Tilbury, train v coach

[bluenote5]

Just wanting advice from those who have travelled to Tilbury by coach from London Victoria or travelled to Tilbury by train.

or someone who might know the answers...

By coach, is there more than one departure time from Victoria ?

Do you have to be there half hour or more before the coach sets off ?

Exactly where do the coaches depart from ?

If I go by train and arrive at the railway station about 12:00/13:00

will there be taxis outside or would I have to phone and call for one ?

Is it easy to walk to the cruise port from the station with cases and how long ( roughly ) would that take ?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[Island2Dweller]

Trains go from Fenchurch Street, which is the only mainline station in London not directly connected to the underground network.  If you are connecting from another part of London it can be easier to take the underground to West Ham, as the train will stop there and this is an easy station to change lines at - there are lifts so it isn;t difficult with bags.

If you choose the train, take this to Grays, the station before Tilbury.  That's because there will be taxis at Grays - there won't be any at Tilbury.  Because of the road network configuration, it's actually about the same distance/cost from Grays.

It's about a bit over a mile to the cruise terminal, so I would not fancy walking that far with bags.  Perfectly safe if you choose to, but desperately dull route next to giant container port and rail yard.

You do not need to buy a ticket, you just tap in with a credit card of phone (as you do for all London travel) at the start and end of the journey.

No idea about coaches - but as Victoria is west of the centre and Tilbury is well to the east, this will be a slow journey by road.

[SteveH2508]

Coach departure is usually 12:30 from Victoria Coach station, often Gate 1. The journey usually takes about an hour and a half.

 

Half an hour early at VCS is probably not absolutely necessary, but for any travel in Central London, I would factor in at least half an hour for delays.

[bluenote5]

Thank you Island2Dweller for that really useful train information. The advice about getting a taxi from Grays instead of Tilbury is especially helpful as I wouldn't have realised there may be no taxis outside Tilbury station. 

 

Thank you SteveH for your useful info on travel by coach. I was originally thinking of using the coach service but when I looked into things, it was just a bit cheaper to do the entire journey by train.

 

Didn't like the walking option from Tilbury station to the port.

Do you know if there are plenty of taxis available when you disembark or are they limited and keep returning to the port ?

[SteveH2508]

There are plenty of taxis. One time we did not have a coach seat, the taxi was happy to take us to home in Central London, so they are flexible, at a price of course!

[Eumenides]

It might be a tad late for this, but if anyone is interested in sharing a taxi from London Euston at around 13:20 today to Tilbury cruise terminal, pm me. There are two of us so far taking the taxi.

[tim_london0]

There's only one bus departure

 

There no need to be early for the purpose of checking in, but of course you do need to schedule in the possibility of being delayed on your way to Victoria as the bus wont wait for you.  OTOH if you arrive late for a train from FS you just catch the next one.  Your check-in time on the ship is likely to be several hours before departure so 30 minute arrival at Tilbury isn't an issue.

 

No idea if there are taxis, but there is a bus every 30 minutes.  It's a circular route, that picks up on the south side of the station, and takes you back to the north side of the station.

 

As has been said, the route is perfectly walkable, but not very pleasant with luggage.