Luton Airport’s DART train to launch on 10th March

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• Ryan C says:

  25 Feb25 February 09:36

  For those panicking over the £4.90 charge for the link, like anything else, if you book early enough you won’t be paying anything like that.

  EMR are currently selling single tickets from London STP to Luton Airport for as little as £5 including the DART.

  • PeteM says:

    25 Feb25 February 09:45

    People love getting offended by things that most likely won’t even affect them 🙂

• Tim P says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:11

  I rarely use Luton because of the bus and have no plans to use the airport with the overpriced DART.

• SamG says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:40

  One side effect of this is you won’t be able to use the shuttle bus to access the hotels , you’ll need to use an Arriva bus instead if you can’t walk (I usually take the shuttle there and walked to the airport in the morning the odd time I’ve ended up out of Luton!)

• apbj says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:41

  What’s wrong with people? Most passengers already buy the inclusive ticket which covers the £2.40 bus; besides, £4.90 is fair for better and more reliable access to the terminal from an extremely well-connected train station. Tried buying a Stansted Express ticket recently? Or been dropped off in a taxi at LHR for £5? Or even wondered what your local airport passenger service charges are just for using it? You’d have to wilfully stupid to think that a new facility would be free or that the horrible and unreliable shuttle bus was somehow a total bargain because it was “only” £2.40 (cash only, to the grumpy jobsworth at the bus stop, no you’ll have to wait for the next one…)

  • CamFlyer says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:17

    +1

    As others have noted, most rail tickets will include the DART fare, just as they include the bus. Does anyone know if there will be any impact on the price of tickets to Luton Airport (not the dart sold separately)? And for the family of four: one should always check the relative cost and convenience of taxi vs drive & park vs public transport. One can argue that the uk policies disfavour public transport, but I would see adding a modern rapid transit solution, even at a small marginal cost, as helping public transport, not the opposite.

    I avoided the rail to bus connection at Luton, as involving numerous staircases and queuing and the risk that the bus was full. The DART appears to be simple, modern and efficient (assuming it works as advertised).

• SammyJ says:

  25 Feb25 February 11:18

  Not disagreeing with the charge, someone has to pay for it. But it won’t be me if it actually does work out at an extra £40 on top of the price of a train to Luton for a family of 4. Cheaper to drive and park.

• David says:

  25 Feb25 February 11:23

  I park for free, paid for by my car tax (not in front of anyone’s house) near every single London airport. Luton is the only one I have to walk 15-20mins too, mind you.

  • Rich says:

    25 Feb25 February 20:13

    There is no such thing as car tax, and VED doesn’t entitle you to anything – just like income tax or VAT

• Andy S says:

  25 Feb25 February 11:29

  London St Pancras to Luton Airport off peak single is £14.10

  London St Pancras to Luton Airport Parkway is £11.70

  Therefore the Dart is only £2.40 extra with a through rail ticket.

  • Londonsteve says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:43

    That’s the situation at the moment, but at the moment you get a transfer bus. Check again when DART is the only means of travelling between the station and the terminal, I think you’ll find the through ticket price increases.

    • Ryan C says:

      25 Feb25 February 11:47

      Incorrect. EMR are currently selling tickets from as little as £5 in April. The article states the bus connection will be withdrawn by then so through fare with DART connection.

      • Rob says:

        25 Feb25 February 11:57

        The fares were only announced this week so I suspect the rail fares are not updated.

        • Londonsteve says:

          25 Feb25 February 13:23

          Quite. I’ll agree it’s entirely possible to ‘lock in’ the current price by buying an advance ticket now if you have a flight booking.

        • Ryan C says:

          25 Feb25 February 14:24

          Not true Rob. London St Pancras to Luton Airport Parkway can be bought for £2.60.

          Some may still complain that the charge is still an £2.40 extra to the airport, but that’s frankly ridiculous.

          If there are people who aren’t happy about getting from Central London to Luton Airport for a fiver, then the world has truly gone crazy…

        • G says:

          25 Feb25 February 21:45

          Rail fares will rise by 5.9% in March.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          25 Feb25 February 21:48

          @ryan C you’re proving your own point 😂

          It is ridiculous to charge that much for a small 1.5 mile connection that should’ve existed from day one

  • TGLoyalty says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:50

    That’s literally the price of the bus so you expect it’ll go up for the dart charge

    Anyway rather than charge everyone who takes off and lands at the airport £1-2 on the fare they are pretending it’s cheaper than it is and end up with a hidden £5 ew charge. Awesome.

    • Ryan C says:

      25 Feb25 February 22:04

      @tgloyalty

      So it’s ok to charge £2.60 for the 30 mile journey from STP to LTN but not £2.40 for the DART?

      It’s plain for anyone to see that the fares are not charged ‘per mile’, and pedantic in the extreme to get upset over being charged £5 to get to the airport.

      • Londonsteve says:

        26 Feb26 February 11:39

        I must be pedantic in the extreme because I’m upset about being charged £5 for the final mile. Can I pay it? Yes. Do I feel it’s reasonable? Absolutely not. There’s a lot of hard-up families and migrant workers using Luton airport for its cheap flights, £20 each way for a family of 4 is a major dent in their budget, moreover it’ll come as an unexpected surprise to many, especially those using contactless to benefit from lower train fares. Anyone suggesting that they shouldn’t be travelling if they’re that hard up isn’t the answer, many of them might be going on their only trip that year, which may or may not involve visiting relatives which is the bare minimum anyone’s entitled to. The charge is abusive in my opinion, won’t be long before someone sets up a bus service to compete for half the price, ideal for everyone arriving on contactless.

        • Ryan C says:

          27 Feb27 February 07:43

          It’s £20 return if you book early, so don’t know where you are going with the £5 for the extra mile.

          The point remains, and you are being pedantic if you are claiming that £20 return for a family of doesn’t represent great value for money.

        • Londonsteve says:

          27 Feb27 February 12:42

          Most rail passengers will arrive on Thameslink and I’d wager most of them will use contactless because that’s what we’ve been trained to use around London this last decade. Anyone arriving that way is facing a fiver for the last mile, as I wrote. Advance fares on EMT are a niche sport for people specifically seeking to get from St Pancras to Luton; it suits some budget orientated tourists staying in the centre of London but that’s about it. Most travellers leaving from central London would anyway incline towards the Thameslink option as they can hop on at a variety of stations. My local station is further north of St Pancras and it makes no sense to first take the tube to STP, it’ll be the same for most people in London.

        • Ryan C says:

          27 Feb27 February 22:56

          You mean ‘most people’ who are not tourists?

          So because you feel there are lots of migrant workers and hard up families who will likely use Thameslink (with no actual evidence to back this remark up) to travel ‘to’ Luton Airport, none of the other passengers travelling on leisure breaks not to mention the thousands of inbound tourists should benefit from value fares?

          It’s a very centric opinion this, which completely ignores the fact that there are ‘others’ who use airports and facilities and not just those from London and surrounds.

• ADS says:

  25 Feb25 February 11:48

  Train prices for Friday 3rd March
  St Pancras to LAP using Contactless £14.40 peak, £10.40 off peak
  St Pancras to LAP using paper ticket £16.50
  St Pancras to Airport using paper ticket £18.90
  ignoring EMR error fares

  Plenty of people will continue to use Contactless, and will pay the gobsmacking £4.90 fare for 1.5 miles (making Heathrow Express look like a bargain)

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