Hi Lewton,
Actually it was me that said to give a polite call on 129.55 for zone transit - no worries
Does the airspace reconfiguration mean that 129.55 now has the callsign 'Luton Director'?
I often transit on track Woburn - BPK (conveniently through your overhead) as I am Cranfield based, and was taught that this particular routing is the done thing. I have only been re-routed to Hemel Hempstead once.
What is the position for IFR transits? Will that increase the (already high when VFR) chance of a transit, or does it just increase your workload with regards to active seperation. I'm interested as I would like to be as ATC-friendly as possible in my flying without increasing my workload too much (see long discussion re Thames Radar in the ATC forum).