OT: travel to Croydon

Very off topic I know, but I don't do it very often!

My son has to attend an important meeting in Croydon on Monday, and I have to take him (we have to be there by 0930). Also two other people. The destination is near West Croydon station.

We are travelling from near Canterbury in East Kent, and I've been trying to work out the best way of doing it.

1) Train. Far too expensive (over £200 for all of us). Also a long journey.

2) Car to central Croydon, then car park and walk. I can't see too many car parks at all, apart from perhaps the Fairfield Halls. It's a bit of a trek from there. I'm a bit concerned about being delayed by heavy traffic (I was last in Croydon a long time ago, and it was bad then).

3) Park and Ride. But Croydon doesn't seem to have any.

4) Drive to somewhere like Beckenham Junction, then get the tram.

I'm favouring option 4, but have some concerns:

a) It seems as if the tram doesn't go direct to West Croydon tram stop; the TfL website is very quiet on the topic. b) How easy is it going to be to park at/near one of the tram stops to the east of Croydon?

We are going to leave ridiculously early; it's essential we are not late. Hence my concerns; if it was just me I'd just punt it.

Any advice from those in the know welcome. Thanks1

Reply to
Bob Eager
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4 would be my first thought too, though I've never actually used Tramlink.

There's a tram loop in central Croydon. West Croydon is on the west-to-east side of the loop. Some trams go around the loop and come back, others continue to Wimbledon. Beckenham Junction is on the branch that goes around the loop so goes through West Croydon. It's maybe 10 mins to walk across the centre if you're on the wrong side of the loop.

Pass... I'm not familiar with that area. Though it's on Oyster/Travelcard, so another option would be to park somewhere in the zones slightly further out, and then take a train to Beckenham Junction.

Or, if you're on a train anyway, transfer between Penge East and Penge West, which is only 2 stops from West Croydon. That might be somewhat quicker than the tram, especially if you need to go around the loop. (I have no experience of Penge, but it appears to be a short walk). It's all zone 4/5 so fairly cheap.

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Another thought might be to drive to somewhere like Redhill (M2/M26/M25) and then a train to East Croydon (10-20mins). East to West Croydon is about a 10 minute walk. Redhill has a decent sized station car park, and there are other multi-storeys nearby if it's full.

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Yes.

Whitgift shopping Centre has a largeish car park and adjoins West Croydon (near enough)- but you are subject to traffic and a hideous road system.

Or park up near Ikea/B&Q and take the tram from Ampere Way tram stop. But A23 from Purley can be a mare at random.

Or park in Redhill and take a train to East Croydon (20 mins) and walk/tram to West Croydon. Redhill is not far from Jnc 6 M25 so would be probably the easiest way to travel mostly by road but avoiding the evil traffic entering Greater London

Reply to
Tim Watts
[snip] .

It's not improved. Centrale shopping centre is close, £5.00 all day.

You could try Central Parade car park in New Addington, £3.60 up to 6 hours, then tram to East Croydon, about a 15 minute stroll to West Croydon.

Good luck!!

Reply to
Jim White

As the major shopping centre for SE London there ought to be dozens of car parks in Croydon

find them here

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Though as you say, driving in that time in the day is going to be a nightmare and probably best avoided

tim

Reply to
tim...

Park at IKEA, tram stop (Ampere Way) almost alongside

Reply to
charles

I regularly drive past Birkbeck tram stop around 9.30am and there is always parking spaces available along the road outside. The tram is a doddle and you can change at somewhere like Sandilands to a West Croydon tram if none is shown on the Birkbeck line.

If you don't mind a leisurely stroll (uphill) through Crystal Palace Park, you can park for free in Thicket Road and walk up to the station (10 mins). Direct service from there to West Croydon 11 mins. This would be my choice if the weather was ok.

Good luck

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Most use the Tram option I think, they also go to Wimbledon but there are some works on extending the trams at the moment so check before using.

Funny you should mention this, a world famousactor was interviewed in Croydon only the other day. He haid he likes it, they have nothing quite like it in the states. Really I thought? Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Probably the most straightforward directions wise, just head into London on A23 and look for the Ikea twin chimneys. Five minute walk to the tram

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Croydon is extremely well served by PT with the exception of the tube. So what it will come down do is how much to park your car close to your destination - or to find somewhere you can park for free and the lowest PT cost to get there.

The obvious thing being to find somewhere with free parking on your journey and as close to Croydon as possible.

Sadly, I can't help as I'm on the other side of Croydon to you. But I'd be looking at places along the TramLink to the east of Croydon.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I did wonder about that industrial estate, but it's on the other side of Croydon. And don't know if there are any restrictions there. Most of these sort of places have now.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

That then is the obvious choice. As with 4 people, I'd bet any PT charges will be more than 5 quid.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Didn't last time I was there (couple of years). Technically it is "customers only" but there *was* no means of checking. That may have changed, but I am not sure how they could implement that as it serves so many big stores (Ikea, B&Q, Boots and several others).

