Sevenoaks - how bad is the traffic?

[morasmum]

We are looking at Sevenoaks school for DSs. We don't know where we'll live yet but will be looking at Sevenoaks/Tonbridge/TW area.

We believe that probably, we'll have to drive to drop them off and then drive to Sevenoaks station to jump on the train to London Bridge.

I hear that traffic is bad during drop-off/pick up, but i would like to have an idea of how long it would take to drive to the station.

Would it be better to drive to tonbridge station instead?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Very bad traffic around Tonbridge station at 9am ish. And do you need to consider parking?

@jumperwoops, thank you. Yes, we are looking at parking near the station. I can see that is scarce and very expensive.

So if it is also pretty bad, then maybe is better to aim for the SEvenoaks one?

I would say the Tonbridge option isn't good. If you drop off at Sevenoaks school, I would guess it would take you 25-30 mins to get to Tonbridge station at that time, then park somewhere (there is a big station car park but not sure on availability) all before even getting on the train.

I don't know Sevenoaks well enough to be able to comment on how easy it would be that end.

It depends where in the town you live but all three of those towns stack up around the station and parking fills up fairly early. It definitely doesn't make sense to drive from Sevenoaks to Tonbridge as Sev is closer to London.

Sevenoaks school is the opposite end of town to Sevenoaks station so you could be stuck in a long jam. Not sure of your budget but you could look at a house in Sevenoaks that you could walk to the station from and DSs could walk to school? How essential is it that DSs are dropped st school. I didn't go to a private school but I grew up in the area and went to one of the grammars and almost everyone got the bus or train to school, it was great for building independence and making friends!

We live in Tun Wells, DD at school in 7oaks, DH travels to London. DH goes to Tonbridge station as more and better trains. I drop DD at Tonbridge as well and she gets the train to 7oaks (sometimes DH takes her if he isn’t going in early) then I drive other child to school near Tonbridge before I come back and WFH.

If it all sounds a bit of a faff, it isn’t really and actually works quite well most of the time.

Agree with other posters that being in 7oaks then train from Tonbridge doesn’t make sense. Also, the 7oaks traffic isn’t too bad early in the morning, but it does get worse the closer you get to 8-9 am.