gertie3751

I have just looked online and it seems there is disruption on the Kings Cross-Luton Airport Thameslink service. Can anyone (PalenQ?) confirm this and suggest an alternative?

isplumm1

Hi,

Try looking at http://www.london-luton.co.uk/en/con...s---coach.html - it appears to suggest that there is Green Line 757 bus direct from Central London to the airport.

Mark

gertie3751

Thanks, yes, I knows there's a bus but it goes from Victoria or west London. I'm hoping Thameslink is still going from Kings Cross. In fact, I think it's called St Pancras International now, so I've kind of answered my own question!

alanRow

St Pancras, Kings Cross & Kings Cross Thameslink are separate stations.

Kings Cross Thameslink is now closed as the trains now go through St Pancras instead

Kings Cross and St Pancras are next door to each other

Now what's this about disruption on the route between St Pancras & Luton?

What dates are you referring to? What is your source of information?

flanneruk

There's no current disruption on this line and none planned.

BUT: not only is the old Kings Cross Thameslink station closed, as Alan says, but there'll be almost no southbound trains on the line this year from St Pancras, while they're rebuilding the cross-London bit of the line.

Trains from Luton to St Pancras are unaffected - and St Pancras isn't just next door to Kings Cross, it shares a tube station with it. But till the end of this year, you can no longer stay on the train at St Pancras to get to the City, south London or Gatwick.

That's probably what you've picked up.

WillTravel

The train is a fine method. When I took the train a few years ago, there was then a five-minute free shuttle ride to the airport. Is that still the case?

But another method is EasyBus. Allow plenty of time (as you always should in London), and if you book far enough in advance, it's very cheap.

KayF

Yes, there is still a shuttle bus between Luton Airport Parkway station and the airport. It's taken us anywhere between 10 mins and 40 mins, but that was on a bad day with road construction going on. You usually have to wait for the bus, so factor that into your timing, and they also charge now as well. It's something like a pound each way. Details will be on the Luton Airport website.

There are taxis right outside the station as well. If you in a rush, that would probably be quicker than the shuttle bus.

Kay

WillTravel

I didn't know there could be a time delay. When we took the shuttle bus, it was a 5-10 minute affair total. That would be another factor that would cause me to reconsider the various bus services.

flanneruk

The real delays in the bus between the airport and the railway station happened last year and 2007 when there were a lot of roadworks around the airport.

These affected buses into London, and cross-country buses, in exactly the same way they affected buses to the railway station. They've now stopped.

isplumm1

Hi,

The £1 is for if you only have a ticket to Luton Parkway - if you get a ticket to Luton Airport, then the bus fare is included.

Mark

gertie3751

Thanks UK Fodorites. Two things have happened since I last used Luton in 2006: St Panc has opened and replaced Kings Cross Thameslink, and because CrossRail is being built there is disruption there. The train website (National Rail Enquiries) indicated a problem but as Flanner says it's on the southbound line. So I'm all set for a trip to Ryanair/Easyjet land. Lucky me.

flanneruk

Just a small amendment.

CrossRail, on which main construction has yet to start, is an East-West cross-London train service. It won't go to Kings Cross or St Pancras. The Thameslink project is an upgrading of the north-south cross-London railway system. That's the project causing disruption this year on the line south from St Pancras.

The two will interconnect at Farringdon, where there'll probably be more disruption when the CrossRail drilling gets there, around 2012.

However, since that will mean congestion-free, one-change, train connections between all five London airports by 2015, posters on this site will probably think the disruption's worth it.