Better Brighton Departure --Victoria or zlondon Bridge?

Jim Not only a native English person but a Brightonian! Unfortunately I can't give you a logical answer. The London to Brighton route is served by different companies which set fares for each journey for their own commercial reasons. This means that there can be really big differences in price. I recently went to London for the evening and paid £12 return. If I had travelled on trains only a few minutes earlier or later the price would have been twice that. Daytime trains would have been more expensive. There's no real difference in the trains themselves or the journey times if that was what you were worried about. I use this site which gives the price for each specific train. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/default.aspx If you are planning a trip to Brighton you may already know the Royal Pavilion's site. It's worth looking at the right hand column which lists the special events. http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/RoyalPavilion/aboutthepalace/Pages/home.aspx Have a great trip. Alan

You have to look at the time restrictions, and on routes like this the company restrictions. Considering day returns only, the any time any permitted fare is £28.70. You can use this at any time and on all services. If you restrict yourself to First Capital Connect Services (ie from London Bridge) their any time fare is £23.40. Off-peak fares are £25.20 (all services) and £16.00 (FCC). Looking at the real discount end, FCC have a return fare of £10 valid on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays, and Southern from Victoria have advance single fares at £5, but these mean travelling on a specific train.

You also want to consider the overall picture of the journey. The FCC trains are very old, the trains stop at many of the stations and the journey time will be longer. The top speed on the FCC trains is less. There are both slow and fast trains on the Southern from Victoria. The fastest Southern trains, the Brighton Belle route, make very few stops and go considerably faster (using fast lines rather than slow lines) and the much of the equipment is more modern and more comfortable. Its no so simple as one is cheaper than the other. They will all be very busy at peak hours, especially in the peak direction, into London AM peak, out of London PM peak. You will be lucky in likely going against the flow each way.

Thanks to my English neighbours. I'd originally posted because I wasn't sure about the departure point more in the sense of the ease and convenience of boarding. The nominal price difference and the total price are quite modest in any event. We'll be lodging in a flat quite near the Green Park underground station so I suspect ourbrail departure point will make very little difference. The Brighton adventure is a day trip and we won't be burdenednwith luggage.