Advice from Londoners needed on picking up taxi from London Stadium after concert.

[LondonWeeknd]

Hi, posting here for traffic.

Attending the Weeknd concert tomorrow at Stratford and want to pre-book either a black cab or Uber to get us back to Victoria coach station by midnight.

There are some road closures in place so I was going to use the Stratford International as pick-up location but presume it will be heaving with other concert-goers.

Is there a better place to meet?

Does anyone have experience of pre-booking without any problems?

I'm allowing 45 minutes to get across London - is that enough?

Not really bothered by cost just want reassurance that it can be done.

TIA

Whoever you are pre booking with will tell you the best place, they must do it all the time.

45 mins across London by car might be pushing it
You’d stand more chance by tube
Stratford to Oxford Circus to Victoria

Whenever I've tried to pre-book by Uber I don't think it actually works. As far as I can tell all that happens is that your request is queued up in their system. No driver actually gets offered or accepts the job until just before the time you want to make the trip. In other words it's not really any different from you making the request when you're ready to travel.

(And my experience with Uber in London is that it's totally unreliable. But because of that I haven't tried using it in ages, so might have got better?)

I pre book Gett black cabs all the time. But you will need to be very specific with your location.

Definitely take the tube - you won’t get from Stratford to Victoria in 45 mins. Jubilee line to green park, then switch to the Victoria line. Takes about 30 mins so should be doable in 45 including some faff.

Another vote for tube. Jubilee to Green Park or central line to Oxford circus, then change to victoria. Only thing is there might be big queues getting into stratford station after a big event.

The only thing is that it could take quite a while to get to the tube - it’s about a 10 minute walk from the stadium to the station and there could be queues to get in.

But I agree tube is likely to be better than taxi

Another vote for the tube. Will take you similar amount of time to get to Stratford tube as it will take you to get to a taxi pick up place, and the tube will be reliably quicker

You won't find the taxi, tube is better bet

It once took me best part of 45 mins to get out of the immediate vicinity at Stratford, I’d go public transport too.

Thanks for all your replies that's a great help.

Is Tube and the stations where I'd need to change safe at that time of night?

Of course. It’s London, not Kabul

Yes of course the tube is safe. It is how the vast majority of your fellow concert goers will be getting home.
I went to the baseball at London stadium a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was funnelled down a couple of routes to the tube. It was very well organised and kept the crowds moving. But there were lots of road closures to allow for people to walk down the roads and it would have been nigh on impossible to get a taxi

You shd be fine on the tube. It will probably be busy as its a Saturday night.

Or you can get on an overland train to Kings Cross (the fast ones that come from Kent) and the Victoria line from there. Might be less busy than the tube.

I usually go to the O2 but pretty much everyone piles onto the tube after. Completely safe and the quickest and cheapest way to travel.

Is midnight your last coach? Or just the one you'd prefer to get? You might be cutting it very fine given the time it takes to walk to the tube at Stratford as well as the time from Victoria to walk to the coach station. And especially if the tube is playing up (it happens). If it's your last coach, make sure you leave the stadium with more time than 45 mins.

Don’t worry, we don’t bite 🫣

45 mins is not enough. Crossing London always takes longer than you think.

Not enough time either by tube or by taxi once you allow for getting out of a crowded stadium.

But the tube is perfectly safe at midnight on a Saturday. All the people on it will be the people you've just been standing next to in the stadium after all.

The walk from Victoria station to the coach station can take 15mins plus getting out of the venue and 10/15 min walk to the tube - so I don't think 45mins is enough time

Citymapper doesn't think it's possible, and that's without getting out of a full stadium.

Coach is at 12.30 so hopefully will be ok. If not we'll be spending night at coach station

I'd suggest you leave before the last song. I know it's annoying to have to do it but it will get you on that train a lot quicker than if you wait until the end.

I'm there too tomorrow night but we're travelling by car. 🙂