Best route from 'the' West to Stratford Velodrome on Saturday?

daniel_b

Morning,

as I know a lot of you are London dwellers (I was once upon a time too) I was hoping to tap into your knowledge.

I have to be at the Velodrome for a fitness test thing, at around 13:00.

Planning to drive, and Googlemaps reckons (I'm our Reading way) that I should go M4\M25\M11 ( ! ) which seems a tad out of the way, the words leg and dog spring to mind.

I was thinking more akin to sticking on the M4, and trying to get through central London, OR hopping up to the North Circliar (A406) somehow, and then either heading back in on the A12, or dropping down south earlier on the A10?

Any suggestions?

4 hours parking is included with the session by the way and I have looked at public transport, but it's pretty long winded, at least 3 changes are involved.

Thanks

Dan

kleinstroker

Do as they say. It will be quicker in the end. If you're heading through before 7-8am it's ok to cut across but not after I would have said

That said you could park at Willesden Junction & get overground t0 Stratford, no changes

tgotb

^ What he said. At the weekends the motorways tend to flow quite freely, but many of the other main roads within the M25 can be very slow indeed, and more significantly they can also be pretty unpredictable. North Circular Eastbound can be horrendous.

Google's actually pretty good at this. Plug in your actual arrival time/date, and look at the suggested departure time for each route (and, more importantly, the possible variation).

daniel_b

Ah fair enough, cheers chaps, will maybe check traffic reports on the morning, and see what seems to be best :-)

jds_1981

I live in Walthamstow and when traveling back from Wiltshire this would pretty much be my route. When it's flowing well it's quite quick, when there's an accident it can become horrific. Consider traveling early if possible.

cookeeemonster

Remember it's Xmas shopping season at westfield...

daniel_b

Oh bugger - I won't have access to the car until 11am - wondering if it's worth the trip tbh......

itboffin

Dan the M4 is shut weekends for the next fews weeks, you'll need to head down the A34 and join the M3, i'm in London this weekend as well, drinking not cycling ;-)

http://www.highways.gov.uk/our-road-net ... -roads/m4/

daniel_b

itboffin wrote:

Dan the M4 is shut weekends for the next fews weeks, you'll need to head down the A34 and join the M3, i'm in London this weekend as well, drinking not cycling ;-)

http://www.highways.gov.uk/our-road-net ... -roads/m4/

Thanks ITB - I knew 12-13 was being closed for a few weekends, not this coming one, but didn't realise it was more widespread.

If we go M3, I tend to hop down the A339, generally marginally quicker than the A34 from here.

Enjoy your drinking weekend 8)

Ben6899

Train to Paddington, up the Bakerloo to Willesden, on the Overground to Stratford.

tgotb

Ben6899 wrote:

Train to Paddington, up the Bakerloo to Willesden, on the Overground to Stratford.

Nooooooo! Overground round N London is the slowest thing in the whole World!

Train to Paddington, Bakerloo to Oxford Circus, Central Line to Stratford. Around an hour and a quarter from Reading to Stratford, plus (from memory) a good 10 mins walk to the track:
https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/results?InputFrom=Reading+Rail+Station&FromId=1000972&InputTo=Stratford&ToId=1000226

If you were starting in central Reading, I think you'd have to leave at 3am to do it that quickly by car...

itboffin

M4 was open today, its shut again from the 4th in the evenings, the whole bloody thing is just stupid

inbike

From Reading, you could just cycle. It's only 50 miles and it's nice and flat along the river valley.