Help us get to paralympics please.

[megcleary]

Have managed to get ticks for DH & I and the two dds (1 & 5) to the Olympic stadium 5/9 but it is looking at £200 to get the train from Norwich!

Have I got this right or is their a cheaper way I am not spotting, have never done London as a family and the Olympic tickets were £60!

The session is from 10-13 and we were hoping to come back about 1700 be in Norwich for 1900 ish as dd has first day back at school the 6th.
Advice appreciated wise ones!

How about driving to somewhere like Chelmsford/Billericay/Shenfield? They're just off the a12 but direct trains to Stratford. Approx 2 hour drive to Norwich.

or bishops stortford? plenty of free parking within 10 minutes walk of the station (PM me for streets where parking is free and safe if you'd like!)

Have you tried National Rail Enquiries website? I generally book through there and it's cheaper than Trainline.

I also applied for a Family & Friends Railcard (£28) and got the cost of it back by booking our train tickets down to the Paralympics (Leeds to London is costing me £120 for 3 adults & 2 DCs).

Have you checked that your youngest actually needs a ticket? I thought under 5s went free when sat on a parent's lap (or sharing a seat with your 5 year old?)?

I can't work out if the 5th is a weekday or weekend. If it's a weekend I'd drive to Epping on the Central Line (station about 10 mins from M11 exit) and use your free travelcards. That's what we've done. If it's a weekday then parking is a problem as the car park is full of commuters. Theydon Bois, the next station down, was apparently opening a car park for Olympic users but it might not still be open for the Paralympics.

Part of the expense is you wanting to travel at the busiest time of the day on the way home - trains Leaving london between 4:30 and 7:00pm are always more expensive. You can probably save yourself another chunk if you get a half-seven train back to Norwich and pop the kids into bed ever-so-late when you get in (no one ever learns anything the first day back anyway). You could take their pyjamas with you and change them into them on the train as you approach norwich, and do bed time stories on the way home from the station to your house, to get them.

MildredH's idea is a very good one though. Upminster, just off J29 of the M25 would be a good bet, though you may need to drive around for a bit before you find a parking space, even if you have to pay quite a lot in pay&display charges it would still be a lot cheaper as you will only have to pay for petrol and car parking. Upminster is at the furthest eastern end of the District Line and there are also faster overland trains which I think your travelcards will also be valid on. The trains will go through the olympic area, which stop you alight at will depend on your specific venue.

Theydon Bois Olympic Park & Ride if you're interested

Like Mildred said We parked at Hendon on a very nice housing estate and walked to the tube (about half a mile) then used our free travel cards. We did this twice. So maybe find somewhere like that north of London on the tube line, it would probably work out cheaper. We looked on google maps before we went to find somewhere that looked suitable and then put it in the sat nav.

If you drive to cockfosters tube think its free parking then tube in?

The cheapest rail fares will be to use the special games rates, combined with a F&F railcard.

You can book online with all your details and pick up the tickets from the ticket machine at your local station, using the booking ref they give you.

www.nationalrailgamestravel.co.uk/train-services/

I just plugged in details from Norwich for that day and it came up with £48 for the trip.

But that only lets her get an 8am or later train (unless it's changed recently), ClaireRacing, which wouldn't get her to the stadium in time for the 10am start.

You might want to double check but i think the travelcards are zones 1-9. We used ours to go from Southend to Leigh for the mountain biking.

If this is the case you could drive to somewhere like Chelmsford and then travel in by train using the travelcard.

You set the set off time and it adjusts the fare accordingly. The off-peak faire for two adults and one child for that journey is £16. Obviously to get to £48, they are charging £32 for the morning leg.

It's a lot cheaper than £200.

Been discussing the various options that you lovely people have come up with DH, who is gobsmaked at how kind people are giving time and advice.

We have booked Theydon Bois car park and will use our tickets then to get to Stratford. £8 ......

Compared to the £200 I was about to spend this morning. The diesel will be about £40 so I cannot thank you all enough.

Am soo excited

I couldn't get it to let me choose a time before 8am when I tried this morning, but maybe that was the iPad not cooperating...

Great to hear, OP! That sounds far more reasonable!

Really nice to be able to help. I hope you guys have a fantastic day. We went to an Olympic event and found it just a really great feel-good day out!

Aphra Zone 9 definitely does not go out as far as Chelmsford/ Leigh/ Southend! Harold Hill is as far as it goes! You might have got away with it on mountain biking day because it was so far out so they temporarily extended the boundaries, but if you were travelling tothe Olympic Park you'd need a ticket to Harold Hill.

When we used to live in Norwich we used to drive down and park at Redbridge Tube (on the Central Line). Redbridge right next to the bottom of the M11 so to speak. Cheap and very convenient. I believe it is free parking on residential streets.

Thanks Trazzle, i did wonder if that was the case which is why i said to check but also wanted to make the point that the travelcard was zone 9 rather than zone 6.

Glad you've sorted it Meg! You've probably got satnav or similar but if not, make sure you exit the M11 at junction 7 - the Harlow/Epping exit. On the map junction 6 looks closer but it is just the M11/M25 interchange and you won't be able to leave the motorway here. An alternative is exiting at junction 26 of the M25.

Have a lovely day!

Have you looked at breaking the journey. So train norwich to Colchester (or any stop on route) then to London. That works for my mum often it's cheaper to get 2 train tickets than 1.

Sorry just noticed you have it sorted too slow

Well we attended yesterday and it was inspirational, thank you LeeCoakley for the Theydon Bois car park tip it was a bit difficult to find, someone had kindly parked infront of the tiny sign for it and they had built a distribution deport where the m11 entry point was!! But despite these hitches all fab