Train to York

between Kings Cross and its sister station, St Pancras International, across the narrow road and linked by a tunnel, both upstairs and downstairs at both stations there must be around 40 and 50 eateries and cafes. Immediately outside Kings Cross outside the Google buildings there are another dozen, and then less than 5 minutes further, over the canal, is Coal Drops Yard and surroundings with another bunch, including a very good branch of Dishoom.

If you are pulling luggage all of those places can be reached step free.

What sort of cuisine or meal size interests you?

oh, and most have take-away so you can take it on the train (don't get strong smelling food out of sympathy for fellow train passengers).

We are light eaters. Something simple like sandwiches would be great.

How much time do you think I should allow to get to Kings cross? Our plane lands at 9:15 and we have to go through customs and collect luggage.

First of all you are really going enjoy the train trip. And York is a great place to visit in UK.

It is a 4 hour trip so deciding on train trip food in UK is no different in the US. If there is an opportunity to visit a local grocery then load up on "picnic" supplies. Have great train ride. You will not regret it.

How long should I allow from the time we land at Heathrow to arrive to Kings Cross? I’m not sure what time to book our train. Is 3 hours enough?

We landed at Heathrow at 6:22am and took a 9:06 train to York with plenty of time to spare.

The train from London to York takes only 2 to 2 1/2 hours, not 4. Sorry I cannot answer your question as we have never made the trip directly from the airport.

Perhaps the person who said it was four hours meant the total journey? We agree it was about two and half hour train ride.from Kings Cross. Not sure how long it takes starting at Heathrow.

How much time to allow is a difficult question because there are too many vairables that could affect this--delayed aircraft, dealyed public transport, etc.

If you buy an Anytime ticket and you miss your train, you can use it on any train on that route that day. If you buy an Advanced ticket and miss your train, you have to buy a new ticket.

It's going to take about an hour to get from Heathrow to Kings Cross. How long it takes to get through immigration d depends on in which terminal you arrive and how many other flights come in at the same time.

As for places to eat, as others have said, you will have no problem finding something. Plenty of palces to get a sandwich.

Forget about Anytime tickets to York if landing at 9.15. That is an expensive red herring.

Buy a Two Together Railcard for £35. That gives you 1/3 off all rail fares, including the Elizabeth Line/Thameslink route to Kings Cross.

Then Super Off Peak Singles for £75 each KC to York (just under £50 after railcard discount) then take the first available train from KC.

Book seats on the LNER app on a specific train up to 10 minutes before departure or Car C on each LNER train is the unreserved car.

If your flight is more than around 5 hours late so you end up on an afternoon peak train to York excess the ticket up to Anytime at Kings Cross ticket office.

I did your trip from LHR to Kings Cross to York 3 weeks ago. My flight arrived early about 7:30 AM, so my calculations were off from the start.

The journey to Kings Cross is about an hour by tube. I had been advised to figure 3 hours for airport arrival and transport to Kings Cross before booking a train to York. Being conservative, I gave it four hours. So, I sat for several hours at Kings Cross waiting for my departure. I was not so desperate to get on the move that I wanted to purchase a new ticket - I had a "good deal" advance fare on a specific train. There are restaurants, the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 shop, people watching, a good novel.

I was solo with a bag that I didn't to drag around much, but you can easily walk around the area for restaurants outside the station. Also, the British Library is very close and the Treasures Room well worth a look. Time can be as short as 15 minutes or much longer depending on interest.

In the end, it's all a bit of crystal ball. Next time, I don't think I will add in an extra hour, I'll stick with the 3 hours my colleague advised. But then, my luck may change with a late arrival at LHR!

Very good advice in the post above - UK train pricing is worth figuring out.

Hi Segger -

As a rule of thumb and if travelling via the Tube from Heathrow to Kings Cross (direct line, the Piccadilly, and takes around an hour), I would allow three hours from touch down to boarding a northbound train to York (it will probably have Edinburgh as final destination with York one of the ‘calling at’ stations en route). If planning on buying tickets for the journey to York on arrival at Kings Cross (downloading in advance, and using the LNER app is easy, even for an old duffer and technophobe like myself, so good advice above to do that!) in person/face to face, maybe allow an extra twenty minutes to half an hour to be on the safe side.

Obviously you may be able to do it quicker, but in the event you can’t, the ‘three hours plane to train’ is what I allow myself.

Ian

One minor correction to the above post....It's not the Jubliee line from Heathrow to Kings Cross. It's the Piccadilly Line.

Sorry Frank, for some reason I have a blind spot on the names of those two lines, even though I should really know the difference. Maybe I find it harder to type Piccadilly! But edited original post to avoid spreading duff info!

Ian

I want to thank everyone answering my questions in such a helpful and kind way. We booked our tickets and allowed 3 hours and 15 minutes to get there. The tickets were going fast so I’m glad we booked when we did. I appreciate the info about the restaurants because we aren’t fans of missing meals. There are lots of people in other forums who are snarky and rude when questions are asked, but all of you were ladies and gentleman. Thanks again.

You will enjoy the train to York. I know you said you weren't one for missing meals. We bought some snacks to eat on the train so that we could do a resturant or two in York. There are some nice ones and some have outdoor seating. And don't mss out on one of the fabolous ice cream shops.