Traveling to London from Midlands with infant: Car or public transport?

[Justecelaoui]

It'll be the first time we travel with our 3 months old, it's a for a medical appointment so a round trip. I think that going by car will be more practical, DH thinks public transport is better.

YABU: car

YANBU: public transport

More details needed.
Where in Midlands to where in London
Time of day
How long is appointment
Etc.

Train.

You can walk the baby around in a sling if they're fractious, feed and change as needed whilst not interrupting your journey.

I say this on the back of a normally 3 hour journey taking 6 hours when my son was 3 months old because we had to stop so often, it was a screaming pooing feeding stressful nightmare.

We were in London recently. The tube and streets are a lot quieter than normal. Managed to get a seat on every tube.

Public transport. Both of you will be able to attend to the baby/take turns, no parking/traffic drama. Can take snacks/coffees for yourselves. Could even nap/read if baby is occupied.

A 3 month old can only sit in the car seat for a certain legnth of time. Much better option for public transport as you can hold baby / feed them / change them when necessary / carry in sling. The only time the tube is busy is rush hour at the moment, so if you can try to avoid that you'll be fine :)

Needs more detail really but I'd definitely err towards public transport.

Unless you're heading for the outskirts, if you drive you'll have to pay the congestion charge (£15 a day, unless your car is full electric), and possibly the ULEZ charge as well (£12.50 a day but depends on the age of your car and again whether it's petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric).

Then there's parking costs... if you're going to central London you could easily be looking at £15+ for a few hours. And many of the central car parks are tiny and awkward to navigate.

Plus the stress of it... I love driving and am a confident driver, and I lived in London for 15 years until very recently, but I hate driving in central London. I still have nightmares about the traffic system around Marble Arch and Hyde Park Corner, and of course the Hammersmith gyratory...

Train. They're loads quieter at the moment. Book a table and you'll be grand. Which station are you travelling from and to?

With the limited information you've given I'd say get the train. You could drive to a nearby station and park there.
The voting might be skewed though as you've said YABU for car but that is your preference.

With my daughter I’d 100% go car, but that’s because she’s brilliant in the car - she always sleeps! Plus we can just fling stuff in the car, don’t have to worry about carrying everything. In order to get her to nap on the train I’d need to push the pushchair back and forth which is tricky with limited space. But if she wasn’t a happy car passenger I’d go train!

London's a big place so the answer massively depends on parking and proximity to stations. If you're near a mainline station at both ends, I'd get the train. If there's considerable amount of travelling to a station at both ends, then I'd drive as long as there's parking nearby. Parking may cost a lot, plus congestion/ulez charges and fuel, but trains and tubes aren't cheap either. It also depends who's doing the driving - if it'd be him and he doesn't want to, there's your answer. Personally I'd drive if poss.

If you’re travelling from somewhere near a train station to a central London hospital, definitely train.

Get the train but pack spare cloths / milk etc in case of delay.

Agree more detail needed. The train from Birmingham to Euston is only 1 hour 20 which is a much much nicer journey than driving in!!

Depends how far you have to go either side, if baby is happy in a sling, eg. How easily will you navigate the underground? If you want to pay for the faster train and what your personal approach is to covid risk.

I’d expect the train into London would be fairly empty but I know some people still prefer to avoid the underground. I guess you could get a taxi if you wanted to do that.

If your DC is medically compromised then I wouldn't risk public transport now that cases are rapidly on the rise.

The train connections to Euston are normally pretty comfortable, and you are within a reasonable walking distance of Great Ormond Street, if that is where you are going.

I don't think there is a right answer. Will DC sleep in the car or would the train be better for entertaining and occupying DC?

I've driven from the Midlands to London when Euston was closed for maintenance and it's a VERY long journey. The last part of it is the owrst then finding parking.

The fast train is usually very good.

I'm from london and have family in the Midlands. From a very young age, my mother would regularly travel with me on the train. My auntie would always insist on driving if she visited london...I always remember it being the biggest faff in the world... I would go train. But also depends where you are going in london .I'm assuming it's a hospital close to a large train station

@NannyAndJohn

If your DC is medically compromised then I wouldn't risk public transport now that cases are rapidly on the rise.

Have you travelled on the trains recently? Its safer getting trains in and out of london than it probably is in most supermarkets right now

I wouldn’t be taking a three month old with ( presumably complex) health issues on public transport at the minute.

Where would you park if you drove? How do you imagine the car journey is going to be 'more practical'.

London is easy with train, tube and walking. Parking is likely to be expensive and hard to find, and if central London, there's the congestion charge too.

Because I live somewhere where public transport is infrequent, unreliable and expensive, it's almost always quicker, cheaper and more reliable to drive, especially if more than one person is travelling. However, when I go to London, I go on the train and when I've had to drive, it's always been slow and stressful.

I would actually prefer the car.

If your train is only every 30-60 mins you will be rushing to catch one, or missing one and having to hang about

Also at 3 months a non travel size pram is nicer for small baby to sleep in daytime, especially if hot and you want a break from sling. I’m not sure what medical appointment you have but some needing sensors etc can be done in carrycot rather than hospital crib so might be easier to take in own car.

You can always allow time for stopping at service station to change baby or feed as needed

I would be concerned about Covid and public transport with small baby if you have alternate option. Depending on hospital, some will have parking on site you can use if a patient

@NannyAndJohn

If your DC is medically compromised then I wouldn't risk public transport now that cases are rapidly on the rise.

Rapidly on the rise from almost nobody to slightly more than almost nobody. 99.9% of people don't have COVID so the chances of being next to one on the tube is pretty much none existent.

You probably have a higher risk of being in a car accident if you drove, because you wanted to avoid travelling on public transport.

Train without a doubt. Parking and traffic could be a nightmare. Much easier to deal with baby on the train

Well i'd do car. Cool, comfortable and you can carry as much baby stuff as you need.
But then i'm a confident driver and grew up/learned to drive in London. I live in the midlands now and it's an hour and a half down the M40 to get to DHs parents in London.

@Laiste

Well i'd do car. Cool, comfortable and you can carry as much baby stuff as you need. But then i'm a confident driver and grew up/learned to drive in London. I live in the midlands now and it's an hour and a half down the M40 to get to DHs parents in London.

Are they in central London though? It's a nightmare getting right into the centre.