Train from Waterloo East to Dover morning of cruise from Dover

[Kristin1112]

Good morning (or afternoon)...

We're branching out of our comfort zone of always doing the Caribbean cruises and have booked a fabulous B2B on Carnival leaving July 31, 2022 from Dover. Every single one of the ports we're visiting, including the homeport, is new to us. We are planning on staying in the Waterloo area to explore for a few days on the front end of the first cruise. My husbands 65th birthday is July 30 and we currently are planning on staying put in Waterloo for his birthday and then taking the train to Dover in the morning before the cruise. It appears to take just under 2 hours and then we would need a taxi from the train platform to the cruise port, which appears to only be a mile or two.

 

Not being familiar with the trains and their reliability, do any of the locals or frequent train users have some input on this specific route? I'm also seeing several entities selling tickets online - which is the proper website to use? I see "TheTrainline" and "Southwesternrailway" and "Nationalrail" for example. I had already registered with Trainline but have not yet bought anything.

 

We're not ones to 'fly' into port the morning of, but wonder how we'll be taking the train the morning of. It appears there are 3 train times that make sense 8:43/9:43/10:43. Of course we'd take the 8:43 to make sure we have plenty of time in the event something goes wrong.

 

Can anyone assist? Thank you in advance 🙂

[John Bull]

Your train operator is South-eastern, not South-western.

National Rail is the pulling-together of the entire nation's railways and operators into one timetable.

The details, incl times & fares are the same on both sites.

Book through either of those, though the National Rail website might automatically send you to South-eastern for the booking details.

The Timeline is a ticketing agency,  I don't know much about them but I'd check their site for particularly long journeys (like London to Edinburgh) where they can attract big commissions and might offer a small discount. But not London to Dover.

 

Your trip is on a sunday, as you've probably realised, and the train times you quote are correct.

The timetable currently only goes out 3 months - but don't book as soon as your date shows. Regular tickets will be £28.90, but from about 8 weeks out ADVANCE tickets are available at £11.30. But don't leave it too late cos sometimes cheap tickets sell out.

 

Sundays are used for engineering works on the tracks. So do check whether your route will be affected

https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/travel-information/live-travel-information/planned-engineering-work

(like the timetable, they're only announced from about 3 months).

If your train is affected the gap will be covered by an included rail-replacement bus service. Usually the gaps are only between 2 or 3 stations and have little effect on the journey time.

 

Your train times are fine - I'd be inclined to forget the earliest one, ships don't usually start boarding til around noon.

A taxi from Dover Priory station to the cruise terminal should cost about £10.

 

Bear in mid that Waterloo East is separate from the main Waterloo station, but its only a 3 minute walk away.

 

JB 🙂

 

 

 

[Kristin1112]

16 minutes ago, John Bull said:

Your train operator is South-eastern, not South-western.

National Rail is the pulling-together of the entire nation's railways and operators into one timetable.

The details, incl times & fares are the same on both sites.

Book through either of those, though the National Rail website might automatically send you to South-eastern for the booking details.

The Timeline is a ticketing agency,  I don't know much about them but I'd check their site for particularly long journeys (like London to Edinburgh) where they can attract big commissions and might offer a small discount. But not London to Dover.

 

Your trip is on a sunday, as you've probably realised, and the train times you quote are correct.

The timetable currently only goes out 3 months - but don't book as soon as your date shows. Regular tickets will be £28.90, but from about 8 weeks out ADVANCE tickets are available at £11.30. But don't leave it too late cos sometimes cheap tickets sell out.

 

Sundays are used for engineering works on the tracks. So do check whether your route will be affected

https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/travel-information/live-travel-information/planned-engineering-work

(like the timetable, they're only announced from about 3 months).

If your train is affected the gap will be covered by an included rail-replacement bus service. Usually the gaps are only between 2 or 3 stations and have little effect on the journey time.

 

Your train times are fine - I'd be inclined to forget the earliest one, ships don't usually start boarding til around noon.

A taxi from Dover Priory station to the cruise terminal should cost about £10.

 

Bear in mid that Waterloo East is separate from the main Waterloo station, but its only a 3 minute walk away.

 

JB 🙂

Thank you JB...I was hoping you would reply as I saw your response on another thread for a different route. You gave a very thorough and easy to understand answer, greatly appreciated!

16 minutes ago, John Bull said:

 

 

 

[Globaliser]

3 hours ago, Kristin1112 said:

I'm also seeing several entities selling tickets online - which is the proper website to use? I see "TheTrainline" and "Southwesternrailway" and "Nationalrail" for example.

 

2 hours ago, John Bull said:

Your train operator is South-eastern, not South-western.

National Rail is the pulling-together of the entire nation's railways and operators into one timetable.

The details, incl times & fares are the same on both sites.

Book through either of those, though the National Rail website might automatically send you to South-eastern for the booking details.

The Trainline is a ticketing agency,  I don't know much about them but I'd check their site for particularly long journeys (like London to Edinburgh) where they can attract big commissions and might offer a small discount. But not London to Dover.

 

To add a small bit of additional flesh to this: "Southeastern" is the company that operates the actual trains from Waterloo East to Dover. "South Western" is a different company that operates other trains, including trains from the main Waterloo station. There's a host of other train operating companies, too.

 

Most of the train operating companies will sell tickets for other train operating companies' trains. That's why you can search www.southwesternrailway.com for tickets from Waterloo East to Dover. You can also get them from www.southeasternrailway.co.uk which is Southeastern's own website. The National Rail website (www.nationalrail.co.uk) will by default send you to Southeastern's website because that's the operator of the train in question, but I think you can choose to go to another train operating company's website if you prefer.

 

There are occasions when you can get a cheaper ticket from the operator's website than from any other source, but I doubt that this will apply to your journey.

 

The Trainline is an independent company, and has been notable for charging fees on top of what the train operating company's own website would charge. At least for an occasional purchaser, I've never understood the appeal of paying more to the Trainline than you would pay to the actual operator for the same thing.

 

2 hours ago, John Bull said:

Bear in mid that Waterloo East is separate from the main Waterloo station, but its only a 3 minute walk away.

 

Depending on where you are staying, it may be worthwhile to know that you can quite easily walk from the concourse at the main Waterloo station to Waterloo East by going up an escalator (a lift/elevator is also available) and crossing over to Waterloo East by a footbridge. This is not a life-changing experience during the three-minute walk, but it keeps you off the streets. And dry (if appropriate).

[John Bull]

34 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

 

The Trainline is an independent company, and has been notable for charging fees on top of what the train operating company's own website would charge. At least for an occasional purchaser, I've never understood the appeal of paying more to the Trainline than you would pay to the actual operator for the same thing.

 

 

Hi, G.,

 

Thinking about it, they sell tickets for travel in much of Europe and I've heard complaints about excessive prices.

 

I guess they get most business from people booking journeys for foreign train travel.

And if other countries'  train websites are as incomprehensible as TrenItalia I guess I might do the same. 🙃

 

JB 🙂

[PhilbeachTraveller]

Just another thing - because your travelling on a Sunday, check on Southeastern (or National Rail) sites to see if there is any work being done on the rail line that day (always happens at a weekend in Kent). If so, there may be bud replacements so it would take a bit longer. 

 

Taxis from Dover station are easy, but might be best to book one the day you are travelling just to ensure you have a 'pick up'! As you say, it's not very far to go so won't take long in the taxi.