Commuting from Southall to Waterloo / Hillingdon

[bedrock]

Earlier this year I had expected to move to Surbiton. My plans have since changed and yesterday I moved to Southall. I now need to find a decent way to get to London Waterloo and am looking for suggestions. My current bike may not be quite up to commuting the whole distance but I'd welcome any suggestions. I did try taking the train from Southall to Paddington and then biking from there, and found that to be quite good.

I will also have to make regular trips between Southall and Hillingdon.


I'd welcome any advice or experience you can share.

 

[bedrock]

I gave the Southall - Hillingdon route a tryout this afternoon. The route included a short section of canal (packed surface - ridable on mountain bike slicks) to take me to the Uxbridge Road and there were cycle lanes and dedicated tracks for probably 2/3 of the route to Hillingdon, at which point I turned north onto the A437. My moving average was 21.7 km/h but when on the road I had to stop at countless red lights. The round trip took me about 50 minutes in total.

The cycle paths were not particularly smooth and some were mixed in with pedestrians which I regard as possibly more dangerous than cars. I therefore opted to use the road when it appeared to be the safer option.

If I can shower at work (I'll find out this Wednesday) I'll probably use this route instead of the bus. I'm pretty confident that going by bike will be much quicker.

 

[jefmcg]

Generally, for finding routes in London, you should play with TFL cycling route planner, http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11598.aspx. They often have good suggestions. Check all three options, easy moderated and fast and try all of them.

Suggest instead of leaving your bike at Paddington, you could head south, and catch a train to Waterloo. This would mean leaving your bike in Twickenham during the day, rather than Paddington overnight, and you'd have the bike at home when you are there.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5121428

Notice this route passes Isleworth, which also has Waterloo trains, however, the trains from Isleworth are never express trains, so take 40 minutes to Waterloo. Express trains from Twickenham take about 25 minutes. Choice is yours.

If you decide to cycle all the way, here is a suggested route.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5121441

I gave the Southall - Hillingdon route a tryout this afternoon[...]
If I can shower at work (I'll find out this Wednesday) I'll probably use this route instead of the bus.

Um, that looks like 4 miles on the map. Why would you want to shower? I'd do that in office clothes, with just a change of shoes on arrival. It's equivalent to a 1 or 2 mile walk: would you shower after that?

hth