Gatwick arrival to train

I realize this has been asked in the past but I am looking for current thoughts. I am scheduled into Gatwick south terminal at 12:40 on a Friday, 6-22 and am looking at tickets to Southampton. The £5 advance just showed up for the 14:09 train and I wondered if experienced Gatwick travelers felt I could make that. We will have checked luggage and are coming from the US on US passports. I assume if I miss it I can still purchase £16 flex tickets at the train station for the 15:09 so would only be out £10 for the two of us. We have always flown LHR in the past, so GAT is a new experience. Thanks.

I realize this has been asked in the past but I am looking for current thoughts. I am scheduled into Gatwick south terminal at 12:40 on a Friday, 6-22 and am looking at tickets to Southampton. The £5 advance just showed up for the 14:09 train and I wondered if experienced Gatwick travelers felt I could make that. We will have checked luggage and are coming from the US on US passports. I assume if I miss it I can still purchase £16 flex tickets at the train station for the 15:09 so would only be out £10 for the two of us. We have always flown LHR in the past, so GAT is a new experience. Thanks.

A couple of thoughts.

Have landed at Gatwick several times and love it. Much easier than Heathrow.

But—— I think it will be nip and tuck to make it in time for the 14:09 Train. By the time you get off the plane , collect your luggage ,get through customs and get to the platform. You will be watching your watch!

Also another caveat, the railway is Southwestern who have been in a legal strike position for a few years and they are known for taking strike action with little notice,usually the day of. We got caught with 5£ tickets we couldn’t use due to sudden strike action and ended up on the bus. Our friend who lives just north of Southampton warned us to be cautious if taking the train for this trip in June. And we hadn’t asked!

We are planning to take the bus when we take our trip just in case.

Check out the bus schedule, National Express as there are usually choices of time. They are frequent.

Good luck with whatever your choice ends up to be!

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A couple of thoughts.

Have landed at Gatwick several times and love it. Much easier than Heathrow.

But—— I think it will be nip and tuck to make it in time for the 14:09 Train. By the time you get off the plane , collect your luggage ,get through customs and get to the platform. You will be watching your watch!

Also another caveat, the railway is Southwestern who have been in a legal strike position for a few years and they are known for taking strike action with little notice,usually the day of. We got caught with 5£ tickets we couldn’t use due to sudden strike action and ended up on the bus. Our friend who lives just north of Southampton warned us to be cautious if taking the train for this trip in June. And we hadn’t asked!

We are planning to take the bus when we take our trip just in case.

Check out the bus schedule, National Express as there are usually choices of time. They are frequent.

Good luck with whatever your choice ends up to be!

 

 

 

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Slight correction!

It is Southern Railway not Southwestern! Oops!

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At the moment the Southern Rail dispute has quietened down and even when the strikes were on, the Gatwick - Southampton line was not really affected. I'd still be happy to go for the railway choice, but agree you could be cutting it fine timewise. Luckily for you, the rail station is in the south terminal, so not far to walk. Landing at 1240, you should hopefully be through customs/immigration in an hour (1340), which gives you 30 mins to get the train. You probably will do it, but could be by the skinof your teeth! If you did miss the 1409, hang on for the 1509. There are 2 other trains which go via a change at Clapham Junction which is a right pain with luggage! I've checked National Express coaches and if everything went really to pot, there is a coach fom South Terminal to Southampton at 1610 arriving 1915.

Simon

Gatwick rail station entrance is in the South Terminal arrivals hall, right opposite where passengers emerge from the baggage hall / customs. Very convenient, and if it's raining you won't even get your feet wet.

As others have said, the prospects of making the 2.09pm are pretty slim - but probably worth that £5 gamble.

If you don't make it, the £16 tickets are only good for direct trains - not for those with a change at Clapham etc. References to "via Barnham" mean those direct trains. The direct train is simplest anyway.

Yes, the Southern dispute (mainly about the planned introduction of driver-only trains) started in April 2016.

I was telling CC members who were travelling a couple of months later that the strikes would very probably be history by the time they travelled :rolleyes: :o

The strikes are intermittent and don't affect all routes. I'm pretty certain there are at least several days notice of strikes (that's the law), and it might be worth checking the Southern website a day or two before you travel

.Here's a typical strike notice from earlier this year.

https://www.southernrailway.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/dispute

You'll see that Gatwick to Southampton wasn't affected.

