I'm seriously considering applying to Exeter uni at the Penryn campus in Cornwall next year so have been doing some research into how I would get from home to the campus (roughly 300 miles) on public transport. I considered coach, train and plane and the results were quite surprising.
Option 1 - coach
Total cost of £62.70 (+£1 booking fee). This is the slowest and most expensive option with a total journey time of 7 hours 48 minutes. I would have to get the 11:00 NX330 service to Plymouth, then face a risky 15 minute changeover for the 16:35 NX504 service to Penryn arriving at 18:48.
Option 2 - train
Total cost of £56.30. Total journey time of 5 hours 24 minutes. I would have to get the 12:17 XC service to Plymouth, then a 17 min changeover for the 15:57 FGW service to Truro, then a very risky 5 min changeover for the 17:27 FGW service to Penryn. However the final leg of the journey is unimportant as I would have a Fal Mussel Uni card giving me unlimited travel on First buses in Cornwall, FGW trains between Falmouth and Truro, and ferries across the River Fal, so I would be able to get another train or bus at no extra cost should I miss the connection.
Interestingly I looked at the cost of Birmingham to Truro to see if I would save any money by removing the Truro - Penryn train but it was exactly the same price!
Option 3 - plane
Total cost of £26.99. Total journey time of 3 hours 31 minutes (plus approx 1 hour for check-in at Birmingham airport). This is by far the cheapest and quickest option! I would get the 11:00 Flybe flight to Newquay which arrives at 12:00. I would then get the 12:16 56 to Newquay arriving at 12:44, the 13:00 91 to Truro arriving at 14:00, and the 14:10 U1 to Penryn arriving at 14:31. The bus journeys would be covered by the Fal Mussel Uni card.
The surprising conclusion is that the plane, despite having to catch 3 buses from airport to destination, is by far the quickest and cheapest option and therefore almost certainly the option I would choose when going to/from home in the Christmas/Easter holidays.
Journey times and prices based on a random date I picked in the next month, Wed 8th July.
Quote from: Matt on June 06, 2015, 08:37:58 PM
I'm seriously considering applying to Exeter uni at the Penryn campus in Cornwall next year so have been doing some research into how I would get from home to the campus (roughly 300 miles) on public transport. I considered coach, train and plane and the results were quite surprising.
Option 1 - coach
Total cost of £62.70 (+£1 booking fee). This is the slowest and most expensive option with a total journey time of 7 hours 48 minutes. I would have to get the 11:00 NX330 service to Plymouth, then face a risky 15 minute changeover for the 16:35 NX504 service to Penryn arriving at 18:48.
Option 2 - train
Total cost of £56.30. Total journey time of 5 hours 24 minutes. I would have to get the 12:17 XC service to Plymouth, then a 17 min changeover for the 15:57 FGW service to Truro, then a very risky 5 min changeover for the 17:27 FGW service to Penryn. However the final leg of the journey is unimportant as I would have a Fal Mussel Uni card giving me unlimited travel on First buses in Cornwall, FGW trains between Falmouth and Truro, and ferries across the River Fal, so I would be able to get another train or bus at no extra cost should I miss the connection.
Interestingly I looked at the cost of Birmingham to Truro to see if I would save any money by removing the Truro - Penryn train but it was exactly the same price!
Option 3 - plane
Total cost of £26.99. Total journey time of 3 hours 31 minutes (plus approx 1 hour for check-in at Birmingham airport). This is by far the cheapest and quickest option! I would get the 11:00 Flybe flight to Newquay which arrives at 12:00. I would then get the 12:16 56 to Newquay arriving at 12:44, the 13:00 91 to Truro arriving at 14:00, and the 14:10 U1 to Penryn arriving at 14:31. The bus journeys would be covered by the Fal Mussel Uni card.
The surprising conclusion is that the plane, despite having to catch 3 buses from airport to destination, is by far the quickest and cheapest option and therefore almost certainly the option I would choose when going to/from home in the Christmas/Easter holidays.
Journey times and prices based on a random date I picked in the next month, Wed 8th July.
One problem is most times you would be returning on a Friday in University term time, Not a Wednesday with very few people at University. Try getting those prices then!
Arriva Cross Country are the biggest rip off merchants going and on popular days don't even offer the cheap tickets. I would be very surprised if you got those prices very often, if at all
Quote from: Matt on June 06, 2015, 08:37:58 PM
I'm seriously considering applying to Exeter uni at the Penryn campus in Cornwall next year so have been doing some research into how I would get from home to the campus (roughly 300 miles) on public transport. I considered coach, train and plane and the results were quite surprising.
Option 1 - coach
Total cost of £62.70 (+£1 booking fee). This is the slowest and most expensive option with a total journey time of 7 hours 48 minutes. I would have to get the 11:00 NX330 service to Plymouth, then face a risky 15 minute changeover for the 16:35 NX504 service to Penryn arriving at 18:48.
