Transportation from Gatwick Airport to Nottingham

jaylazer · Post by **jaylazer** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 8:41 pm

Hey guys,

My wife, a friend and I will be flying into Gatwick Airport Thursday morning at 8:25 am.

I was hoping that some of you natives could give tell me the best way to get from Gatwick to Nottingham.

I checked out www.gobycoach.com, but the trip will take almost 5 hours.

I'm hoping there is something that's a bit faster. However, we don't want to rent a car. That whole "driving on the wrong side of the road" thing.

Thanks for your help.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 10:35 pm

Quickest way is probably to take the Train from Gatwick

Gatwick Airport to Kings Cross Thameslink
Kings Cross Thameslink to London St Pancras (Walk 10mins)
London St Pancras to Nottingham Express Midland Mainline

That journey is time tabled at 3 1/2 hours.

Deathwing · Post by **Deathwing** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 10:44 pm

ianwilliams wrote: That journey is time tabled at 3 1/2 hours.

Which means it'll take at least 5 hours anyway...something will go horribly wrong...
Then again, don't fancy a coach around the M25 and up the M1 much...

Chaos Dwarf · Post by **Chaos Dwarf** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 5:36 pm

I'm taking the same route but I'll be arriving on Thursday at around 7:25am. It's a simple trek. You take the Gatwick express which leaves every 15 minutes to the underground. From there you get on the circle route to Kings Crossing. It's not that hard of a trip and I've found that just about anybody who works for the railroads is great on giving directions. The only time I've had trouble with the trains was once when the station had a small fire.

Post by **Thadrin** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 5:48 pm

Be prepared for that 15 minute train to cost a FORTUNE.
No kidding. The similar one from Stansted to London costs the better part of twenty quid single.

Deathwing · Post by **Deathwing** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 5:50 pm

It may well take a while to find King's Crossing..

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 5:55 pm

Sorry for the stupid question, but is a quid another word for one pound?

Bonus points if anyone can tell me what a furlong is.

Grumbledook · Post by **Grumbledook** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 6:00 pm

yes quid is slang for pound

a furlong is a measurement, believe its most comman use is in horse racing, but i couldn't tell you the distance without trawling through google.

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 6:16 pm

Grumbledook:

Thanks - I'd wondered about that in a very low level way for quite some time. I know the furlong is a unit of measurement, but I think the mystery of not knowing is probably better for me than actually finding out what it is.

Anthony_TBBF · Post by **Anthony_TBBF** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 6:26 pm

I took the train from St. Pancras to Nottingham last year, it's an east trip. We are flying into Heathrow and it's a dead easy ride on the tube to King's Cross from the airport.

phil · Post by **phil** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 6:28 pm

i took the train from st. pancras to nottingham back in 2001 when i was last over there, and it cost me about 75 pounds for the ticket, which i didn't expect to be so high... maybe it was bad because i bought it the morning of the trip instead of in advance, like airline tickets... i mean, they call it a commuter-train, that's a bit high for a commute, ain't it? maybe i'm just confusing it with commuter trains around new york, it wouldn't surprise me if "commuter" meant something very different in the two countries...

the train out was more or less on time, they run like every couple of hours or something, but the train back was a confusing mess... the nottingham station amazed me by having no evidence of a computerized system for infoming people what time and platform the trains were on, just a paper schedule tacked to a message board... the london train allegedy departed at 20-past every hour or something like that, but there were 2 different trains more or less on the platform listed, and not a single railway employee to be found.. i ended up asking some loitering teens who looked to be bundling off for a ski trip which was the london train... until i got back to st. pancras, i was certain the little rats would tell me the wrong one just to jerk with an adult foreigner... so, the moral of the story is, uhhh... trust roudy teenagers.

oh yeah, and if the GW receptionist calls a cab for you, wait outside because they just kinda zip through the circular drive and if they don't see anyone, they keep going...

and while i'm ranting about transportation on that trip, why the hell can't you get a damn taxi in london after dark without a set of baricades and a flare gun?

Grumbledook · Post by **Grumbledook** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 6:32 pm

Trains in england are god awful, its a right shambles and over priced

Anthony_TBBF · Post by **Anthony_TBBF** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 10:24 pm

I got screwed by the high ticket price last year, I just found out I paid more than double what it should have cost

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 10:36 pm

Skummy wrote:Bonus points if anyone can tell me what a furlong is.

1/8 of a mile or 220 yards (~200m).

Buy your train tickets in advance (like now) they will be much cheaper.

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 10:46 pm

@Anthony: when will you arrive at Heathrow? Maybe we could travel together.

There's a direct coach connection from Heathrow Airport to Nottingham Broad Marsh Bus Station (near the train station). It takes 3:30h, you will not be able to beat this with tube/train.

I did the tube/train in 2000 and not only did it cost 3 times of the coach trip, but it also took nearly 4h. expect around an hour in the tube, then 10 min. walk, waiting for train, ...