Someone who is more local might be able comment.

Reply to
Tim Watts

The Ikea part is vast but the store doesn't open till 10 so not sure if there are barriers up before that.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Do they have parking charges/restrictions?

Reply to
Bob Eager

These days many car parks from service areas to shopping centers and supermarket (even small ones) have ANPR cameras and clock you in and out. Signage then tells you how long you have for free and what the charge will be if you over stay. Note "charge" not "fine".

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

on refection, a car park at West Croydon is a no brainer

Reply to
Stuart Noble

It is worth bearing in mind that public transport in London is rapidly becoming cashless - buses, for example, haven't accepted cash fares for about

2 years now - and the preferred method of payment is the Oyster card.

Very convenient for Londoners but not so for the casual visitor. However, you no longer need to buy an Oyster card if you have a contactless credit or debit card as these now work in an identical manner to Oyster.

Oyster is also being rolled out to a considerable portion of the National Rail network in Greater London, though not being familiar with the trains that serve Croydon I don't know if this applies to any of the suggested routes.

If it does, though, if each of your party is armed with a contactless card it will save you valuable time instead of queueing at ticket machines and offices.

The only thing to remember is to swipe in at the start of each journey and to swipe out again at the end of rail and tram journeys to ensure that you only pay for the distance travelled.

Another advantage is that, if your travel hits a daily cap, you won't be charged any more for that day, no matter how many additional journeys you make.

Reply to
Terry Casey

I thought I'd follow up and summarise this! Top posted partly for Brian, but also so that you don't have to wade through the original. I'll also say why we went!

There were lots of useful suggestions, and I thank everyone for them. They all helped to build a picture which corresponded closely with what I thought, and gave me backup plans.

I ruled out rail on grounds of cost. But we HAD to be there for 0930.

I decided not to use places like Redhill, then train, partly on cost grounds but also because of the uncertainty re car parking. I was afraid it would take too long and we'd be late.

With reinforcement from the suggestions, I went for plan A, with plans B, C and D as fallback!

Plan A was to park at Beckenham Junction and get the tram to West Croydon. I did notice in advance that there wasn't much parking at the station, and the surrounding roads looked crowded on StreetView. I had a plan A' (which we used) to park in the St Georges car park, about 2 minutes walk to the east. When we got there (0835) it was nearly empty. So that's what we did. The first tram went straight to West Croydon; we walked to our destination on London Road and arrived at 0928.

Plan B (if nowhere to park for A) was the useful suggestion of Birkbeck tram stop. Lots of places to park down by the cemetery.

Plan C (which I liked but involved more unpredictable driving time) was to park in Thicket Road and walk up through the park to Crystal Palace station. I 'walked' this on StreetView (in the park too) and it looked nice. But again, more unpredictable driving time.

Plan D was to drive all the way in, drop everyone off and then park somewhere.

We left home at 0630 so it took three hours end to end! The satnav routed us round one really heavy bit of traffic, and on the whole it wasn't too bad.

AND IT WAS WORTH IT!

My son was going to an industrial tribunal; I was chauffeur and the other two were his witnesses. He had a part time job in a restaurant for over two years; towards the end they were making it unpleasant for him because he complained about being paid late (sometimes over a week late, and in dribs and drabs). This happened most of the time, with lots of broken promises. They also refused to pay holiday pay. He claimed for holiday pay (minor but it went with the other claim) and for constructive dismissal.

The judge said that he was legally correct on the holiday pay issue (and the employer was wrong) but that the claim was out of time. Fair enough; it wasn't for a lot of money anyway.

On the constructive dismissal, he won and was awarded the compensation he wanted (about £1300, not a lot - but he was very pissed off with them and didn't want them to get away with it). He doesn't have enough income to have to pay the tribunal fee.

He is 19 years old. He prepared his whole case and represented himself. He was brilliant. He took the other side's witnesses apart and forced them to admit inaccuracies in their statements. Towards the end, the other side tried to claim that he'd accepted ('affirmed') the situation because he'd put up with it for too long. He raised a legal point about this which (a) surprised the judge [I was watching his face] and (b) clinched the case by effectively negating the affirmation. I could see that the judge was impressed.

The other side instructed a barrister, who, needless to say, lost! He is quite pumped up at beating a professional, although the law was on his side.

My son is a 19 year old computer science student. He was always much more concerned about having his "day in court", and the money is a bonus. Technically, he was completely correct on both counts.

Proud Dad!

Reply to
Bob Eager

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