time needed from St. Pancras to Paddington?

[duesselmartin]

Hello everyone.
I will be travelling soon from Germany to Oxford via Eurostar.
How long does one realistically need from leaving the Eurostar train to the platforms at Paddington? My ticket is only valid as far as St. Pancras. Where is the best place to buy an onward ticket?
Thank you and happy new year!
Martin

 

[bb21]

The best place to buy an onward ticket to Oxford from is Eurostar. Their UK outlet, and possibly overseas ones, can issue special tickets at discounted prices compared to buying on the day at the railway station.

The flexible tickets they sell are not restricted to any particular train, cost £8.90 single (prices may vary slightly) and offer CIV protection. A cross-London transfer on London Underground will also be included in that fare to allow you to get from St Pancras to Paddington.

The official interchange time between St Pancras and Paddington is 45 minutes, but you will obviously need to factor in time for clearing immigration (which we are recommended to plan a minimum of 35 minutes for but that can vary significantly on the day), so unless you are arriving late at night, this should not be a problem as your ticket will not be tied to any specific train.

The Eurostar sales number is (+44) 1233 617 575. Once you have your ticket, come back and we will just double check that it is indeed the ones I was talking about above.

 

[pne]

The best place to buy an onward ticket to Oxford from is Eurostar.

Do you know whether they will also sell you such connecting tickets if you’re travelling to London on a DB London Spezial ticket, i.e. you didn’t buy your Eurostar ticket from Eurostar directly?

Do they sell such connecting tickets in both directions, i.e. after a continent-to-London train as well as before a London-to-continent train?

Can such tickets be to and from different places, e.g. London to Oxford on the out journey but then (say) Portsmouth to London on the return?

Do those tickets allow break of journey, and are they valid for multiple days allowing one to break one’s journey overnight?

 

[bb21]

Do you know whether they will also sell you such connecting tickets if you’re travelling to London on a DB London Spezial ticket, i.e. you didn’t buy your Eurostar ticket from Eurostar directly?

I don't see why not. It is essentially a CIV ticket connecting into/out of a Eurostar service. Who you bought the ticket from should not matter. The sales people are very friendly I have been told, by multiple forum members, so I doubt you will run into any problem.

Do they sell such connecting tickets in both directions, i.e. after a continent-to-London train as well as before a London-to-continent train?

Can such tickets be to and from different places, e.g. London to Oxford on the out journey but then (say) Portsmouth to London on the return?

Yes. These tickets are all sold as singles so you can mix and match according to your requirements.

For Portsmouth, there is a cheaper time-restricted ticket which is not valid on roughly speaking peak services, but there is also an unrestricted single at £14.40, still excellent value compared to a walk-on single bought at the station.

Do those tickets allow break of journey, and are they valid for multiple days allowing one to break one’s journey overnight?

There is no break of journey restriction that I know of, however I am unsure whether they are valid for one day or the European standard of two months for flexible tickets. Someone who has bought one should be able to tell you that.

 

[maniacmartin]

If these are the tickets issued from origin 'LNDON ESTAR CIV', you can look them up on the unofficial site BRFares.com using station code LOE

To Oxford, the validity shows as TWO MONTHS CIV

This page in our Fares, Ticketing and Routeing Guide may be helpful

 

[pne]

If these are the tickets issued from origin 'LNDON ESTAR CIV', you can look them up on the unofficial site BRFares.com using station code LOE

Ah, cheers! I had heard of such a point but had failed to find it by typing "LONDON" into brfares.com and looking at the autocompletion... didn't think to try "LNDON" instead!

Those look like very reasonable conditions indeed, and the prices are also favourable compared to walk-up ones.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

This page in our Fares, Ticketing and Routeing Guide may be helpful

Ah - thanks!

I see a different phone number in there for Eurostar sales, though, compared to the one bb21 quoted. I expect either will work?

