London commuters help please

[SaintHacker]

Dont know if its any use but if i drive to london for anything i park the car in Richmond car park. Its not exactly cheap but obviously a lot less than central London and its only ten mins on the main line to Waterloo, and its within the travelcard zone.

 

[woody69]

I travel from Swindon to London everyday on FGW. I used to work at Moorgate so would hop on the Hammersmith and City or the Circle line and tbh that was the most frustrating part of the journey. It is supposed to take 17 mins according to the TFL schedule, but would regularly take in the region of 25-30 as you're often held at Baker Street for whatever reason. Still, if I was you the route I would take would be Newbury straight through and then the tube. No way on earth would I consider driving. The M4 from Junction 4a (M25) and 5 Slough is usually rammed and it will take you so much longer and the stress would be so much more.

With regards to FGW being worse than SWT I guess it is all relative, but in my experience FGW high speed service is far superior. Much better trains, less cramped as SWT insist on those ridiculously narrow seats. If you got on at Newbury it would be the start of the service so you would be guaranteed a seat tbh. Problems arise when you get to Reading as unless you know where to stand and are lucky you won't be getting on first and it probably means you'll have to stand.