About 120 miles, most of it on the best long motorway out of London. A car makes sense for the NEC, for Solihull and Warwickshire and for anyone with bags. For one person going to New Street, the train usually wins, and we will tell you so.
The route
The road
Of the long motorways out of London, the M40 is the one that behaves. It leaves the M25 at High Wycombe, climbs through the Chilterns, and then runs straight and largely uninterrupted through Oxfordshire and Warwickshire before joining the M42 south of Solihull. There are no toll decisions, no managed-motorway stretches to speak of on the middle section, and the traffic thins out after Oxford.
The journey is really decided in the first forty minutes and the last twenty. Getting out of London to the M25, and then getting off the M42 into wherever you are actually going, are the two variable parts. The NEC and Birmingham Airport sit at junction 6 of the M42 and are reached before the city itself; Solihull is a few minutes off the same road; the city centre is another twenty minutes beyond. A plan that treats all three as the same destination will be wrong by half an hour.
We usually do not plan a stop on a journey this length. If you want one, Warwick services on the M40 adds about ten minutes. London is one of the two cities where Odyssey owns the cars and employs the chauffeurs, so the car that collects you in the morning is ours, and, if the day runs long, the same chauffeur takes you home.
Compared
| Door to door | Good for | Less good for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chauffeur | About 2 hours 15 to 3 hours | The NEC, Solihull, Warwick, Coventry and anywhere off the station map. Luggage, exhibition stands, several people, calls the whole way, and a car that stays with you all day | One person with a laptop who needs to be at New Street and nowhere else |
| Train | About 2 hours 15 all in | Exactly that person. Euston to New Street takes a little under an hour and a half on the fastest services, with trains running all day and both stations central | Anyone with bags, anyone going to the NEC side, and anyone whose meetings move during the day |
| Flight | Rarely worth it on its own | Connecting from abroad into Birmingham Airport, or starting from a private terminal near you rather than from London | A London to Birmingham day. Two airports and two transfers do not beat a road that takes two hours |
The honest version. For one traveller going city centre to city centre, take the train and let us put a car at each end instead.
When the car is the right answer
On a journey this short it is almost never about speed. It is about what you are carrying and where the day actually goes.
Leaving London
The clock at the London end sets the shape of the whole day.
Coming back
The M42 and the approach to London are the two things to plan around.
Either end
Request a quote
Where you start, where you need to be and when, and whether you are coming back the same day. If the train is the better answer for part of it we will say so and quote for the cars instead. Nothing is booked or charged online.
Prefer to talk? +44 2030 048300 or WhatsApp, at any hour.
Questions people ask
A little over two in good conditions, and up to three door to door at normal times of day. Leave London between four and seven in the evening and it can be four. We will tell you that before you book rather than afterwards.
If you are one person going from central London to central Birmingham with light luggage, probably yes. The fastest services take a little under an hour and a half and run all day. Let us put a car at each end instead.
Yes, and for an exhibition day that is usually the sensible arrangement rather than booking two separate journeys. See hourly, as directed.
Yes. Manchester is our other base, so the day can end with our own car and chauffeur there too. See London to Manchester.
Yes, including tolls and central London charges.
