Train/Bus from Canterbury to Lavenham

Bury St Edmunds [BSE] was never the best way in my opinion to do the journey, as it is about a 15 minute walk between Rail and Bus Stations at BSE.
Personally (although it's a longer bus ride) I would go to Colchester (which has lots of trains on the Greater Anglia main line) then pick up the hourly bus 43/43A from the stop at the bottom of the approach road at Colchester Railway Station.
Or for a shorter bus journey Greater Anglia hourly to Sudbury (change onto the branch train at Marks Tey) and pick up the 43 at Sudbury Bus Station.

I assumed BSE was your destination on the other post.

Trains Canterbury to Stratford International/Stratford (London) to Colchester or Sudbury. Journey planners say Canterbury to St Pancras then tube to Liverpool Street- which is fine with me. Either way works.

Thank you! Is Colchester COL, CCL or CET? I don’t know what these different options are.

On the LNER app it says the Bury St Edmunds stop is “Bury St Eds Bus”.
So that is not at the bus station?

Bury St Eds Bus means where you buy a 'Plus Bus' ticket with your rail ticket- that is an add on to use the local buses in a town for the day. For BSE that is £1.55 extra with a railcard.

That totally works in Edinburgh, York or Cambridge say (where buses are very frequent), but the town buses in BSE are not two a penny. You could probably walk faster normally, than the time waiting for a bus, unless very lucky.

The code for Colchester is COL- CET is Colchester Town (a different station on a branch line). CCL is Colchester Stations so means either station (a bit like London Terminals). So COL is where you want.

The other thing to bear in mind with the Cambridge route is that if you have a through ticket (Advance or otherwise) if you miss your connection the ticket is automatically valid on the next train an hour later.

Thanks so much! That is all very helpful to know. We did buy tickets a few days ago that were very inexpensive going to BSE, then only after buying them realized the short transfer time, plus the once an hour bus to Lavenham, and now we see that we will be walking from the train to the bus station.
Oh well, I hope the various connections work out okay, and that the pavements heading to the bus station are good for pulling our suitcases and for staying off the road away from traffic!

For information a week on Wednesday I am walking this Pilgrim's route from the Railway Station to BSE Cathedral- for 1pm Eucharist- https://stedscathedral.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/b.-Walk-the-Pilgrims-Way-from-the-north-1.pdf

The bus station is off the map to the left of the page about half way between St John's Church and Cornhill. You may find this useful if you later come back into BSE. Up to that point this is the way you will also be walking in.

I will have a plus bus ticket and may use that to go back to the station. If not and I walk £1.55 hardly matters.

I am also hoping to use this route in from the south side of the City, if it's not too hot, and I don't have train problems- https://stedscathedral.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/a.-Walk-the-Pilgrims-way-from-the-south-.pdf

Lavenham is on the 89 mile long St Edmunds Way long distance path from Manningtree in Essex via Flatford to Bury St Edmunds.

Wow! I love the notes in these links about traveling as a pilgrim now, and what it might have been like years ago.
We will be spending time in BSE, 4 nights (as well as 3 nights in Lavenham) and are excited to explore it as well as return to Ely Cathedral on a day trip.
Thank you Stuart for this interesting and useful info!

I wonder if you might be happier with a taxi from Bury St Eds station? I've visited Bury St Eds - I have a cousin who lives nearby - and to me lovely Lavenham isn't all that far. That may be the way I would go ahead.

Thanks Nigel. Depending on the timing of when we get in to BSE and the timing of the bus, we may try to get the bus, or like you suggest, get a taxi! Good to consider that option!

I've been doing some research this morning about the buses from BSE Rail Station to Bus Station (and on to the West Suffolk Hospital for the south end pilgrimage route) for my own trip.

I'm pleasantly surprised.

Trains from Cambridge arrive at BSE at 25 minutes past the hour.

Buses leave the Railway Station to the Bus Station during a weekday daytime generally at-
24 past the hour (BR1 town service), 25 past (route 70), 45 past (routes 86 and 311), 48 past (route 355), and 15 past (route 84), 20 past (route 16)

Given that the Lavenham bus departs the Bus Station at 15 past the hour, if you purchased the plus bus add on that should generally work, rather than walking in.

The 16, 84, 86 and BR1 are through journeys to the Hospital- which has 6 journeys an hour to the Bus Station between different routes and operators.

The 70 goes to Diss Railway Station for main line trains to Norwich and London Liverpool Street, which isn't a route into BSE I would have thought of.

The 16 goes to Newmarket for Cambridge City Centre or Ely (Tesco, for the Railway Station) (both hourly)- another two interesting options.

These bus options sound good! We may not feel like walking to the bus station so these are good to know about!
Thank you Stuart!

Just some notes from yesterday. On the train from Cambridge to BSE try to be at the front of the train as that is where the lift is from platform to concourse level. Have your tickets ready as it is now a gated station.
From Ipswich obviously the back of the train.
Out of the ticket gates turn left for the bus stop to town, or right to walk into town out of the main station exit.
At the bus stop into town there is a shelter, but the timetable in it is dated 2018, and so now totally meaningless.
Conversely the timetable at the northbound stop outside the main entrance is up to date!!
I was really surprised yesterday at how many of the buses on the rural routes are double deckers, including the Diss, Thetford and Newmarket routes, as well as to Lavenham/Colchester.
There are some good bus trips to be had there.
I nearly came by bus from March via Ely (rather than train) and kicked myself for not doing so when I saw what vehicles were being used.
The bus station has been rebuilt since I was last there, is now much more modern and has clean toilets and a waiting room.

I took the bus from the station to the hospital, and walked back in on the south end pilgrimage route. What a nice and interesting walk that was.
St Mary's Church (just up from the Cathedral) is a very interesting church to explore with lots of interesting history in it.
I had no idea, but on a Wednesday the Church doee a free/pay what you can afford lunch- toasties, jacket potatoes and cakes.
It fitted the theme of my day, as basically a pilgrim's lunch. Even if I did have to break the pre Eucharist fast for it.
The Abbey Gardens/Ruins behind the Cathedral are really lovely to wander around.

Something that looked very interesting is that one Sunday a month there are tours of the WW2 Operations Room for the Royal Observer Corps at the Guildhall. If the dates work that could be interesting. Also the only such surviving one.

Also BSE is the home of the brewers Greene King. A brewery tour might be interesting. I didn't know that they also now brew Belhaven Best which is a favourite non whisky drink of mine when in Scotland.