Hi, Yes sorry about that new to forums, it is from City Airport to Cardiff. Travelling 2 Adults and 2 children
in August. I know tickets not open yet but are planning need to keep cost down. Dont know if its worth applying for oyster cards, children travel free with photo card. Have to apply. Have Family Railcard if I need flexibility due to time of plane landing is it a standard open single?. Cheapest way would be to book later train and hang around? Thanks again for help.
Hi bassett.
For journey planning to Paddington use
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/It gives an average of 40 mins weekday off peak form DLR station change Canning Town to Jubilee and change Baker Street for Bakerloo to Padd. Warning changing at Baker street Northbound involves stairs underground. Canning Town is escalators and DLR station should have lifts. DLR station is about 200 yards from Airport which is quite tiny.
As an aside do you eally want to arrive at London City the planes dive bomb the runway a bit like a roller coaster? You can watch from a station on the DLR Beckton branch. (forgotten which one)
Buying Oyster cards is probably the best bet as top up cards have unlimited validity, so could be used on other visits to London. Many "non Londoners " use top up Oysters for travel in London as it means they can buy advanced tickets to their London Terminus which are usually much cheaper than any underground add ons. Using the Oyster in London then gives a maximum cost for a days travel which is cheaper than a Oneday Travelcard.
I am seriously considering getting an Oyster card and just buy Taplow Padd tickets rather than a travelcard, but I am hanging on until more TOCs accept pay as you go. (See other posts on board).
Then that leaves you the chance to buy "advanced singles" You would need to work out how late you think your plane will be and how long to get to Padd. I would suggest you don't book a train less than three hours after your booked landing time. You can probably use teletex/internet to monitor the arrival time of your flight if it is a scheduled one to get a feel for how reliable it is.
If you do use Oyster you could book your luggage into left luggage at Padd and then go site seeing. The 15/23 buses are good from Padd as they are sometimes a Routemaster and both go to Marble Arch, Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square.
