Travel in the UK and London this December
UK Train, Coach and Car Hire for the Christmas and New Year Holidays
Nov 9, 2009
Booking tickets home for the Christmas holidays is an art. Discounted tickets were probably snapped up long ago and with most train services winding down early on Christmas Eve, options aren’t too plentiful. In 2009 Christmas lands on a Friday so don’t expect services to resume until Sunday 27th December.
UK Train and London Underground Christmas and New Year Schedules
National Rail strongly advises customers to book tickets as soon as possible and for those travelling particularly long distances, to reserve a seat as well as they expect trains to be very busy. The only services running non-stop throughout the holiday period are the Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express.
The following companies will not be running on 25th or 26th December:
Arriva Trains Wales, c2c, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains, First Great Western, First Hull Trains, First Transpennine Express, Grand Central, Heathrow Connect, Island Line, London Midland, London Overground, Merseyrail, National Express East, Northern Rail, South West Trains, Virgin Trains, Wrexham and Shropshire.
All train companies will run a normal or altered service over the New Year period, with the exception of Grand Central and ScotRail, who will not be running on New Year’s Day.
The London Underground runs every day of the year except for Christmas Day. The tube usually runs overnight on New Years Eve / Day but all other nights (including Christmas Eve) services stop around midnight.
National Express Coach Services in December
National Express Coaches will run as normal over the Christmas holiday, with the exception of Christmas Day when services will not operate. They are running services on Boxing Day though but bookings should be made soon to take advantage of advance fare discounts.
National Express covers the length and breadth of the UK and serves all the major cities and towns, including Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Plymouth and York. Great value ‘funfares’ are available to some of these destinations. For example a single tickets from London to Aberdeen starts at around £22, far cheaper than any train service.
Car Hire Options with Streetcar, Hertz, Enterprise, Easycar
In London, Streetcar is a handy car hire club which has vehicles parked all over London. Members pay an annual fee of £59.50 and can book cars online. Hire is then charged either by the hour, week or month. For a two day hire of a small vehicle over Christmas Day and Boxing Day the cost is just over £100 (including fuel). For two or more people this is a good deal and allows the flexibility of travelling on the public holiday days in December as the cars can be accessed at any time during the booking with a smartcard.
Other car hire companies, such as Hertz, Enterprise and Easycar are going to cost substantially more. This is because their offices are shut on 26th, 27th and in some cases 28th December, therefore forcing a longer hire period.
For information on transport from London’s airports:
How to get to London from the Five Airports
By Coach and Taxi from London's Airports
 |
