Getting to Glasgow for 9am on Monday 20th June

[concerned1]

Just thought I’d open this up to the forum in case I’m missing anything.

I need to get to Glasgow City centre by 9.00am on Monday 20th June. I live in Milton Keynes ideally placed on the West Coast mainline, normally this isn’t a problem and I would head down to Watford the night before and pick up the lowland sleeper - normally rolls in about 00:10, and I might even be able to get away with splashing out on a berth. However Watford Junction isn’t showing as a stop that night, so I assume the sleeper is re-routed up the east coast. Not a problem but, a 2134 departure from Euston to take account of this really cuts into my Sunday evening with my wife and kid.

So I’m now looking at flying up early that day with British Airways from Heathrow which is extortionate and involves an even more extortionate taxi, because I just don’t think there are any trains that reliably get you into Euston early enough to then get the Heathrow express (and work won’t like all this added expense), the first easyJet from Luton of the day arrives well after 09.00 at Glasgow international so that’s a no.

Work will pay for all of this but I have to demonstrate that I am taking the most economic route given the circumstances. After a lot of head scratching I’ve come up with the idea of taking a 2:30am taxi from Milton Keynes to Manchester Piccadilly (£150) in order to get the 04:57 Transpennine express service to Glasgow Central (advance purchase). As expensive as all this sounds, I think it’s the cheapest solution that doesn’t involve going up on the Sunday and staying in a hotel (there’s also engineering works that Sunday as well, WCML diverted via Northampton).

Can anyone come up with a better hack to this or am I missing something? Thank you in advance

 

[JonathanH]

Can you get a coach? You aren't going to get better sleep on a taxi / TPE train from Manchester.

Megabus from London to Glasgow starts at £9.99 one way for Sunday 19 June leaving at around 2200.

 

[Gathursty]

Is there a crack of dawn Banbury - Moor Street - (walk) - New Street - Glasgow solution?
Stevenage or is the ECML a worse option?
Bedford any use?

 

[CompactDstrxion]

Can you get a coach? You aren't going to get better sleep on a taxi / TPE train from Manchester.

Megabus from London to Glasgow starts at £9.99 one way for Sunday 19 June leaving at around 2200.

I'm sure they would just get the sleeper instead if they wanted to go at that time (21:34, diverted up the East Coast). I'm not seeing any better options to maximise their time down south than the taxi to Manchester.

 

[Bertie the bus]

If you have to be somewhere at a specified time then currently you would have to be mad to include a TPE service. TPE are so unreliable I really pity people who have no alternative.

 

[VideozVideoz]

Get yourself down to Gatwick for the 06:15 or 07:05 EasyJet flight up to Glasgow. It’s £27 for either, currently. As per an earlier poster, DO NOT rely on the 04:57 TPE. I’ve seen this one cancelled or terminated early many times

On the megabus suggestion, this stop is nearer to Watford

22:25 London North (Finchley Road), near Finchley Road Station, Stop CL​

08:15 Glasgow, Buchanan Bus Station​

 

[sonic2009]

2243 Milton Keynes to Manchester Piccadilly AVANTI arrive 0048
0200 Flixbus to Glasgow from Manchester arrive 0620

 

[Haywain]

So I’m now looking at flying up early that day with British Airways from Heathrow which is extortionate and involves an even more extortionate taxi, because I just don’t think there are any trains that reliably get you into Euston early enough to then get the Heathrow express (and work won’t like all this added expense), the first easyJet from Luton of the day arrives well after 09.00 at Glasgow international so that’s a no.

There are also early flights from Gatwick with EasyJet and London City with BA.

 

[tspaul26]

There are also early flights from Gatwick with EasyJet and London City with BA.

You’d be hard pressed to get to Gatwick in time by public transport for the 0615 EasyJet flight (taxi an option though). The 0705 flight won’t get you into Glasgow Airport with enough time to get into the city centre for 9am.

The BA flight from London City you’d be on the 0330 train from Milton Keynes to Euston, then either multiple buses to Canning Town followed by DLR or 0500 tube from Euston Square to Moorgate, then walk or bus to Bank for the first DLR departing 0533.

Thence DLR to London City Airport arriving 0553. Quite tight, but doable at City.

 

[Haywain]

You’d be hard pressed to get to Gatwick in time by public transport for the 0615 EasyJet flight (taxi an option though). The 0705 flight won’t get you into Glasgow Airport with enough time to get into the city centre for 9am.

