Travel Con .

Im up in Heathrow today at the Raddison Edwardian Hotel attending Orbital 2008 a Sci – Fantasy .Book , Fan convention in the strictest sense of the 1.0 convention word. Being the ever conscientious individual I decided to use Public Transport to get myself from my home in Horsham to the Conference location. I understand the need to encourage people to reduce their carbon foot prints and make better use of public transport but if my experience is anything to go by then were not fixing that problem any time soon. Lets review the travel requirements.

Train Journey from Littlehaven Station to Gatwick Airport Single Ticket £4.00 though the machine would only accept correct change and wasnt accepting my card. The journey time of 25 minutes is at least time stop and think.Then its off the train and up the escalator and across to the Bus Station where I purchase the next ticket from National Express waiting for about 15 minutes for it to arrive The Journey from Gatwick to Heathrow cost £19.00 and took a little over 1 hour. From here I across the terminals to locate the Hotel Hoper and then take a lovely 10 minute tour of the Airport until Im deposited at the Hotel.

That took me two and a bit hours and required three changes and several long walks before I arrived here. Lots of hanging around and waiting to get moving on with no real clear indications ( unless your really prepared and researched ) on where and what to expect at Heathrow.

If I had taken my car I suspect it would have cost me the petrol and the parking fee ( £4.00 ) and the only downside being the lack of being able to imbibe a drink or two of the stronger stuff. Considerably cheaper and less time by about 1 hour plus far more convenient ( give or take jams and accidents )

Taking the return trip into account I have now to consider the lack of public transport for my return and you begin to see why Public Transport is not replacing the private convenience of owning a car.

Okay thats my gripe about transport over now lets go enjoy the conference.

UPDATE

The return trip at 11.20 in the evening involved  leaving the hotel and walking down the street in order to catch a courtesy bus to Heathrow which took about 20 minutes. Catch the National Express 747 from Heathrow to Gatwick for £19.00 and I was the only passenger on that bus  journey so I cant imagine the carbon imprint that would have made. After that  a taxi from Gatwick to Horsham £44.00 plus tip.
Cost of taking public transport from Horsham to Heathrow with a return  £90.00!

Thanks for reading.