A real PITA for commuters on several routes, whose working lives have been severely disrupted.

The problem for cruisers is more about the uncertainty than the reality.

BTW, can I presume that you're not heading for a same-day cruise. :eek:

You'd not make it for registration even if you caught the 2.09pm

JB :)

Thanks Simon and John. You both pretty much confirmed my thoughts. I was actually going out to purchase the £16 off peak tickets which I could use on any train in midday when the £5ers showed up. I was just wanting to see if it was a decent bet to try them as the loss is minimal if I do not make it. No way I would try to arrive same day on a cruise from Europe. We are staying overnight in Southampton. I know about the National Express bus but even the 15:09 train will get me in earlier. I was only looking at the direct trains as did not want to fool around with luggage. On my return time is more of the essence so I am using Smith’s from the port to Gatwick.

We actually just did this on May 25.

Our plane was due to land around 10am. I think we were close to that time, and we just made the train which leaves shortly after 12. It took about 1 hour 30 min to get through everything. Then we had to pick up our train tickets and find the platform. It was all easy, but I think an open-ended ticket for the day would be a better choice. That's what we had. Two reasons - if we picked a specific time and everything was fast, I didn't much want to sit around waiting for my train. If the opposite happened and everything was slow, I didn't want to have to worry about missing my train! We also arrived a day early, so had lots of time in case of 'issues'! :)

We had a similar ticket for our return trip. Turns out that the train we wanted to take got cancelled and we ended up on one 20 min later. This changed us from a train that was direct to Gatwick to another one which forced us to change trains in Barnham. We were going to Gatwick and staying overnight on site, so the change in plans was very low stress!

Wheezedr: I'm going to infer that you are not sailing on the same day you arrive at Gatwick: June 22.

There is only one sailing scheduled from Southampton that day: Queen Victoria is due out at 4:30 pm.

Your 14:09 train arrives Southampton 4:03 pm, so that's not doable.

So, if you are staying overnight (or not cruising at all?) this makes your time much more flexible.

The good news is that you have done the right thing by using Gatwick rather than Heathrow. Well done! Most people from this side of the pond don't.

If you touch down at 12:40, you should be in the terminal by about 1:00pm.

Lord knows how long Immigration will be like - allow 30 minutes, whereupon your bags will be waiting for you at the carousel.

As others have said, the walk to the rail platform is less than 5 minutes, with tickets in hand.So now we're at about 1:45 pm. So you might make the 14:09! IF the flight is on time.

As you probably know already, direct trains to Southampton run hourly at xx:09 through the day (not Sundays, for readers of this) and arrive just under 2 hours later. A cab to any cruise terminal (Southampton has 4) is less than 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, despite giving its Gatwick travel lots of promo, Southern Railway runs commuter trains and baggage capacity is virtually non-existent (other than over-head shelving). So you will have to park you cases as best you can - be sure to keep an eye on them, of course.

You are right to not bother with first class - it is no different to the standard class in terms of seating and amenities.

Nevertheless, it is a great, direct, cheap way to get to Southampton from a London airport.

If you miss the 14:09, an "anytime" walk up ticket will be about GBP16 each.

Unlike North American trains, UK trains do not require airline-style seat allocations, so a walk-up fare is always available.

One last point, your train may split into two separate routings at some point. Be sure you are in the Southampton section (where you train terminates - so no rush to get the bags off).

Hope this, and the excellent advice from others above, helps.

Bon Voyage.

Figured I ought to thank everyone for their suggestions and tips. As the £5 cheapies had disappeared before I returned to the site I am just going to buy the flexible £16 tickets so I am good for any of the off peak direct trains. I know these depart each hour at the xx09 time slot. I am not foolish enough to sail on day of arrival, we embark 6/23 on the Sapphire Princess for the fjords of Norway. Don’t over credit my smarts as to Gatwick, it just happens that Norwegian Air flies there nonstop from OAK which makes for an easy departure for me. We are also using Gatwick for our return via Iceland but as that was more time crucial I am using Smith’s for a pickup in Southampton. Anyway gives me time to relax and shop for wine pre cruise.

We took the direct train to Southampton and arrived 2 hours and 17 stops later. After such a long flight, this train was painful. There is no space for luggag. It was very uncomfortable.

