Victoria Station to Southhampton

[thebigpuba]

I am sailing on the QM2 and I was wondering how long it takes from Victoria Station to the Southhampton plus do the buses have restrooms or does the bus stop?

[jbailey]

The trains take about an hour and a half and have bathrooms. Don't know about buses, but trains run about every half hour. I am guessing they are faster than buses, especially if you take an express. Buy a first class ticket for more comfort.

[iceman666]

You can check coach departures and travel times by going to www.nationalexpress.com They leave from Victoria Coach Station and run to the Coach Station in Southampton which is close to the docks. There are usually taxis to meet coaches and they will take you to the ship. Benefits of coach are: cheaper, driver loads luggage and gets it out for you; there are usually restrooms (WCs) (check the web site). The coaches are comfortable modern vehicles. They run less frequently than trains.

 

By train, you will always have to change at least once if travelling from Victoria. Go to London Waterloo station and trains are usually direct to Southampton. Visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for departure times, travel duration and fares. First Class is definitely more comfortable but no other benefits and relatively expensive. You will have to carry your own bags to the train. Southampton railway station has taxis to take you to the ship and the station is convenient for the docks.

[Navaleye]

Go from Waterloo not Victoria. There is na direct service from both but the Waterloo service is much much quicker and runs every 15 minutes. The fast service on the hour and half hour takes about 1hr 10m.

[Cruzbw]

I'm looking at the nationalexpress website and I see reference to "funfares" from Victoria to Southampton. And the cost is 1 GBP, as opposed to 13 GBP for the one way fare??? Is this for real, or is there something I'm not understanding? Please enlighten me or set me straight!!! Is there a disadvantage of purchasing a funfare ticket? Lastly, do I need to purchase on-line or can I purchase at the Victoria Coach Station? Thanks much.

Bill

[merecat]

Hi, don,t buy your tickets at Victoria, you could be in a queue for a very long time with many nationalities who don,t speak English. Buy on line, don,t know about fun tickets but if you are of a certain age you get reductions. Have traveled on National Express and they are very good. Trains not so reliable. Merecat.

[iceman666]

Yes £1 per ticket is real. They do this on certain routes. Book on line and print out the ticket. Show it when you get on the coach. We have done this when travelling from Salisbury to London and it works just fine.

 

Check the www.nationalrail.co.uk web site and you will see that trains do run direct between Waterloo and S'Hampton.

[newishcruiser]

Just to add to the above:

 

- taking a coach from Viictoria Coach Station is straightforward, cheaper (than rail), cleaner and have a wc onboard. There's usually no restriction on baggage.

 

- if travelling by rail it's easy enough to travel from Victoria but you'd need to change trains/platform at Clapham Junction if there's no direct service. The benefit of rail is frequency of service. I personally wouldn't bother with 1st Class as in most cases you'll be running against the main flow of commuters so there should be plenty of seats.

[Navaleye]

There is a direct service from Victoria, I know becasue I have used it, but it is slow.

 

http://www.virgintrainsfares.co.uk/Buy_Tickets/matrix/journey_details.asp?jindex=5&jtype=Outward_Journey&T2ID=5667_200582210521

 

Also be warned that there are limits to the amount of luggage you can take on the coach per person.

 

You get what you pay for !

[newishcruiser]

There is indeed limits for National Express coaches but these wouldn't cause a problem for most travellers:

 

"Luggage is limited to two medium sized suitcases per person, plus one piece of hand luggage on all services."

[cunardqueen]

megabus.com also do cheap seats for £1 if you book early enough. as a rule they leave at 12.30 with arrival in southampton at 2.30 you would then need to take a taxi, at these prices nothing wrong with booking in advance and if you do change your mind, well you have only lost a few pound, again luggage restrictions are in place, but lm sure if you spoke kindly to the driver or crossed his palm with some paper a blind eye might be turned ???

I dos seem to recal on some national express timetable they go into the docks to a cruise terminal

cheers

Myles

[jamesm]

We had "Funfares" on National Express this summer to/from Southampton. Worked like a charm and much more convenient that dragging luggage on and off trains. Only way to go short of hiring a car/driver.