Portsmouth to Wembley Stadium for Taylor Swift on a Friday afternoon...

[TheConfusedMan]

I'll be driving most of it, but would it make sense to aim to park a couple of stations away and get the train in for the last chunk?

Due to life being complicated we will be leaving Portsmouth around 13:45 and nominally arriving at Wembley at 17:15 (so says Google Maps after plugging in the date and start time).

Sooooooo - does anyone have any opinions on whether I'm best (a) just sucking it up and driving to the Wembley car park, or (b) aiming for a less crowded station slightly further out that serves either Wembley Park of Wembley Stadium stations?

I guess I'm not wanting to get snarled up in Taylor traffic when we are that tight on time.

Cheers.

 

[HST43257]

Could do M25 round to Rickmansworth then take the Met. Doesn’t make sense on a map but staying away from Wembley and coming in from the north side (for quieter trains and roads) surely makes sense

 

[TheConfusedMan]

Thanks, just what I was after. I'll add that to my list of possibles. I've just realised we'll also be hitting M25 at a fairly yucky time.

 

[TheConfusedMan]

Also, I mean, we COULD just train the whole thing, I'm just not sure what my level of trust is with trains at the moment after a couple of bad experiences.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is Portsmouth area to Clapham Junction, then Clapham Junction to Wembley Central (by train) a possibility?

 

[TheConfusedMan]

Ooooh, yes, I see. I think I'd be happy on a train if I knew I had backup routes. I hadn't realised that each of the stations surrounding Wembley are on completely different lines.

 

[Gloster]

Wembley Stadium is the nearest station and, probably, the busiest and most subject to crowd control. Wembley Park and Wembley Central are both about the same distance away (well, Park is nearer the north side of the stadium), but with the latter you have to pass Stadium and any crowd control. Don’t think of walking from Stonebridge Park: I don’t think it is quite as rough as when I lived in London (it was real bandit country), but I would still keep well clear.

If you go to Central, you can take a Southern from the Portsmouth area and change at East Croydon if the times are better.

 

[Alfonso]

Getting back from Wembley for a train to Portsmouth might be tricky. Nobody is going to thank you if you have to miss Taytay's encore to make the last train home.

 

[TheConfusedMan]

Thankfully we'll be staying overnight.

Getting back from Wembley for a train to Portsmouth might be tricky. Nobody is going to thank you if you have to miss Taytay's encore to make the last train home.

 

[TheConfusedMan]

Wembley Stadium is the nearest station and, probably, the busiest and most subject to crowd control. Wembley Park and Wembley Central are both about the same distance away (well, Park is nearer the north side of the stadium), but with the latter you have to pass Stadium and any crowd control. Don’t think of walking from Stonebridge Park: I don’t think it is quite as rough as when I lived in London (it was real bandit country), but I would still keep well clear.

If you go to Central, you can take a Southern from the Portsmouth area and change at East Croydon if the times are better.

It seems like there are a few routes up from Portsmouth .... would it be fair to say we'd have to have catastrophically bad luck to find ourselves unable to make any of the routes work in time...?

 

[Hadders]

Being very familiar with the M25 past Heathrow I wouldn't be wanting to drive that stretch on a Friday afternoon given you've got an immovable deadline.

 

[Kite159]

Does Hillingdon Underground still have a reasonable sized car park (as I've used that in the past for concerts at Wembley).

Bit safer to drive at least part of the way then risk being able to get back to catch the last train to Portsmouth. All depends where you are staying overnight and how many people are in your group.

 

[mangyiscute]

If you're staying over in London, I would think taking the train would be perfectly fine - what i sometimes do is travel in to London fairly early so you have time to grab food etc before the concert, and then if you do get heavily delayed you still don't miss any of the concert because you have some buffer time.
If not in London, I would want a train leaving London to my destination after midnight, otherwise I would be worried about missing the last train if it was earlier than that. (assuming its the usual wembley finish of around half 10)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Thankfully we'll be staying overnight.

What area are you staying? Immediate area to Wembley? Central London? Further afield? If it's a hotel, or similar, do you need to have checked in by a set time?

 

[AndyPJG]

Being very familiar with the M25 past Heathrow I wouldn't be wanting to drive that stretch on a Friday afternoon given you've got an immovable deadline.

also if coming up from Pompey via A3, there are major junction "improvements" at its M25 Wisley junction.