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Cambridge to London avoiding large stations

Online route planners seem determined to have us do battle with monsters like King’s Cross. These navigational nightmares can be daunting when travelling alone with limited sight, especially now that staff are in shorter supply and much information is displayed only on distant signage that assumes good vision.

I therefore have some notes on alternative routes avoiding these hubs. These are only my personal notes and I must disclaim all liability for inaccuracies, but I hope they’re useful.

Coach to underground

National Express coach 010 to Victoria has also been known to stop at:

Embankment (Zone 1): Good option. Coach stops outside underground station in both directions; if coming *from* Cambridge a road crossing is necessary but there are light controls and I’ve done it (the rotating cones *usually* work). The 2012 “Describe Online” project made HOWTOs for Bakerloo, District, and Northern (now offline and sadly not on Internet Archive—I still have a copy but I’m not sure if it’s legal to re-post and/or which parts need updating). Check for closures. Typical journey duration from Cambridge Parkside: 95 to 115 minutes.
Northern trains to the two main branches usually arrive alternately, so if you find yourself on a High Barnet train when you wanted Edgware (or vice versa) you can alight at any station and change from the same platform, *unless* you realise your mistake only after you’ve passed Camden Town, in which case on the way back you might have kept Describe Online’s 2012 instructions for how to change platforms at Camden Town to get back onto the correct branch.
Aldgate (Zone 1): Coach *from* Cambridge stops opposite underground station and there are light controls to cross the road, but I don’t know how to find the stop for the coach *to* Cambridge, so this option might be suitable in one direction only. (Some online maps supposedly showing the exact location of the coach stop are incorrect.) Once you reach the underground station, Describe Online made HOWTOs for Circle and Metropolitan, and also instructions on how to change at Moorgate from Metropolitan to Northern (might be useful if Embankment’s Northern section closes and/or you want the eastern loop)
Mile End (Zone 2): Coach stops outside underground station, but I don’t know about navigating the station itself. It serves only the Central, District and Hammersmith lines and I don’t know any easy way of changing to other lines from these.
Might be useful if your *destination* is in the Mile End area though. For example if you want Grove Road, cross over from station, turn left and it’s on the right. (There are light controls just behind the toward-London stop and also at the large junction ahead of it. There are also buses somewhere.)

Typical coach times between Cambridge and Mile End: 75 to 105 minutes depending on time of day (late return coaches can be quicker but might not be at particularly convenient times)

The terminal at Victoria is fine for changing coaches to elsewhere but it’s a bit awkward for transferring to the underground (some street navigation is necessary).

Train to underground

If you’re too late to make a coach booking, you might prefer train. It’s typically more expensive, and not very much quicker: if you live closer to the coaches than the station, you have to factor in the extra time to get to the station and buy tickets, and as you’re avoiding King’s Cross you can’t take the fastest trains (much as I like archaeology and museums, I’m not acting the opening scenes of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”—I get off trains when they *stop*).

Finsbury Park (Zone 2): Good option. This is a station on the King’s Cross line that’s smaller than King’s Cross (don’t get a non-stop train). Describe Online made instructions for how to change from train to Victoria or Piccadilly underground lines and how to change between Victoria and Northern at Euston. Typical journey durations: Cambridge station to Finsbury 80 minutes, Finsbury to Euston 7 minutes.
Tottenham Hale (Zone 3) on the Liverpool Street line also connects with Victoria. Typical journey durations: Cambridge station to Tottenham Hale 55 to 70 minutes, Tottenham Hale to Euston 13 minutes. Navigation shouldn’t be *too* difficult as there’s only one underground line to worry about, although it does have two directions. I don’t know any links to detailed instructions though.

Tottenham Hale can also be a good option if you’re travelling to the South West of England and wish to avoid King’s Cross and Waterloo. You can take the Victoria line to Vauxhall and then National Rail to Clapham Junction and pick up the South West line from there. ‘Advanced’ tickets can often be obtained for this route simply by telling the booking website that you wish to “avoid Waterloo” and are of similar cost to the default route, with a 10-minute earlier start for the same final arrival time (as of 2024)—and as it takes two Underground trains to transfer from either King’s Cross or Liverpool Street to Waterloo, the total number of actual trains taken is the same.

Thameslink trains: these now run between Cambridge and Brighton stopping at (among other places) four of the smaller central London stations: Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars and London Bridge. I’ve not yet tried these stations.

Coach seats might still be available on the day, but there’s no guarantee the drivers will even *stop* at places like Embankment if they haven’t been informed someone’s booked to get on there, so if you haven’t booked a coach and don’t want to find the Victoria terminal (and you’re not in an action film) then Finsbury Park or Tottenham Hale (or one of the smaller Thameslink-line stations) might be better.

Train to overground

Cheshunt station on the Liverpool Street line is now a London Overground terminus (Zone 8) and is quite navigable—usually just cross the footbridge to get onto the Overground, and not even that when returning—although depending where you want to be on the Overground, you might need to change a couple more times: Hackney Downs has a footpath from its platform 1 to Hackney Central where you can access the North London east-west line, and from there you can change at Canonbury for trains going across the Thames to the south. (The Overground tends to avoid Central London.) On the return trip it might take a few tries to find a train to Cheshunt rather than Enfield Town; also, some trains to and from Cambridge don’t stop at Cheshunt so you might sometimes need to change one station further out at Broxbourne as well.

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