 

[bb21]

Ah, cheers! I had heard of such a point but had failed to find it by typing "LONDON" into brfares.com and looking at the autocompletion... didn't think to try "LNDON" instead!

Those look like very reasonable conditions indeed, and the prices are also favourable compared to walk-up ones.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Ah - thanks!

I see a different phone number in there for Eurostar sales, though, compared to the one bb21 quoted. I expect either will work?

They may have more than one number, or it might have changed. Give both a try. Mine is taken from a post from last year.

 

[duesselmartin]

It is a DB London Spezial I have as far as St. Pancras. Can one buy the onward ticket to Oxford at short notice from Eurostar in Brussels? Does that still make it cheaper than the UK standard fare ?

 

[bb21]

I don't know about Brussels, but iirc the telesales people can arrange for tickets to be collected from ticket machines using your card, so you should be able to collect the tickets on the day at St Pancras.

 

[button_boxer]

Do you know whether they will also sell you such connecting tickets if you’re travelling to London on a DB London Spezial ticket, i.e. you didn’t buy your Eurostar ticket from Eurostar directly?

They did for me the last time I used a London Spezial (admittedly this was a couple of years ago).

 

[tranzitjim]

What about walking between the terminals?

How long would that take?

 

[mrmartin]

What about walking between the terminals?

How long would that take?

Between St Pancras and Paddington? Probably about an hour. It's about 5km.

 

[SickyNicky]

If you want to buy CIV tickets online, TrainSplit.com sells them - just use the origin or destination of "London International".

You may need to provide your Eurostar booking confirmation to the guard to validate these tickets (to stop people buying them for purely UK journeys).

 

[pne]

If you want to buy CIV tickets online, TrainSplit.com sells them - just use the origin or destination of "London International".

That's not quite the same as those Eurostar-only tickets, I think; "London International" presumably means LNE (LONDON INTERNATIONAL (CIV) aka LONDON INTL(CIV)) rather than LOE (LNDON EUROSTAR (CIV) aka LNDON ESTAR CIV).

Loco2 also sells tickets to LNE.

Not that neither Loco2 nor TrainSplit sells tickets from LNE, whereas tickets from LOE are possible (but presumably only directly from Eurostar). (Return tickets to LNE are possible, but only in that direction, which can be useful for UK residents going south-east but is not much use to Germans going west.)

The prices to LNE vs. LOE can also differ considerably -- for example, BRFares.com gives a price of 12.50 for an Anytime Standard class Single from Horsham (HRH) to LOE (Eurostar) but 22.10 from HRH to LNE (London International).

(HRH–Eurostar being a connection I'm interested in for April.)

 

[SickyNicky]

That's not quite the same as those Eurostar-only tickets, I think; "London International" presumably means LNE (LONDON INTERNATIONAL (CIV) aka LONDON INTL(CIV)) rather than LOE (LNDON EUROSTAR (CIV) aka LNDON ESTAR CIV).

You're correct - I haven't checked on all routes, but on some routes LNE is more useful and and others LOE is better. I suppose it depends on your needs, but TrainSplit can't sell LOE, it appears.

Not that neither Loco2 nor TrainSplit sells tickets from LNE

TrainSplit appears to allow this, certainly on a test basket I just did from LNE to HFD.

 

[pne]

You're correct - I haven't checked on all routes, but on some routes LNE is more useful and and others LOE is better. I suppose it depends on your needs

Could well be, so it's worth checking both.

but TrainSplit can't sell LOE, it appears.

I wouldn't be surprised if only Eurostar could.

TrainSplit appears to allow this, certainly on a test basket I just did from LNE to HFD.

Ah, and Loco2 can do that route, too.

I suppose I had just picked bad stations There do seem to be more fares to LNE than from it, e.g. you can have Oxford to LNE but not vice versa as there's no fare set from LNE to OXF.

Thanks for the correction!

 

[duesselmartin]

Bought it from SNCB NMBS in Brussels. 24.80 Euro return. Amazing value for money compared to UK prices!