The BA flight from London City you’d be on the 0330 train from Milton Keynes to Euston, then either multiple buses to Canning Town followed by DLR or 0500 tube from Euston Square to Moorgate, then walk or bus to Bank for the first DLR departing 0533.

Thence DLR to London City Airport arriving 0553. Quite tight, but doable at City.

If £150 for a taxi to Manchester is acceptable, I can't see a taxi across London as being a problem.

 

[tspaul26]

If £150 for a taxi to Manchester is acceptable, I can't see a taxi across London as being a problem.

Indeed, although I wonder how much it would cost to just hire a chauffeur and car for the journey!

 

[JonathanH]

You’d be hard pressed to get to Gatwick in time by public transport for the 0615 EasyJet flight (taxi an option though).

Actually quite feasible from Milton Keynes Coachway - 0230 National Express coach departure into Luton (town) for 0300, 0318 Thameslink to Gatwick for 0457. There is another option half an hour earlier.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Actually quite feasible from Milton Keynes Coachway - 0230 National Express coach departure into Luton (town) for 0300, 0318 Thameslink to Gatwick for 0457.

I'd refuse to allow this if I was the employer involved. The OP will be half asleep and unable to do their job competently as a result of having not slept at all. I know some people can adjust easily, but to be awake to do a day's work after that sort of thing you need to be in bed for about 8pm at the latest.

In answer to the OP's point, respect your sanity, health and work competence and take the last evening flight up from Luton on the Sunday and stay in a hotel. Compensate with family time on another day. Or if you really don't mind sitting up all night, National Express do a 2300 from Digbeth (Brum) to Glasgow arriving at 0645, which you could connect onto using a reasonably late Avanti service and would cost peanuts. But seriously, don't.

Which idiot is arranging 9am meetings for people who they know will be travelling half the length of the country? People really need to have some respect and pack that in. I'd certainly comment quite openly on the (lack of) wisdom of it!

Indeed, although I wonder how much it would cost to just hire a chauffeur and car for the journey!

The MK taxi companies don't charge outrageously for Gatwick. About £80 I think.

Does the OP drive? If so drive to Gatwick/Heathrow and park up in the short-stay (it sounds like it's a day trip?).

 

[Watershed]

Just thought I’d open this up to the forum in case I’m missing anything.

I need to get to Glasgow City centre by 9.00am on Monday 20th June. I live in Milton Keynes ideally placed on the West Coast mainline, normally this isn’t a problem and I would head down to Watford the night before and pick up the lowland sleeper - normally rolls in about 00:10, and I might even be able to get away with splashing out on a berth. However Watford Junction isn’t showing as a stop that night, so I assume the sleeper is re-routed up the east coast. Not a problem but, a 2134 departure from Euston to take account of this really cuts into my Sunday evening with my wife and kid.

So I’m now looking at flying up early that day with British Airways from Heathrow which is extortionate and involves an even more extortionate taxi, because I just don’t think there are any trains that reliably get you into Euston early enough to then get the Heathrow express (and work won’t like all this added expense), the first easyJet from Luton of the day arrives well after 09.00 at Glasgow international so that’s a no.

Work will pay for all of this but I have to demonstrate that I am taking the most economic route given the circumstances. After a lot of head scratching I’ve come up with the idea of taking a 2:30am taxi from Milton Keynes to Manchester Piccadilly (£150) in order to get the 04:57 Transpennine express service to Glasgow Central (advance purchase). As expensive as all this sounds, I think it’s the cheapest solution that doesn’t involve going up on the Sunday and staying in a hotel (there’s also engineering works that Sunday as well, WCML diverted via Northampton).

Can anyone come up with a better hack to this or am I missing something? Thank you in advance

I really wouldn't recommend relying on the 04:57 Manchester to Glasgow service. Its timings are ideal in theory - but as Recent Train Times shows it's been partially or fully cancelled 37% of the time, over the last 100 days. In fact it hasn't run in full for the last week.

Rather embarrassingly, that service is actually the only pre-9am WCML arrival into Glasgow. So you'd have to stay overnight somewhere else if you want to take the train up.

You could leave home a little later by taking the train to Gatwick and then taking the 06:30 easyJet flight up to Glasgow (£27) - it arrives at 07:50 so should allow plenty of time to take a taxi/bus to the city centre such as to arrive by 9am.

To make that flight using just the train, you'd have to be on the 00:25 train from MKC to London, whereupon there are half hourly trains to Gatwick through the night (unfortunately the next train from MKC isn't until 03:30).

