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Stevenage to London day out.

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dmu fan

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Going to have a day out to London from Stevenage on bank holiday Saturday.
Which service is better lner or thameslink?
Do I need to reserve seats? How do I do that?
Any advice really welcome.
 
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JonathanH

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Going to have a day out to London from Stevenage on bank holiday Saturday.
Which service is better lner or thameslink?
Do I need to reserve seats? How do I do that?
Any advice really welcome.
Thameslink is more frequent. LNER have gaps in their timetable - eg the last one back is 1933 from Kings Cross. You can reserve LNER seats on their website but you no longer have to.
 

yorkie

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LNER can be cheaper, but they are less frequent, and some of the trains to London in the morning can be full & standing on arrival at Stevenage so you may not get a comfortable journey.

If you book online you can request a seat reservation on LNER services. Trainsplit and LNER's websites will offer seat selection if possible (but there have been some technical issues with that lately)

No guarantee the reservation will be honoured; my last LNER train to London was a 5 car vice 9 car and was full & standing by Stevenage.
 

plugwash

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What exactly are you planning to do in London? How do you value price vs connivance?

According to brfares a Stevenage to London terminals super-offpeak (weekends and bank holidays only) day return can be had for £12.60. That should be valid on both LNER and Thameslink services but I think it only takes you as far as Kings Cross/St pancras.


If you want the ticket issued to "London Thameslink" instead so you can stay on the train further south then the price goes up to £14.60


Another option is an outboundary travelcard, this will let you travel as much as you like in zones 1-6 and if you do a lot of travel within London is likely to work out cheaper than buying a rail ticket and seperately paying the oyster/contactless cap on top. It looks like super offpeak day travelcards are available for £14 LNER only and £19 valid on all rail operators.


 

Hadders

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Just buy a Super Off Peak Day Travelcard on the day of travel from one of the ticket offices or the ticket machine on the day of travel. This costs £19.00 and allows you to make one return journey to London and unlimited underground, national rail and buses is fare zones 1-6 (there are a couple of exceptions but we don’t need to worry about them here).

The LNER only fare is a little cheaper although the service is less frequent, especially on the return.

Then catch the first fast train that arrives, Thameslink have 4 fast trains an hour (xx02,xx17,xx32,xx47) that only call at Finsbury Park. LNER have one or two trains an hour that are non-stop but the time saving is marginal. Don’t get the Thameslink trains at xx10 or xx40 as these are slow.

No need for seat reservations, just turn up and go.
 
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