Trains from London to Southampton cruise terminals

TRAINS FROM LONDON TO SOUTHAMPTON

The direct London to Southampton train routes are depicted on the graphic above. These depart from two of London's train stations, Waterloo and Victoria.

Travelling direct between Southampton and London the Waterloo to Southampton train is much faster and more frequent than the train from Victoria. Waterloo trains do the journey in around 1 hour 20 minutes and run at least hourly. The two train lines interconnect at Clapham Junction where you can switch if you want.

London Heathrow & Gatwick airport to Southampton by train

The only reason to use the Victoria train is if you are flying into Gatwick Airport which the Victoria train stops at. The Victoria train runs broadly hourly and is not direct on Sundays.

There is no train direct from London's main airport, Heathrow Airport. There is a RailAir coach that shuttles between Heathrow and Woking Station, a stop on the Waterloo train. However the direct coach service between Heathrow and Southampton is faster and cheaper than this option.

Southampton Central, Waterloo & Victoria Stations

London Waterloo and London Victoria stations

London's Waterloo and Victoria Stations are very large railway stations each handling millions of passengers each year from around twenty separate platforms. Both are terminus stations. the end of the line. As a result you train will be standing ready to board for about 15 minutes prior to departure. Waterloo is physically open 24x7 and Victoria for is closed just a few short hours in the very early morning.

Because of the footfall there is a wide range of fast food, pubs, convenience stores and restaurants at each. Toilets, left luggage, foreign exchange, tourist offices, ATM's and fee wifi are available.

Both Victoria and Waterloo are hubs for the London Underground served by several lines radiating out in all directions. Victoria is a major hotel district for London, we have a dedicated page for hotels near Victoria Station. There are hotels around Waterloo Station too, mostly large chain hotels like Marriott, Park Plaza and Premier Inn. We have a dedicated page for hotels near Waterloo Station too.

Southampton Central station

Southampton Central Station is a much quieter station with four platforms and more basic facilities. There are toilets, a station buffet and ATM's but no left luggage, foreign exchange, wifi or a tourist office.

How to transfer between Southampton train & coach stations and cruise terminals, port & hotels

The railway and coach stations at Southampton are within 400 yards of each other in the city centre. There are no shuttles or public transport to any of Southampton's four cruise terminals. A local taxi cab is required for the cruise terminal transfer. The cost will vary depending on cruise terminal, one way budget around £10.

Both railway and coach stations are in the heart of Southampton city centre, there is a good choice of hotels close to both, a few within 5 minutes walk. All the main hotels are identified and compared including their relative locations on our Southampton map.

The trains, what to expect

Boarding the train

Trains between London and Southampton are commuter train style designed to cope with the large volumes of people on the daily commute into London. There are no luggage cars and most people will just be travelling with just a handbag or small bag.

You need to independently carry your luggage into the passenger cabin, seats are taken on a first come first serve basis. Trains at Waterloo and Victoria will be standing on the platform for about 10-15 minutes prior to departure, if you board at Gatwick or Southampton the train will have started several stations prior and have passengers already aboard. Whatever luggage you bring you must carry on-board yourself.

Luggage

Luggage storage space is limited. There is headroom space above the seats, but this is for smaller bags not large cases. The allocated area for large luggage may be some distance from your seat making it difficult for you to keep an eye on it. Space permitting you may be able to store luggage around your seating area.

Fare and ticket options

First Class - a good idea?

There are a handful of first class seats on each train between Southampton and London. There is very little difference between first class and second class except for the price, so very few people use first class however affluent they are. Those few travelling in first class tend to be those where someone else is paying, typically government employees travelling on business.

Train fares - why so many different fares?

Train fares are a complex maze with a wide variety of prices. If you buy a ticket on the day just prior to departure the price can be eye wateringly expensive. But, there are a few basic rules you can follow to get the best deal for your needs.

The trains in the UK are operated by privately owned train companies closely regulated by a national licencing authority. Each train company will have its own promotional fares where fares are very volatile and other fares that are highly regulated where the train companies have little wiggle room and fares are relatively stable. The unregulated cheaper fares are commonly used to fill the trains at times where otherwise the train would be far from full. The licencing authority reviews fares annually and regulated fares are updated on January 2nd each year.

From where can I purchase rail tickets?

There are manned ticket offices at most stations and ticket machines at all. But the best fares are all too often only available in advance or on-line, and tickets pre-loaded on your mobile are very convenient.

All train companies have their own web sites where they sell their own tickets and those of every other train company in the UK. There are also lots of independent rail ticketing web sites that sell these tickets too. Unless there is a fare exclusive to the rail operators web site, the train fares themselves are the same wherever you buy the tickets. The web sites do differ in their ease of use and many have tools so that you can get the very best rail fare.

Rail fare concessions

There are no seniors fares. Children under 5 travel free and those between 5 and 15 years can take advantage of childrens fares. You may be able to get family fares commonly called Groupsave fares and there aere often group fares for groups of 10 or more.

If you are travelling extensively by train in the UK you can buy an annual railcard. There are various railcards for different categories like seniors, families, couples etc but all for an annual fee give one-third off rail fares including the promotional fares. We have a dedicated UK railcards page.

Getting the best rail fare

Contractually the regulator sets the timetable at least 12 weeks in advance. Train operators will commonly release cheap advance tickets shortly after. It's not always dead on 12 weeks though, often more like 10 or 11. If you purchase rail tickets earlier than this they will be almost certainly the often more expensive regulaed fares.

There are return, round trip train fares which may give a discount but bizarely it can be cheaper often to buy two one-way tickets because of the availability of a promotional ticket on one-leg. It can even be cheaper to buy 2 separate split tickets one-way for a journey, buying two tickets, splitting the journey into two sections for fares but not leaving the train when you ride.

It's all very complicated, but in summary to get a good train fare deal, try if you can to travel outside the early morning and evening commute hours and try to research and buy your tickets within about 10-11 weeks of departure. For short train journeys of under an hour the potential ticket savings are much less than longer journeys. Do take time to understand the ticketing web-site, we use the Trainline web-site, the market leader which has several tools that help you locate your best train fare.

Buying train tickets and timetables

Nearly all stations have manned ticket offices, unlike the London Underground, and all have ticket machines. Ticket offices at the main stations are open all day from early morning to evening. However, queues for the manned ticket offices can be long and much of the time you will get a cheaper fare by buying well in advance.

E-tickets and mobile tickets

E-tickets and mobile tickets are increasingly becoming available from many train operating companies. These include South Western, Southern, Thameslink, Chiltern, London North Western and London North Eastern operating services into London. The airport trains run by Heathrow Express, Gatwick Express and Thameslink are also supported.

Magnetic card tickets

Magnetic card tickets are the tradional tickets dispensed by ticket machines and ticket offices can be ordered in advance and collected at main railway stations. Stations where you can collect tickets include all of London's mainline terminus stations, Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Southampton and Dover port railway stations. When you purchase these tickets on-line you are given a unique code which you type into the dedicated ticket machines and they then dispense the tickets. Tickets are ready after 15 minutes of order.

Card payments (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, Maestro), PayPal and Apple Pay are payment options on-line.