If you took a taxi to Bedford or Luton, you could probably leave home slightly later at 01:15 and still make it to Gatwick in plenty of time for the flight - likely candidates would be 02:15 or 02:53 off Bedford, arriving at GTW at 04:30 and 04:57 respectively. A taxi all the way to Gatwick would cost much less than one to Manchester, and would let you leave as late as 02:30.

Alternatively there are also coach options to Gatwick, although the timings of the closest one would get you to Gatwick at 04:57, slightly less than the recommended 2 hours in advance.

 

[JonathanH]

If you took a taxi to Bedford or Luton, you could probably leave home slightly later at 01:15 and still make it to Gatwick in plenty of time for the flight - likely candidates would be 02:15 or 02:53 off Bedford, arriving at GTW at 04:30 and 04:57 respectively.

Care sometimes needs to be taken with overnight trains on the Thameslink route as well for reliability issues. The timetable can sometimes change quite a few times in the run up depending on staff availability.

 

[Bletchleyite]

So I’m now looking at flying up early that day with British Airways from Heathrow which is extortionate and involves an even more extortionate taxi, because I just don’t think there are any trains that reliably get you into Euston early enough to then get the Heathrow express (and work won’t like all this added expense), the first easyJet from Luton of the day arrives well after 09.00 at Glasgow international so that’s a no.

There's a phrase ending "off" which I'd be using if anyone attempted to insist on a 9am start-of-work in Glasgow and then started getting penny-pinching over the options, particularly if no hotel is involved (which would add £100-150 to the price to start with).

Care sometimes needs to be taken with overnight trains on the Thameslink route as well for reliability issues. The timetable can sometimes change quite a few times in the run up depending on staff availability.

If I was going to do something as utterly foolish as this, that 2300 NatEx from Digbeth is what I'd do. All these multi-change overnight treks to Gatwick would be quite stressful in addition to the lack of sleep.

However, the whole idea is grossly foolish. Can't the meeting be rearranged an hour later? Or if it's about working on site, can't the OP work 10:30-6:30 instead of 9-5, say? When I've weekly commuted I've generally done that.

Being based in MK I pretty much have a rule that if crack of dawn flights are involved, Luton is the only airport considered.

Edit: actually, here's another less insane option - evening train or taxi to Gatwick to arrive about 11pm-midnight then whatever the nearest hotel to the terminal is before that early flight. You'd at least get 4 hours kip with that.

 

[Watershed]

Care sometimes needs to be taken with overnight trains on the Thameslink route as well for reliability issues. The timetable can sometimes change quite a few times in the run up depending on staff availability.

Indeed so I'd recommend buying a ticket in good time, so that you are protected if the train is cancelled. With a (theoretically) half hourly service, if you aim for the 04:30 arrival you still have plenty of slack in case of a cancellation. And of course there is still the option of taking a taxi if all else fails.

I still think that, for the benefit of the OP's sanity, they would be better off travelling up the previous night and staying overnight. But that is for them to decide.

 

[Haywain]

There's a phrase ending "off" which I'd be using if anyone attempted to insist on a 9am start-of-work in Glasgow and then started getting penny-pinching over the options, particularly if no hotel is involved (which would add £100-150 to the price to start with).

Agreed. My policy with meetings in the north is to insist on a hotel if I can't get there by train on the day (and leaving London no earlier than 0700).

 

[Bletchleyite]

I still think that, for the benefit of the OP's sanity, they would be better off travelling up the previous night and staying overnight. But that is for them to decide.

And their employer if they've got any sense. They want the OP in Glasgow to do work. Nobody does work effectively when they've had that little sleep. 4 hours then a crack of dawn flight from Luton is one thing, this is grossly foolish and in my view breaches an employer's duty of care to both the OP and their client to even allow it.

About the only sensible option I've seen so far not involving hotels is one of those overnight coach options (either my suggestion of Digbeth on NatEx or the other suggestion of Manchester and Flixbus) if the OP sleeps genuinely restfully on a coach (some do e.g. my Dad, some don't e.g. me).

 

[jfollows]

It's for a 9am Monday meeting, though.
That's a problem because either you ruin the non-working Sunday by travelling in your own time, or you try and do as proposed here.
I once had someone ask me to attend a 9am Monday meeting in London, and I refused, I said any other day of the week would be fine but I wasn't prepared to get up for a 6am train on a Monday morning. It was silly anyway, it was just a salesman whom I didn't know that well and didn't work closely with wanting me along as his safety blanket in case the customer asked a technical question.
Other days, I'd travel and stay overnight of course.

