Norwich to Portsmouth harbour for me and my bike

[Javelin301]

Hello. The header says it all. Trying to interpret the train booking sites has left me thinking it might be cheaper and easier to travel by car to Portsmouth to catch the ferry with my bike. A weeks parking can be had for £48.

Am I missing anything (other than climate impact) do you think?

 

[BrumJim]

£56 is the cheapest I can find in advance.
Advantages:
1. You can eat on route and take your own meal.
2. You can rest, sleep, read or surf the internet on the train. Or get up and stroll around.
3. Where is the car park? You have to get from their to the harbour.
4. You have only included parking costs. Not fuel.

 

[Javelin301]

Thanks. You've done better than me. Is that return or one-way?

 

[albion]

£10 to London Stratford. £10 London to Portsmouth Harbour. A tiny bit of cycling in between.

 

[BrumJim]

Thanks. You've done better than me. Is that return or one-way?

Return. Nothing more complex than the National Rail Enquiries, but setting a date in advance to enable Advance tickets to be shown.

 

[BrumJim]

£10 to London Stratford. £10 London to Portsmouth Harbour. A tiny bit of cycling in between.

Good point - the journey I have chosen will involve LUL journeys which you won't be able to make, but there is always the cycling across London alternative. You won't be alone.

You don't have to follow the journey as per National Rail Enquiries, as long as you don't travel on a train with seat reservations. So you can take the allocated train to Stratford, stay on to London Liverpool Street, and then catch the Circle Line to Embankment or Westiminster (LU Cycle Policy Here).

And then just cross the river to Waterloo.

 

[Javelin301]

Good point - the journey I have chosen will involve LUL journeys which you won't be able to make, but there is always the cycling across London alternative. You won't be alone.

You don't have to follow the journey as per National Rail Enquiries, as long as you don't travel on a train with seat reservations. So you can take the allocated train to Stratford, stay on to London Liverpool Street, and then catch the Circle Line to Embankment or Westiminster (LU Cycle Policy Here).

And then just cross the river to Waterloo.

Great, thanks. I thought there must be an affordable way!

 

[mjr]

You don't have to follow the journey as per National Rail Enquiries, as long as you don't travel on a train with seat reservations. So you can take the allocated train to Stratford, stay on to London Liverpool Street, [...]

If you stay on that train, you would be on a Norwich-London train with optional seat reservations but compulsory cycle reservations. So I think there are three alternatives:

1. get a cycle reservation for the whole journey but you'll probably have to visit a ticket office to get the Stratford-Liverpool Street one if the site/app you book on won't send you that way. There are six bike reservations on each of those trains (but sometimes 18 bike spaces... they won't commit to which train is on which service far enough in advance to book 18).

2. travel via Thameslink, changing at Cambridge and London, riding the short distance between Blackfriars and Waterloo (signed as NCN4 along back streets on the south bank of the river). There are six bike spaces per train on the services north of London, indicated with a green stripe in Norwich and a big bike symbol on Thameslink. Usually this is a bit slower but the departure times means it takes the same 5 hours as option 1 at certain times of the day.

3. travel via Thameslink, changing at Cambridge and East Croydon. This is about 40 minutes slower but £3 cheaper each way. Avoids cycling between stations.

Small note: if you're catching a cross-channel ferry, I think Portsmouth & Southsea is closer to the port than Portsmouth Harbour which serves the Isle of Wight. Head NW out of the station and join NCN22 between the mini roundabout and RC Cathedral.

 

[StuAff]

If it's the international port (for cross-channel services) Fratton is the right station. Further up the line & an easier safer cycle route.

 

[mjr]

If it's the international port (for cross-channel services) Fratton is the right station. Further up the line & an easier safer cycle route.

It's been a while but maps make it look like the cycle route from Fratton station goes alongside the north of the railway (Canal Walk, Bridport St, Station St) past Portsmouth and Southsea?

 

[StuAff]

It's been a while but maps make it look like the cycle route from Fratton station goes alongside the north of the railway (Canal Walk, Bridport St, Station St) past Portsmouth and Southsea?

There's absolutely no reason to go that way if you're heading to the international port.

 

[lazybloke]

I jumped on my bike outside Fratton Station in June and followed my Garmin. It indeed told me to go directly west, right past the next station on the line, and then turned northish toward the ports.
Not a bad route, much of it car free, but clearly not as direct a route that @StuAff is thinking of!

Arriving well early, I spent an hour or so exploring and was impressed by the cycling provision around Portsmouth. The Hilsea shore path and shared paths up to Decathlon at Port Solent were completely traffic free.

 

[mjr]

There's absolutely no reason to go that way if you're heading to the international port.

So what is the "easier safer cycle route" you're referring to, please? (🪨➔🩸)

 

[StuAff]

Exit the station from platform one/ticket office side, go to the end of the road, where you'll want to go right. That junction is actually left turn only, so use the cycle path on the bridge & the ped crossing there to get going the right way. Straight on from there until Kingston Crescent junction (streetview here), where you make a left. Bear left at the next junction, there's an underpass and a couple of crossings that will leave you right in front of the ferry port entrance.

 

[Javelin301]

Update. Might be useful for someone.

Booked for the 19th.

Greater Anglia ticket site specifies folding bikes only on Norwich to Fratton train. I presumed because of the tube link from Liverpool st to Waterloo. I resorted to the telephone and spoke to a very helpful man (in India I think) who got me a booking for my bike on the first leg and said I should speak to staff at Waterloo when I got there. .So far so good. Cost £33 single but reduced by old peoples railcard to £21. St Malo ferry booked too.