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Rail Replacement Bus?

Posted by (Chicago, IL) on

My family and I will be in London later this month. We're planning to travel on Sunday March 24th for just a day trip to Hever Castle. After checking things out on the National Rail website, then looking also at Southern Rail, it looks like there will be some service disruption requiring a rail replacement bus - I'm sure because it is a Sunday.

My question is - is it fairly easy to take the rail replacement bus? Easy to find the correct bus, etc? It looks like the train will travel from Victoria Station to Oxted, then take a rail replacement bus from Oxted to Edenbridge Town station (about 25 minute bus ride). On the way back to London, according to the National Rail site, it looks to be a rail replacement bus from Edenbridge Town station to Hurst Green (about 15 minute bus ride), then train from Hurst Green to Victoria Station.

We do plan to hire ahead a taxi to take us from Edenbridge Town station to Hever Castle.

Should I be concerned about switching to buses? Or is all fairly simple?

I have traveled by train throughout England and Scotland, just haven't run into the bus replacements on my travels yet.
Thanks for any insight!

Posted by
6113 posts

It’s fairly straight forward. I often see buses at the weekend at my local rail station. However, it will add significantly to your travel time.

Posted by
1015 posts

It’s usually fairly simple to do but it’s a real pain. It adds considerably to time. It’s said that the words “rail replacement bus” strike fear in most British people.

If I knew there was a rail replacement bus on a journey I was planning, my first instinct would be to reschedule my journey. Just because it’s a hassle getting off the train, getting herded on to a bus and then possibly back on to the train again.

If you can do this trip in another day it would be considerably easier but if it’s the only day you can do it, just be prepared for a longer and more annoying journey.

Posted by
88 posts

Since it's pre-planned hopefully it will be smooth and orderly and there will be enough buses in place.

We had to take a replacement bus to another station when the signals went out at a station we were departing from and that was a bit of a mess. Everyone at the station was having to be sent to different stations depending on their destinations. We had to wait a while to get on a bus. The bigger issue was finding the right trains once we got to a working station since our original itinerary was pretty much down the drain.

The good news is everyone speaks English so if you are confused about which bus to take you can just ask.

Try to remain as flexible as you can so delays don't mess up your trip.

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