Greater Anglia from London to Cambridge

[kavalkada]

I'm not from UK so I don't know anything about uk train travel. I'm coming to London in july with friend and we decided to take a day trip on thursday from London to Cambridge. I booked tickets with Greater Anglia (because they were the cheapest) and made a mistake of reading reviews after booking our train.

To cut the long story short, I haven't read one positive review about this train company. Is it really that awful? Are we going to be left stranded in the middle of the road with no way to return?

If there is somebody who has personal experience with this line from London to Cambridge, I would be grateful.

London Liverpool Street to Cambridge is fine. My husband uses it all the time. You won't be left stranded and trains run frequently throughout the day. Don't worry. I've used the line myself from other towns on the London to Cambridge line and the trains are fine. Can be busy during peak times but never had an issue. Comfortable with air conditioning and a lot of new trains have been added to the line in the last year.

Train journey’s are so routine, no one’s going to bother writing a review every time the journey is fine, so reviews do lean to the disgruntled.

I travel on Greater Anglia all the time as live in East Anglia, the only time I've had a problem was because some oik had stolen cables so the train couldn't do part of a journey in which case we were put on a bus to travel to the next working station, that wasn't the companies fault and they resolved the issue quickly.

What are you going to do in Cambridge? A group punt tour is always good, book a slot on your phone before you arrive as they'll fill up quickly and also more expensive if you pay on the day.

Museum of computing history is good if you have any computer fans and they have lots of consoles to play on.

Museums are largely free, Archeology and Anthropology and the Earth Sciences ones are next to each other near the Grand Arcade shopping centre.

Thank you for your reassuring messages, I feel much better now.

Singleandproud, I'm still in the planning stage, but we'll definitely take a group punt tour. Thanks for reminding me to book it before. Do you have one you recommend?

I've done a private one and a group one. The group one was this week and the guide wasn't quite as knowledgeable as the first time but it's early in the season I guess, they were Let's Go Punting, I didn't book the first time I went so not sure who that was with, it was still interesting though and all the punts take the same route so tours are essentially all the same. Our group one was early morning and the river was otherwise quiet. The previous time was midday and the river was busy with tours as well as self punters which was quite fun to watch as evidently it's harder than it looks.

The colleges are closed in May/June for students exams otherwise it's well worth looking around some of them, they have very striking architecture and contain important art works and other objects if you are interested in that. If you are only there a short while I imagine a walking tour around the colleges would give you best value for money opposed to doing it yourself.

It is just Kings Cross to Cambridge and back again. There are several trains an hour.

Thank you. We would like to visit at least one College, probably King's College and Trinity if we have time. We would like to take a walk from Cambridge to Grantchester by the river Cam, but I'm still exploring if that is possible. The nature looks stunning.

We'll be in Cambridge from 10 am till 9 pm on Thursday. The plan is to see botanical gardens, mabye visit Fitzwilliam Museum, have lunch at some nice place, stroll around.

I would like to take it slow and just enjoy for the day, not to rush things. I hope we'll have a nice weather because Cambridge looks so beautiful.

The trains are mostly fine.

They run very frequently up to Cambridge.

The bad reviews will be from commuters who rely on them being on time all the time.

Trains do sometimes get delayed (quite often) or cancelled (less often).
If one is cancelled you just get the next. They run pretty often - maybe 4 an hour? except on Sundays when it's one or two and hour.

Sometimes there will be a big problem with the railway - eg the track broken or worse down and they have to cancel all the trains for a few hours or for overnight until it's fixed. This is a big problem for commuters - I've had to drive down to London to collect my ExH in these circumstances - but less so for tourists.

Is it possible to book yourselves into the Premier Inn in the centre so that you can have two days and give you a more relaxed visit, doing it in one day might be a squeeze.

If there are any major issues on the train line from Liverpool Street - Cambridge then your tickets will be valid on the other line from Kings Cross instead. Just keep an eye on things before you set off in the morning (Google ‘Liverpool Street Departures’). I think both routes are absolutely fine, it’s just that the trains from Kings Cross are usually a bit faster.

Greater Anglia trains go from Liverpool Street to Cambridge not from Kings Cross - that's Great Northern Rail.

And yes OP it will be fine! Liverpool Street station is well signposted once you get there and id aim to arrive abt 15 mins before your train.

It has never occurred to me to read a review of a train line. It's such an everyday thing to take a train it isn't really a reviewable situation. You'll be fine.