hearing about on the Piccadilly line primarily are primarily on Heathrow-bound direction, such that we should be OK to board at the airport and make our way to Leicester Square on the Piccadilly line
2. Assume that everything on the Piccadilly line is diabolical, and so we should switch lines at the first possible opportunity, e.g. switching to District at Acton Town or some such and then either switching to the Northern or walking from Embankment
3. Throw our hands into the air and suck it up for the Heathrow Express. It's not the cost so much as the principle of the thing.
4. Completely ditch public transit and book a cab, call an Uber, etc.

All opinions appreciated, especially if you're local to London and living through this. I'm also curious if anyone knows...we've loved using the Citymapper app on our past trips to help us plan our routes. Does anyone know if it takes into account real-time traffic/delays, or if it's just based on schedules? Thanks in advance!
Best,
Peggy

Posted by
8669 posts

That's the sprit.

If you are near Old Spitalfields Tuesday night around 5pm you can watch the Santa Dash.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Have a great time!!!

Posted by
15006 posts

I waas on the Piccadilly line today about 2:00 PM. It was crowded but not packed. I timed it right because it pulled into the station about a minute after I got there.

For my trip to Heathrow next week, I'll either give myself an extra half hour for the trip or I'll go to Paddington and get the Heathrow Express. Since my journey is early to mid afternoon, I'll probably take my chanes with the tube.

Posted by
138 posts

Last year (Dec.) we took the Heathrow Express and a cab all the way down to near Embankment/Great Fire Monument area just because it is so easy and stress free rather than deal with the Piccadilly line and worry about me, my luggage, over-crowded etc. The cab was not that much and yes I hate the expense of the Express but for arriving stress free it's the way to go. Then once we have our luggage in our room, we use tube/oyster card to go all over. Have fun, London is so wonderful at the Holidays.

Posted by
1068 posts

We just got back from a week in London at the end of November. We had no trouble with the Piccadilly line either coming from Heathrow on the first day or returning to the airport on our last day, December 1. That said, we did hear a lot of announcements over the tannoy that there were fewer trains running than usual, that there were massive delays, etc. so it seems very much like whether or not you hit a big snag will be the luck of the draw.

My strong impression was that the trains on the Piccadilly line are running relatively well closer to Center City but, again, we had no problems in either direction going all the way to Heathrow.

Posted by
54 posts

Just to follow up on this...we've just returned from our trip and had a wonderful time. We ended up going with the Heathrow Express in both directions, and I am a total convert. Such a smooth experience, much less stressful than the long tube ride with the luggage, very easy to buy the Zone 1-2 Oyster card at Paddington. The rest of the trip we used the Tube like mad and didn't have any issues. We mostly avoided the Picadilly line, except for one leg on Sunday morning on our way to Emirates, and then late last night returning from King's Cross. We did wait the full 15 minutes for a carriage last night, but it wasn't a big deal, and the train itself was only marginally crowded. Thanks to all for your help...missing London already!
Peggy

Posted by
15006 posts

I took the Piccadilly line yesterday from Earls Court to LHR. The train was at the station when I got to the platform. Fairly empty but it was 2 PM. There were plenty of seats. The train was "held" six times and the journey took 10 minutes longer than normal.