We are booked to arrive at 6:55am on our next trip in September. We would prefer not to deal with the train, are there any companies that offer a private transfer via car? Do you know what the cost would be?

We are also open to taking a bus. We took the bus from Heathrow to Gatwick once and it was comfortable, although very long. How long would the bus take from Gatwick to Southampton?

We are not cruising the same day, we're staying in Southampton two days before the cruise.

Thank you very much for your help!

We took the direct train to Southampton and arrived 2 hours and 17 stops later. After such a long flight, this train was painful. There is no space for luggag. It was very uncomfortable.

 

We are booked to arrive at 6:55am on our next trip in September. We would prefer not to deal with the train, are there any companies that offer a private transfer via car? Do you know what the cost would be?

 

We are also open to taking a bus. We took the bus from Heathrow to Gatwick once and it was comfortable, although very long. How long would the bus take from Gatwick to Southampton?

 

We are not cruising the same day, we're staying in Southampton two days before the cruise.

 

Thank you very much for your help!

A private transfer would cost around £100 to £130, & takes up to 2 hours.

www.smithsforairports.com and www.westquaycars.com and www.aquacars.co.uk are all based at the Southampton end and are frequently recommended here on Cruise Critic. Plenty of other operators based in Southampton and at the airport.

If it's a weekday (mon-fri) you'll be hitting the M23 / M25 motorway route at commuter time, but for Southampton drivers have a number of cross-country options which avoid the worst of the traffic.

Of course you need to pre-book.

By National Express coach it's about £12 pp & takes about 3 hrs (that's a lot longer than Gatwick to Heathrow - the route to Southampton from Gatwick actually goes via Heathrow, hence the journey time difference compared to a private transfer). The service is infrequent so there's a risk of having to hang around at the airport for up to a couple of hours.

You're strongly recommended to pre-book. For journeys from airports your Nat Express ticket is transferable to an earlier or later time. Allow for about 90 minutes from aircraft door to train platform.

By train it's about £16 pp & takes 2 hrs. Direct service hourly, avoid the other options which involve a change of train cos they're expensive as well as inconvenient. There's also the £5 option for some train times - they're only good for pre-purchased tickets for a specific train time, but might suit.

There's no direct service on sundays - best not to use the train if its a sunday)

Luggage storage on trains is a bit hit-and-miss, but I'm surprised that you found the train uncomfortable.

No need to pre-book unless you want to choose the cut-price £5 train.

JB :)

We are also coming into Gatwick in September and we are looking into National Express ....we went to prebook online and there were times to choose ...so we chose the later one after reading how long customs can take ......we also choose the return ticket as well and that one has no time from Southampton back to Gatwick ???? Is this because it is not at the Airport ??? Its a great deal at just over 100 Canadian for both of us return ....

Luggage storage on trains is a bit hit-and-miss, but I'm surprised that you found the train uncomfortable.

 

JB :)

What we found uncomfortable was having to put the luggage on the table since there is no other area to store luggage.

By the way, what does everyone else do with their luggage on this train?

I guess the transfer is going to be painful no matter what we choose.

We are going to explore booking a tour company for the day that will drop us off at our hotel. It will make the travel time more entertaining.

Thank you for your help!

By the way, what does everyone else do with their luggage on this train?

For example, sometimes two people will need to grab an area that has four seats in pairs facing each other, and use all the floor space.

Where there are two rows of seats back-to-back, you can put luggage in the "tent" between the seat backs - that's an intended storage place.

And smaller/lighter things can go on an overhead rack, if there is one.

Improvise.

 

For example, sometimes two people will need to grab an area that has four seats in pairs facing each other, and use all the floor space.

 

Where there are two rows of seats back-to-back, you can put luggage in the "tent" between the seat backs - that's an intended storage place.

 

And smaller/lighter things can go on an overhead rack, if there is one.

We put our suitcases flat against the wall where passengers get on/off the train and sat nearby to keep an eye on them. Since only one side opens, if you guess right (or know) you can put them on the side where the doors are less used.

Had to end this story. Good thing I didn’t buy the £5 tickets for the 14:09 but for an amazingly different reason. Landed 10 mins early at 12:30PM, we had prepurchased train tickets, among the first off our flight, relatively quick at passport control and with about a minute to spare we actually caught the 13:09. Would never have thought that to be possible.

Nice.