 

[Starmill]

At least there actually is a daytime train from England that is due to arrive before 0900 in Glasgow now, as unreliable as it may be. Before 2014 there simply wasn't one (except the 0607 Carlisle to Glasgow Central via Kilmarnock).

There was also a 0557 Carlisle to Edinburgh TransPennine Express service added later, but the only place apart from Carlisle you would be coming from by rail was off the first service from Dumfries.

 

[Watershed]

At least there actually is a daytime train from England that is due to arrive before 0900 in Glasgow now, as unreliable as it may be. Before 2014 there simply wasn't one (except the 0607 Carlisle to Glasgow Central via Kilmarnock).

Indeed. I suppose the issue with an unreliable train is that it may as well not exist, if you have to be somewhere at a certain time.

 

[Bletchleyite]

At least there actually is a daytime train from England that is due to arrive before 0900 in Glasgow now, as unreliable as it may be. Before 2014 there simply wasn't one (except the 0607 Carlisle to Glasgow Central via Kilmarnock).

Yes, true, but i just refer back to what I said before - any business landing 9am Monday meetings on people is just plain inconsiderate and needs to pack it in. Start at 10:30, which is late enough for most of the early flights, and means the meeting organiser has time to get in and prepare properly to make best use of the time of the person who is travelling, which is just simple respect.

 

[Ken H]

Yes, true, but i just refer back to what I said before - any business landing 9am Monday meetings on people is just plain inconsiderate and needs to pack it in. Start at 10:30, which is late enough for most of the early flights, and means the meeting organiser has time to get in and prepare properly to make best use of the time of the person who is travelling, which is just simple respect.

Some time ago, my client asked one of my colleagues to be in Paris for a 9am meeting. He said, well i need a hotel in Paris then. they said 'no, no budget, get the early morning flight from luton (He lived near to luton). So 3am taxi to Luton for his flight. Got to his meeting, fell asleep and snored. French unimpressed.
Expecting people to travel for early meeting meetings is stupid. as are scheduling meetings at the end of the working day.

 

[Davester50]

Agreed. My policy with meetings in the north is to insist on a hotel if I can't get there by train on the day (and leaving London no earlier than 0700).

Welcome to everyone outside of London's life having to get there for 9am!

 

[Watershed]

Welcome to everyone outside of London's life having to get there for 9am!

To be fair, the train is well suited to getting to London by 9am. You can do so from as far afield as Plymouth, Carmarthen, Holyhead, Glasgow and Newcastle.

It's actually Londoners trying to get to early meetings that have a harder time, as generally speaking the first long distance Down trains don't get to their destinations before about 10am.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Welcome to everyone outside of London's life having to get there for 9am!

Never had to do it other than commuting (which is from nearer London than otherwise). A considerate and reasonable person doesn't arrange 9am meetings for people from miles away, particularly not on Mondays.

 

[Davester50]

To be fair, the train is well suited to getting to London by 9am. You can do so from as far afield as Plymouth, Carmarthen, Holyhead, Glasgow and Newcastle.

It's actually Londoners trying to get to early meetings that have a harder time, as generally speaking the first long distance Down trains don't get to their destinations before about 10am.

What train arrives from Glasgow by 9am? The 0428 departure doesn't. (0908 arrival)
Only the Sleeper arrives before 9.

 

[Bletchleyite]

What train arrives from Glasgow by 9am? The 0428 departure doesn't. (0908 arrival)
Only the Sleeper arrives before 9.

And unless your office is very fortuitously located, you'll probably have a job getting there for 9 unless the train arrives by about 0830 at the absolute latest, probably 0815 if it's somewhere in the sticks like Paddington pre-Crossrail.

It's just antisocial organising 9am meetings on Mondays or getting uppity about someone wanting the cost of a hotel for one, unless your entire attendance is in commuting distance. Even then it's not great; people like to start the week slowly, going through emails etc with a coffee.

 

[jfollows]

Never had to do it other than commuting (which is from nearer London than otherwise). A considerate and reasonable person doesn't arrange 9am meetings for people from miles away, particularly not on Mondays.

That's the point, really.
I spent most of my career in a London-centric organisation, like many, which arranged early meetings in London. To be fair, other than Monday mornings it was possible to work around these, with other meetings and overnight stays if that's what suited. One year we had a "kick off" meeting in the provinces, in Leeds, and I saw that the invitation said something like "because Leeds is such a long way away we won't start until 11am to give people enough time to get there". I wasn't impressed, having been "dragged" to London for early starts by the same people for years.