Wokingham- London Train

[Natalie]

I am thinking of moving to Wokingham and commuting into London. My job is in Putney so I would likely get a train to either Staines or Richmond and change there to get the train to Putney. I imagine I would either get the 6:32 or 7:03 train from Wokingham and was wondering how busy the trains are? Being further out from London are you likely to get a seat or are they packed? I know it will be busy at Richmond/Staines but was wondering what the first part of the journey would be like.
I might try and do the commute at some stage but in the meantime if anyone has any experience it would be really useful!

 

[CatfordCat]

I travel from somewhere between Wokingham and Reading towards London daily - although I'm usually a train or two later than this, and can't comment on the 2 trains an hour that don't stop between Reading and Wokingham...

Yes, there's usually seats available as far as at least Ascot / Sunningdale, and since a lot of people commute from Reading to Bracknell, there's usually a chance to move to a better seat at Bracknell.

In the evening, you'll be changing trains anyway - I work somewhere in south London so change at Clapham Junction, and I generally try to avoid getting on the Reading trains there - they get very well filled with Richmond / Twickenham / Feltham passengers for whom it's their 'fast' train, so I tend to get on one of the semi-fast Shepperton via Twickenham trains that's a few minutes in front of the Reading train in the evening peak, and change at Twickenham.

The front coach of the Waterloo to Reading trains loses a lot of passengers at Twickenham so there's a chance of a seat near the front at Twickenham - failing that Staines and Egham also see a lot of people get off from the front of the train. Coach 7 tends to be peak for Feltham passengers getting off, so usually seats from Feltham in coach 7. Exit at Wokingham is at the London end of the train, so this also means less of a walk at Wokingham.

 

[transmanche]

I am thinking of moving to Wokingham and commuting into London. My job is in Putney so I would likely get a train to either Staines or Richmond and change there to get the train to Putney. I imagine I would either get the 6:32 or 7:03 train from Wokingham and was wondering how busy the trains are?

SWR's 'How busy is my train?' tool suggests that seats are available from Wokingham at that time of the morning. (Although the last update was a year ago, so does not reflect the current timetable.)

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/how-busy-is-my-train

 

[TEW]

SWR's 'How busy is my train?' tool suggests that seats are available from Wokingham at that time of the morning. (Although the last update was a year ago, so does not reflect the current timetable.)

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/how-busy-is-my-train

I wouldn't place much faith in that tool, it is hopelessly optimistic.

 

[Natalie]

I travel from somewhere between Wokingham and Reading towards London daily - although I'm usually a train or two later than this, and can't comment on the 2 trains an hour that don't stop between Reading and Wokingham...

Yes, there's usually seats available as far as at least Ascot / Sunningdale, and since a lot of people commute from Reading to Bracknell, there's usually a chance to move to a better seat at Bracknell.

In the evening, you'll be changing trains anyway - I work somewhere in south London so change at Clapham Junction, and I generally try to avoid getting on the Reading trains there - they get very well filled with Richmond / Twickenham / Feltham passengers for whom it's their 'fast' train, so I tend to get on one of the semi-fast Shepperton via Twickenham trains that's a few minutes in front of the Reading train in the evening peak, and change at Twickenham.

The front coach of the Waterloo to Reading trains loses a lot of passengers at Twickenham so there's a chance of a seat near the front at Twickenham - failing that Staines and Egham also see a lot of people get off from the front of the train. Coach 7 tends to be peak for Feltham passengers getting off, so usually seats from Feltham in coach 7. Exit at Wokingham is at the London end of the train, so this also means less of a walk at Wokingham.

Thanks very much, really useful!

 

[Natalie]

SWR's 'How busy is my train?' tool suggests that seats are available from Wokingham at that time of the morning. (Although the last update was a year ago, so does not reflect the current timetable.)

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/how-busy-is-my-train

Thank you! I think I will just need to try it myself at some point but this is useful thanks

 

[Alessandro P]

hello everyone..
I am considering to relocate to Wokingham and commute everyday to gunnesbury ( Chiswick)
If i look train line it says that the average time is 1h and 20 minutes.
The weird things is that if I search from Bracknell to Gunnesbury it is 1 h.
So there is a 20 minutes of difference on an average commute which I cannot figure out given that Bracknell and Wokingham are only 6 minutes away by train.

How long do you think does it take?

 

[30907]

Trainline gives me 1hr 2min from Wokingham in the morning peak, the NRE journey planner gives the same set of times..

 

[hassaanhc]

I think the issue is the slightly different timings of trains from Feltham towards Chiswick before 0800, which means what is usually a 5-6 minute connection at Feltham between trains becomes about 20-25 minutes at that time. It is faster to change at Twickenham during those times but that doesn't appear to be valid with a day ticket due to the double-back between Whitton and Twickenham.

Detailed answer: The 6-8 minute wait at Virginia Water for Hounslow line trains that happens during the day is taken at Hounslow early in the morning, therefore the Hounslow line train runs ahead of the one from Reading instead of behind it as usual for the rest of the day.

 

[Alessandro P]

thank you guys for the answers..

From Wokingham to Gunnersbury the average time is 1h, 20 min






from Bracknell to Gunnersbury is only 1 h



why there is a difference of 20 minutes .
Do they train stop at Wokingham for 20 minutes before going to Bracknell on average?


Does anyone commute on this route?
What is your experience?
Is this a doable commuting? To be honest for me a journey of 1h and 20 minutes is very a long trip.
I was hoping to get this within 1 h ish...

thank you

 

[rg177]

From what I can see, if you actually want Gunnersbury and not Chiswick, it takes around 1hr 07min changing at Richmond.

'From 1hr 19min' is incorrect.

 

[Alessandro P]

From what I can see, if you actually want Gunnersbury and not Chiswick, it takes around 1hr 07min changing at Richmond.

'From 1hr 19min' is incorrect.

This sounds good ..
also if you break this down Wokingham to Richmond is it 50 minutes on average
Richmond to gunnesbury is 10 min ish which adding delays, it makes sense to be 1 h and 10 minutes.

I hope someone who actualy does that route can comment on the real timings..

 

[30907]

This sounds good ..
also if you break this down Wokingham to Richmond is it 50 minutes on average
Richmond to gunnesbury is 10 min ish which adding delays, it makes sense to be 1 h and 10 minutes.

I hope someone who actualy does that route can comment on the real timings..

Found the answer: there is an 0440 train from Wokingham to Gatwick Airport which connects at Guildford with a train to Waterloo which connects at Clapham Junction for Richmond. You'd have to be pretty desperate to go that way, as it takes over 2 hours, and of course that distorts the average journey time.
It doesn't go via Bracknell, as the screenshots show, so the average time from Bracknell is much more realistic.

If you want to know how punctual the trains are, there are various websites which will tell you this. I use Realtime Trains but there may be better ones.

Overall journey times on that route are unlikely to change very much in the next few years.