[EuroPython] Train from London Heathrow to Birmingham this Saturday

[Nicholas Tollervey]

Here's how I'd do it.

Hop on the Heathrow Express -> Paddington Station.

Circle or Hammersmith & City Tube lines from Paddington -> Euston Square Tube station.

*Walk* from Euston Square Tube station to Euston rail station (5 mins well signposted).

Euston -> Birmingham New Street station. (Virgin trains are much faster [1h20mins] but more expensive [£40-ish for a single]. London-Midland = cheap but slow depending on where they stop). Trains go every 15-20 minutes depending on the time of day.

Birmingham Conservatoire is a 5-10 minute walk from Birmingham New Street (for a fast walker like me).

You might be able to buy a single ticket at the Heathrow Station that covers the whole journey rather than buying a Zone 6 journey to central London then the Virgin/London Midland ticket to Birmingham. 

Finally, make sure your Euston -> Birmingham ticket is *valid* as both Virgin & London Midland have all sorts of daft restrictions that they don't make obvious - the ticket clerk will be able to sell you the right one since the ticket inspector on the train would be delighted to charge you extra if he catches you out.

HTH

Nicholas.

p.s. Apologies if you get this twice ;-)

On 13 Jul 2010, at 09:01, Guido van Rossum wrote:

> Is there anyone who can give me hint on how to travel from London
> Heathrow (terminal 5) to Birmingham? I'll be arriving there Saturday
> around noon.
> 
> I tend to travel pretty casual so if it's as easy as "catch the
> Heathrow express to X, then the underground to Y, then there are
> trains to Birmingham station Z every N minutes (change trains in P, Q
> and R)" that should be sufficient. I'm assuming I can just show up at
> the station and buy tickets, it doesn't look such a big distance (plus
> I don't have a printer here). From the map at
> http://www.europython.eu/about/maps/ it looks like the value of Z is
> Snow Hill Rail? Walking to the hotel seems no problem.
> 
> -- 
> --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)
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