Chelsea to Kings Cross Station Euston London

Can’t help with taxi recommendations but you need to make sure you tell your driver the correct station you need for your train to York - it’s confusing to say King’s Cross Euston…it’s King’s Cross Station or Euston Station. These two major London stations are about 1km apart so you don’t want to end up at the wrong one!

An uber now is £30 between the two. It will likely be slightly less on a Sunday. Unsure what sort of presence Bolt has, Uber is dominant in London and I've never had an issue with it.

Forget Bolt. It's not popular in London and you can wait forever. Stick with Uber.

Or, if you are staying in a hotel, they probably have an arrangment with a car service and could arrange one for you. Tell them a couple of days before you need it.

If you are going to York, you will more than likely leave from Kings Cross. Kings Cross and Euston are two completely different stations. You can't get everywhere in the UK from all stations.

However, you are going to have a bigger problem. This Sunday is the London Marathon. Streets will be closed all over the place. Fortunately, between Chelsea and Kings Cross you should be okay but traffic may be bad.

Arrange the car service today.

I would definitely second Frank II's advice - prebook a minicab or black cab and allow plenty of time. The London Marathon is a big event, and while your route is not impacted, it is close, and with all the road closures, it will be busy. More importantly, some Uber drivers may just decide to avoid central London that morning.

Having made the huge mistake of taking a cab on marathon day last year, I speak from experience. Traffic was an absolute nightmare, and we eventually abandoned our taxi in favour of the tube.

And yes, you need to be clear with your driver whether you want Kings Cross or Euston.

Thanks for the info. i almost cancelled our train and hotel for that day in York, but I researched the issue and can get a black cab to pick us up early enough in case of traffic and researched the location of departure and arrival. We should be fine. Are you familiar with Get? I haven't booked yet, but I am close to booking and it states price at no more than 37 gbp, which is a lot less expensive than Uber. I just hope that there won't be additional charges. Quite confusing once we're on the road to station.

No need to cancel, but allow yourself plenty of time. Gett is fine, but be aware black cabs run on a meter, so the app can only provide you with a typical fare range on a standard Sunday - if it's heavy traffic it could be more.

Euston should not appear anywhere in this discussion!!!

Sadly Chelsea isn't well served by Underground so some form of cab will probably have to be used but make sure it is booked to arrive in good time for whichever train you are booked on - currently (mid afternoon Thursday) Google Maps is predicting a journey time of 50 minutes, Sunday may be better and the route can eaily avoid the roads actually closed for the Marathon but who knows where congestion will ooze out to. I say "whichever train" because there are 3 within a 20 minute period - know the exact departure time of yours because when you enter Kings Cross it will be busy and you need to read the departure screens carefully. The one at exactly 10:00 has the destination Sunderland and will be black (and throwing out diesel fumes). Those just before (destination York) and after (destination Aberdeen) will be red & white - and electric.

Been traveling to London since 1972. Spent money for the flight there and money for my accommodation. Not going to quibble over the cost of transport to get to a train station.

Thus, I’ll always get a Black Cab. I trust the drivers and enjoy our conversations.

Wise words from Claudia. Also worth noting that London Black Cabs (which can be any colour but always have illuminated taxi signs) are metered and heavily regulated - "surge pricing" is not a thing with them.

Our friends have offered us a few more days at their home so we will leave on Tuesday instead of the day of the Marathon. However, we will lose our money on the train tickets to York and York to Glasgow. I booked a direct train from London to Glasgow at Euston (for those of you who made an issue about that) and yes, cab fare will be high from Chelsea, and, no, we can't take public transport--what with luggage and aging bods, but this is how it is here. The train we did book via LNER, not realizing, gave us two seats not together (which I didn't realize until too late) and who knows if our request for a quiet car will be honored. Nonetheless, our friends have the most beautiful and comfortable home and the surrounding neighborhood is fabulous. The Albert Bridge is a little further than a stone's throw and it has recently re-opened after renovations. The Battersea Park it overlooks during this time is popping with colorful bushes and stunningly grand trees. Happy to spend a few more days here. I adore London and now favor it over Paris. Thanks for your ideas everyone. I will report back on the Avanti West trainline, one of the numerous companies that carry travelers through UK. Leslie

Hi again Leslie

Glad to hear you have such excellent friends.

I wish you'd checked with us (or did I miss it?) before jumping off the dock with the trains.

While it is true you can't get a refund on Advance fares, especially at LNER, you can use the ticket againt a different train for a small fee.

Quoting from the LNER FAQs

Advance tickets are non refundable. However, you can change the date and time of your ticket before your scheduled departure.

A £10 admin fee will apply.

About the Albert Bridge. I didn't know it had reopened. In fact I saw a couple of weeks ago it was closing to pedestrians. Maybe I have the wrong bridge. Good to know it has reopened. To cars, too?

I don't see cars driving on Albert Bridge, only walkers.

On the train matter, I have had suffered numerous problems with the train system in UK. Yet another train company--Avanti West, which was the only direct train for our date offered via LNER and Trainline from London to Glasgow, (since we canceled our York stop due to the matter of the Marathon and rethinking the fact that we had 12 minutes to make our connection with luggage and physical disabilities). I also signed up on Avanti's website to book with them directly. Impossible. One problem after another with its interface, so I went back to LNER but unlike Trainline, it did not offer the premium tickets. When I returned to Trainline, the price for premium had increased by nearly 50 gbp. So returned to LNER, booked coach and was given two tickets in separate rows for a 4 and a half hour trip, which I didn't realize until after I'd paid. In addition, it had captured my credit card info without my permission from an earlier booking. You can forget about contacting any of these companies directly, except I was able to connect with Grand Central, but, of course, no refund. The only insurance provided on LNER for this trip was if you lived in UK. I traveled by train from France to Italy with various stops many years in the late 90s. I don't think there was Internet then. I had no problem even when I changed my trip. But that was Europe. This is UK.

The train websites normally give you the option to change you booked seats before you buy. You can obviously only move to seats that haven’t already been booked by someone else but the option is there.
I always do this to be in a carriage that I know will be nearer the exit at my destination station.

When you are on the train if you see seats marked as available you can just sit in them. You aren’t forced to sit in your booked seats like on a plane.

I assume that the problem that you had with Avanti West Coast was because you were trying to access it from outside the UK? I've seen a number of people have issues like that, although most commonly it was GWR rather than AWC. Certainly I have no problems with the AWC site and I use it very frequently.

It's certainly possible to change any seats that a website automatically books for you but I think that's often only possible on the operator's trains and not on other companies' sites. AWC has a habit of randomly allocating seats and often my wife and I are seated separately. It's very easy though to change the seats on their site.

If you are now stuck with seats apart bear in mind that there will be 2 or 3 carriages which are always unreserved and therefore free for you to sit in together. If you are getting on in London if you're there as the train platform is announced (maybe 15 minutes before departure) you should have no problem. There will also be the option to sit in Standard Premium seats and pay an appropriate upgrade fee on the train. These are First Class seats but with no other benefits like food, drink and lounge access. That can be quite pricey though.

+1 to the suggestions above - you're likely to be able to find unbooked seats together once you board, so just move seats. Some seats will be reserved but for whatever reason whoever has booked them isn't traveling or is seated elsewhere, so if they are booked but unoccupied, you can take them unless the ticketholder comes along and asks you to move.