Help! South Birmingham to Canary Wharf drive, park and tube?

[MTJ88]

I've taken a new role and am now required to travel to London 1 day a week, potentially it could be more. Trains look pretty expensive if you don't book in advance so exploring options.

I'm very close to J2 M42 (Hopwood) and am exploring the option of driving however far M42/M40 and then train/tube into London/Canary Wharf.

Any advice or experience on where to drive to and park, cheap parking, then the train/ticket cost. Hopefully looking to find a route that saves the train cost of getting into New Street, to Euston and then to Canary Wharf. Any guidance welcome.

Thanks

I used to live in Barnt Green and it was pretty common to drive to Warwick parkway and get the train from there. It’s the line that takes you to Marylebone .

I used to commute and the drive was awful unless you left at 5/5.30am. I think petrol and wear and tear on the car and the sheer slog of driving make it not worth it.
Warwick Parkway and Chiltern are the way to go. If you've only ever gone via Euston you'll be pleasantly surprised by their lovely staff at the station and on the train. There's even a box for book swaps

Have a look at international to Euston (depending whether you want to battle with M42 traffic, although if you go early it shouldn't be an issue). Also Warwick parkway, or Worcester parkway was recommended to me although I prefer journeys with fewer stops. Once you're in London NEVER buy a paper tube ticket. Costs about 4x as much these days! Register with tfl for contactless or Oyster account.

Also if you register with Avanti you can get freebies. I found if I booked end to end (IE right to Canary wharf rather than just the main London station) I'd have to collect paper tickets. So now I book main station to main station, then contactless for the tube, which is capped per week anyway.

Also if your official place of work is home, you should be able to expense the travel to the office.

If you did want to drive to London I would park Wembley or somewhere else near the end of the Jubilee line and hey that Inn to Canary Wharf, it's pretty quick and much quicker than three M25/driving round London