Havant to London Bridge- options?

[Lisa oi]

Greetings,

Recently moved to Havant and exploring options travelling from Havant to London bridge.
Is it better to go via London Victoria or Waterloo.? Or is it better to get all London terminals ticket? ( going for one day initially then later 2 days a week).
lots of options to get to London bridge but the return journey ; more choice via London waterloo.

Also, It is confusing the off peak and peak times as well. I always thought travelling to London before 9am is considered peak time but the tickets I’m viewing are citing off peak before 9am. Have I missed something here?

Haven’t travelled to London in 15 mts. Normally take the RDG to Paddington so this is all new.

Would appreciate recommendations.
Thanks in advance

Lisaloo

 

[flitwickbeds]

Not sure about the London terminal options you have, but for peak time it's usually based on when the train *arrives* in London - and I think the time is 10am, not 9am.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Greetings,

Recently moved to Havant and exploring options travelling from Havant to London bridge.
Is it better to go via London Victoria or Waterloo.? Or is it better to get all London terminals ticket? ( going for one day initially then later 2 days a week).
lots of options to get to London bridge but the return journey ; more choice via London waterloo.

Also, It is confusing the off peak and peak times as well. I always thought travelling to London before 9am is considered peak time but the tickets I’m viewing are citing off peak before 9am. Have I missed something here?

Haven’t travelled to London in 15 mts. Normally take the RDG to Paddington so this is all new.

Would appreciate recommendations.
Thanks in advance

Lisaloo

Havant to London Waterloo is a good 20 mins faster than to Victoria, so I would take that route unless you have a particular need to be near Croydon/Clapham Junction.
Off peak on South West Trains is after 10am I believe, so you would need to purchase Anytime or Flexi Season tickets for travel before then.
I would recommend the Flexi Season tickets, cheaper for once or twice a week and you activate them when you want, main drawback is you can't get them as Travelcards, so the Tube costs extra, but there's more details here: Flexi Season Tickets.
I hope you find this information useful.
Ali

 

[pompeyfan]

London Bridge I would imagine would be a change at East Croydon. I was under the impression that GTR ran out of ECR as late as 2153. Currently last train from Waterloo is 2245 except for Saturdays which is 2315 and 2345

 

[AlastairFraser]

Re-reading your message, have realised you need to get into London Bridge. Waterloo I'm pretty sure will still be quicker because of the Tube.

 

[ajs]

Hello a welcome to the forum. I write as a "local".

SWR provide the Portsmouth - -Havant - Waterloo services and journey times to Waterloo from Havant are around 90 minutes.

Southern provide the Portsmouth / Southampton to Victoria services and from Havant it's about 105 minutes to Victoria.

Whilst others may disagree, the quickest way to get from Havant to London Bridge is going from Havant to Waterloo and walking to Waterloo East - it's clearly signposted and at Waterloo East getting South Eastern train to London Bridge.

For instance catching train at Havant at 0834 on a weekday would get you into London Bridge at 10.19.

Southern do run at least 1 train a day direct from Havant to London Brudge taking about 2 hours - 0547 from Havant 0743 at London Bridge - it stops at a lot of stations.

I have lost track of the peak and off peak travel times, stopped commuting over 10 years ago! But am sure that others can provide better guidance.

Some other things perhaps consider are the times you need to travel, always on a week day and/ or at weekends.

It is possible to get advance tickets if you can stick to your stipulated train times.

Railcard?

 

[Watershed]

Greetings,

Recently moved to Havant and exploring options travelling from Havant to London bridge.
Is it better to go via London Victoria or Waterloo.? Or is it better to get all London terminals ticket? ( going for one day initially then later 2 days a week).
lots of options to get to London bridge but the return journey ; more choice via London waterloo.

Also, It is confusing the off peak and peak times as well. I always thought travelling to London before 9am is considered peak time but the tickets I’m viewing are citing off peak before 9am. Have I missed something here?

Haven’t travelled to London in 15 mts. Normally take the RDG to Paddington so this is all new.

