Transportation Driving into London and parking outside the congestion zone

[Pauline]

I am looking at various ways for us to get from Dorset to London. We could take the train from Dorchester into London - Waterloo, but it is on Southern Rail - frequent strikes, you cannot reserve seats! So we are thinking of driving to the outskirts of London, parking and taking the tube in.

I found some info on an old TA thread suggesting parking at Hounslow West Underground Station. I checked at they are outside the Congestion Zone, so we would not have to pay the daily congestion charge (link to check congestion charges).

Parking lot rates are very good - £5.90 for the day (price for Monday - Friday only is listed, free on weekends? Is that possible?). From there we can take the tube in. (link for car park info)

Does anyone have a better suggestion of where to park?

 

[PatrickLondon]

If it helps, trains on that line are operated by South Western, not Southern; and there are National Express buses to Victoria (4 hrs direct, or longer with a change in Bristol).

There must be carparks nearer in to the CZ than Hounslow West, but I'm not a driver so can't speak from experience. Google suggests NCP and Q-park have places much closer in, but no doubt you pay a lot more as a result.

 

[Pauline]

If it helps, trains on that line are operated by South Western, not Southern; and there are National Express buses to Victoria (4 hrs direct, or longer with a change in Bristol).

How do you know more about the trains in Dorset than I do? I thought it was Southern Rail, but it is South Western! But they are always on strike too! They are involved with that dispute about having only one employee per train (the driver). I assumed when I hear on the radio about how bad Southern rail is, that it was our Train line.

4 hours on a National Express bus - ugh.

Jonathan told me there is a q-park near Queensway. I’ll look into that. When we lived outside of London in 1988 we would drive right into London. I think traffic has changed since then!

 

[Pauline]

We drove to Heathrow a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday night and the traffic was horrible. It took us 4 hours instead of 3. Today I booked the train from Dorchester for our weekend in London. I can’t face the drive.

 

[Felicity]

This is where we park if we want to dump the car and go on in by bus or tube. Very easy for us as it is just on our way into London from the West (just head for Shepherd's Bush). You can leave it there for up to 48 hours. https://uk.westfield.com/london/centre-info/getting-here