taimatsu | (no subject)

So, tomorrow (Friday) is my littlest brother's 18th birthday. I have to be in Wimbledon, sitting at a restaurant table, at 8pm. I'm going to aim to be at my dad's house (Raynes Park) for 6pm, just in case. Where should I be going for updates on transport and realistic advice on the best way to get into town from Reading? At the moment I'm considering (if it's running) the slow train to Waterloo - it'll take over an hour, but I can get off at Clapham Junction and thus go overground all the way. Getting a fast train to Paddington would probably be silly. Advice welcome!

Edited to add: If I go via Clapham and Wimbledon it's South West Trains all the way, and they say they're running a normal service tomorrow. If I have trouble I could, assuming I've left enough time, get someone to collect me by car from Clapham or nearby stations. So, given I'm familiar with the route, I think I'll go for that, unless I work out tomorrow that it will be particularly problematic. Robert will be driving back with me afterwards, as the family have a houseful of relations and friends from overseas, so the return journey is fixed. Thanks for the help and ideas :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Coming home from Waterloo was fine for me this evening. And I came through Wimbledon.

http://www.southwesttrains.com have live train info on their site (click train running)

I think the tube will still be messed up, but mainline services out of Waterloo were fine...

You might want to consider the reading->twickenham->wimbledon route. Its not very quick, but it does avoid Central London

I second this. It's also got to be quicker than going up to Clapham Junction and back down, isn't it?

As far as I know, as of a couple of hours ago all stations are mended again apart from maybe King's Cross, so Paddington should be ok!

Still involves getting across London, and the tubes are almost all running with delays/restricted service.

The Reading/Twickenham/Wimbledon route does sound sensible. IIRC (it's a long time since I've taken that route), there atre different levels of 'slow' train between Reading & Waterloo - I think Twickenham is one of the stations included on the faster route (ie not thr train that stops at every single station)

Within London your best source of transport info. is probably http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/

Also consider Reading -> Guildford/Basingstoke -> Wimbledon -> Raynes Park as a way of really avoiding London as much as possible.

The Wimbledon trains via Woking and Basingstoke were fine yesterday (I get a similar line to and from work).