Our family of 4 will be taking a vacation in July starting in London, then on to France. We will not have a rental car in London, and will be taking the afternoon ferry from Portsmouth to Caen. I was researching the train ride options from London to Portsmouth and stumbled across info about the "Aquacars" taxi service that some are suggesting as an alternative to taking the train. If we take the train, we'd need a taxi from our London hotel to the train station (evidently either Waterloo or Victoria) plus some sort of shuttle or taxi from the Portsmouth train station to the Portsmouth ferry terminal. It sounds like for 4 people traveling together, that the Aquacar service would be cost competitive with the train alternative and would be more convenient. Am I evaluating this correctly? Has anyone had experience (either good or bad) using the Aquacar service to get from London to Portsmouth?
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5326 posts
Aquacars, like many out-of-London taxi firms offer relatively cheap fares to major airports because they have a significant likelihood of being able to have a fare in both directions and not going empty in one direction. Unless you are starting from or near Heathrow or Gatwick I can't see them offering quite such a good fare unless they also have a balancing ride into London. No harm in asking of course, but I see they charge £150 to go from London City Airport to Portsmouth.
Posted by
Bromley, Kent,, UK
1829 posts
I see from the National Rail Site that 4 tickets for tomorrow (using the Groupsave fare)from London Victoria to Portsmouth Harbour start from about £54 in total. From Waterloo about £66. http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search If you book in advance there are some £30 deals available in July from Victoria.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
South West trains run from London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour. You can book Megatrain tickets on some (but not all) South West trains on that route and pay as little as £1.00/ticket. Departure times that could work for you are 08:00, 10:00, and 12:00.
Posted by
OP
Seattle, WA, USA
30 posts
Thanks for the replies, sounds like taking a train is the way to go. Are the train lines to Portsmouth out of Waterloo and Victoria equally reliable? We have ferry reservations for a particular sailing (leaving at 14:45), so if we're late, we'd miss it. Will the trains run according to their schedule or very close to it, or are delays common?
Posted by
near Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
521 posts
Bruce, the Waterloo to Portsmouth service is operated by Southwest Trains and takes about 1 hour 30 minutes. The one from Victoria is a Southern Railway service and takes 2 hours. I use Waterloo (although I commute through Southampton, not Portsmouth) and I'd say it is extremely reliable. In the UK the words "on time" mean arriving within 5 minutes of the scheduled time, and South West Trains main line services achieve that on more than 90% of their arrivals.