Would appreciate recommendations.
Thanks in advance

Lisaloo

If your destination is London Bridge, there's not much in it timewise as to whether you go via Woking (SWR) or Three Bridges (Southern). However tickets for the latter route are generally a bit cheaper.

There isn't one uniform time that's peak or off-peak - it simply depends on the restriction code on the ticket in question.

If you buy an Off-Peak Return, route Any Permitted (£40.30), the restriction code is US, which is a little complex but basically just means you can't take any train that arrives into a London Terminal before 10:00.

If you buy an Off-Peak Day Return, route Three Bridges (£36.30), that restriction becomes C0, i.e. you can't take any train that arrives into a London Terminal before 09:45.

There are lots of other tickets available - the helpful BR Fares site lists them all - but essentially there is no hard and fast rule.

Cheapest of all may be to buy Advance tickets, if they are available around the times you want to travel.

 

[pompeyfan]

Wouldn’t a London terminals return ticket be swallowed on exit at Waterloo though? Wouldn’t it require the national rail equivalent of a zone u1 ticket? I’m a bit rusty on tickets etc etc

 

[Watershed]

Wouldn’t a London terminals return ticket be swallowed on exit at Waterloo though? Wouldn’t it require the national rail equivalent of a zone u1 ticket? I’m a bit rusty on tickets etc etc

It might be swallowed, so would be a good idea to ask staff to open the barrier for you - but validity doesn't expire at the first London Terminal you pass through. Otherwise you would have to get off at Vauxhall if you held a London Terminals ticket!

 

[swt_passenger]

Wouldn’t a London terminals return ticket be swallowed on exit at Waterloo though? Wouldn’t it require the national rail equivalent of a zone u1 ticket? I’m a bit rusty on tickets etc etc

No, since the barriers went in they are supposed to have always been set to be returned because of this further validity to other terminals.

 

[akm]

If your destination is London Bridge, there's not much in it timewise as to whether you go via Woking (SWR) or Three Bridges (Southern).

My automatic reaction was "No, ajs has it right, surely Waterloo will usually be quicker", but I checked fastjp and you are dead right!

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Wouldn’t a London terminals return ticket be swallowed on exit at Waterloo though? Wouldn’t it require the national rail equivalent of a zone u1 ticket? I’m a bit rusty on tickets etc etc

Waterloo barriers are set to return London Terminals tickets to passengers as they are valid onto London Bridge / Charing Cross amongst others.

 

[island]

Wouldn’t a London terminals return ticket be swallowed on exit at Waterloo though? Wouldn’t it require the national rail equivalent of a zone u1 ticket? I’m a bit rusty on tickets etc etc

The barriers at Waterloo will return all London Terminals tickets unless they are advance fares valid on SWR only, as they will always have onward validity to Charing Cross, London Bridge, etc.

 

[Watershed]

My automatic reaction was "No, ajs has it right, surely Waterloo will usually be quicker", but I checked fastjp and you are dead right!

Of course, that is based on official connection times, which inherently bias the results towards National Rail-only options. But even Google Maps, which uses more realistic connection times, suggests that both routes are similar timewise.

 

[davews]

Definitely London Terminals via Waterloo/Waterloo East. I have done that many times, tickets never swallowed at Waterloo but swallowed at London Bridge, it is an accepted route.

 

[Lisa oi]

Thank you so so much everyone. I’m so delighted with all the responses. So helpful.

 

[paul1609]

My automatic reaction was "No, ajs has it right, surely Waterloo will usually be quicker", but I checked fastjp and you are dead right!

It used to be the case that the Pompey Direct line was faster but journey times have been extended by the inclusion of extra stops at places like Godalming and 40 mph "desiro" speed limits through Buriton tunnel. At the same the Pompey portion of Southerns Arun Valley service is now non stop between Barnham and Horsham and uses the quarry line between Gatwick and East Croydon rather than calling at Redhill. As a consequence the time differential has now narrowed. If youre at Clapham Junction now its not worth changing at Woking when you have the 2tph direct Southern services.