Heathrow to St Pancras

London-Paris-Chunnel.com seems useful. By my approximation, you would be at St. Pancras by 8:45/9:00am.

You should never be worried about having too much time. There are only problems when you have too little! :)

The journey should take about 45 minutes. You may want to consider simply taking the Underground Piccadilly line direct to St Pancras instead. It will be cheaper, and should take about the same amount of time, when you factor in the time you save by not transferring from the Heathrow Express to the Circle Line.

Take the tube! The Picadilly Line runs from Heathrow to central London (direction: Cockfoster's) every few minutes. The King's Cross/St. Pancras International underground station (biggest in London, six lines pass through) is about an hour and 10 minutes journey from Heathrow on that same line; no changing trains.

On the down side, you will have to hump your luggage up a few steps and a long escalator to get from the underground station to the train station, and if you are traveling on a weekday, the tube will be packed at morning rush hour.

If you are just passing through London you won't get much value from the Oyster discounted-fare debit card system, but the cash fare (£4) will still be much less than either Heathrow Express (£14.50) or the half as fast, half as spendy (£6.90) Heathrow Connect train, and you will be where you are going instead of having to take the tube, bus or taxi from Paddington Station to St. Pancras.

If you are coming back to London, consider an Oyster card; you can order a Visitor Oyster Card online at:

http://www.visitlondonoffers.com/oyster-card/index.htm

for £12 which includes £10 of travel.

The bad news is that you're going to be using the tube during the morning rush. With that in mind you should take the Piccadilly line and press on until you hit St. Pancras. It's going to be a crush but it's a lot better than trying to change at Paddington.

Forget the Express. All that hassle of transferring during rush hour is a waste of energy. True you will be traveling the tube during rush hour but when you get on it at Heathrow it won't be terribly crowded. Just make sure you sit next to your luggage (not across the aisle). The train will become very congested as it progresses but so what. You'll be sitting down. Upon arrival at St. Pancras allow the teaming masses to pass you by and then saunter upstairs. The tube takes about an hour, maybe a bit more. As for having to much time at St Pancras have breakfast, read the paper and sip coffee, people watch! To change your Eurostar ticket to an earlier time I believe is quite quite expensive. Also you never know how long customs is going to take, tube delays etc. As someone else posted better to have to much time than not enough! Happy travels.

Thanks for all the information! We will either take the tube or a taxi. I didn't really take into consideration that it would be during the morning rush. Even though it's more expensive, we are leaning toward a taxi. We will have 3 big bags.

I decided to stay with the original train. I looked up the St Pancras station and it appears to be nice, so we will have a meal and relax.
Again, thanks for the information, and thanks for replying so soon!

Hi James

I was reluctant to suggest a taxi – at that time in the morning it won’t be cheap. It is, however, the best solution. Take the Express to Paddington. It’s only a very short walk from the platform to the Praed Street exit. There are always plenty of black cabs there.

St. Pancras is stunningly gorgeous. It’s had a recent and much needed make over. The restoration has returned it to it’s original gothic splendour. It is now one of the truly great architectural gems of London. It’s a great place to relax over a coffee.

And, there is a grocery store in the St Pancras station (Marks and Spencer I think). It's a good place to buy food for the train. I remember restaurants, coffee bars, a pastie place, etc. The station is beautiful. I stayed overnight at the Crestfield Hotel across the street and down a few houses from the station. Then I caught the train to France the next morning.

James, I departed from LHR and booked the same train as you did. I left LHR at 9:00 am and arrived at St. Pancras with plenty of time.

We took the tube, and over at LHR there's plenty of seats since its the beginning of the journey. When you get off at St. Pancras/ Kings Cross there's signs telling you which way to go. You'll see the Eurostar logo and then the train station.

If you have the tickets already printed, go straight to the check in booth, then you'll go thru security and then wait for them to call the train (which i think was 15 to 20 min before 11)

PM me if you have any ??s as I was just there.