Option 2 - train
Total cost of £56.30. Total journey time of 5 hours 24 minutes. I would have to get the 12:17 XC service to Plymouth, then a 17 min changeover for the 15:57 FGW service to Truro, then a very risky 5 min changeover for the 17:27 FGW service to Penryn. However the final leg of the journey is unimportant as I would have a Fal Mussel Uni card giving me unlimited travel on First buses in Cornwall, FGW trains between Falmouth and Truro, and ferries across the River Fal, so I would be able to get another train or bus at no extra cost should I miss the connection.
Interestingly I looked at the cost of Birmingham to Truro to see if I would save any money by removing the Truro - Penryn train but it was exactly the same price!
Option 3 - plane
Total cost of £26.99. Total journey time of 3 hours 31 minutes (plus approx 1 hour for check-in at Birmingham airport). This is by far the cheapest and quickest option! I would get the 11:00 Flybe flight to Newquay which arrives at 12:00. I would then get the 12:16 56 to Newquay arriving at 12:44, the 13:00 91 to Truro arriving at 14:00, and the 14:10 U1 to Penryn arriving at 14:31. The bus journeys would be covered by the Fal Mussel Uni card.
The surprising conclusion is that the plane, despite having to catch 3 buses from airport to destination, is by far the quickest and cheapest option and therefore almost certainly the option I would choose when going to/from home in the Christmas/Easter holidays.
Journey times and prices based on a random date I picked in the next month, Wed 8th July.
With NX, one of the options is to buy at (for outward journeys at least) from a centro bus station, or digbeth coach station, saving the £1 booking fee. Plus a coach card can reduce the fares by a third.
With the train, would splitting at Gloucester, Bristol and Exeter work perhaps?? Plus a 16-25 railcard may help as again that reduces fares by a third...
Also first class advances
may work out cheaper!!
Only one problem with option 3
@Matt, your not fond of flying.
Slower Matt, but u could do this.
9 from yours to Birmingham single fare £2.20
Megabus from Birmingham to Plymouth
08:10 from B/Ham arr Plymouth 13:55 On the date you said, cheap fare of £10
Train 15:12 from Plymouth to Penryn arr 17:05 single fare £9.90
Total £22:10
Splits for a random date, without railcard...
(Hope these help
@Matt -based on a 1117 dep on a Friday)
Splits for a random date, with railcard
Splits are often a lot cheaper for rail tickets. When I went to Bristol last week, I split at Cheltenham Spa, another split at Bristol would probably bring the price down. Whenever I go Manchester or Liverpool, I always by a split via Crewe
Quote from: Sh4318 on June 07, 2015, 09:27:55 PM
Splits are often a lot cheaper for rail tickets. When I went to Bristol last week, I split at Cheltenham Spa, another split at Bristol would probably bring the price down. Whenever I go Manchester or Liverpool, I always by a split via Crewe
Cheapest Way to Liverpool is via Chester, splitting at Chester
Quote from: Sh4318 on June 07, 2015, 09:27:55 PM
Splits are often a lot cheaper for rail tickets. When I went to Bristol last week, I split at Cheltenham Spa, another split at Bristol would probably bring the price down. Whenever I go Manchester or Liverpool, I always by a split via Crewe
My Friend Kieran from Plymouth splits the rail tickets when ever he goes on Trains to certain places. When he came to New Street on 18th April he told me he paid under £50 from Plymouth rather then £70 or £80.
It's surprising how expensive travelling from Birmingham to the South West is, you go north and you seem to get better value for money!
Quote from: Stuharris 6360 on June 07, 2015, 09:52:10 PM
It's surprising how expensive travelling from Birmingham to the South West is, you go north and you seem to get better value for money!
That's Cross Country for you... Same If you're going to Southampton / Bournemouth , cheaper to go via London.
Don't quite know why they're so expensive (or indeed why other companies are so much cheaper)
one way to work out who prices your ticket is to look at the ticket on brfares.com (http://www.brfares.com/) as they also give the ticket restrictions.
As an aside I usually buy for trips to Manchester a BHM-STA return, STA-SPT return and a GM4 Daysaver TBM. That usually covers me on the rail network and buses in manchester and both via CRE/SOT between STA and SPT
BHM - New Street
CRE - Crewe
SPT - Stockport
SOT - Stoke On Trent
STA - Stafford
Does anyone here work at the Birmingham Mail? As rather coincidentally they posted an article today on a similar subject:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/split-ticket-life-hack-can-9410509
Quote from: Stu on June 08, 2015, 08:43:37 PM
Does anyone here work at the Birmingham Mail? As rather coincidentally they posted an article today on a similar subject:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/split-ticket-life-hack-can-9410509
@Stu it's been going on in the press over the last week since Dispatches did a program on it
One trick not many people realise is if you are heading south west from Birmingham, tickets from Bromsgrove to Cheltenham are valid via Birmingham (specifically mentioned in the routing guide despite breaking the doubling back rule) and have more generous restrictions on off peak tickets than those from Birmingham as well as being cheaper, so a Bromsgrove-Cheltenham ticket at the start of splits heading to Bristol and beyond can save quite large amounts
Cheltenham is a good splitting point for Advance Saver Tickets. For instance, with a railcard, Birmingham New Street to Plymouth is £23.05 each way. Separate tickets from Birmingham New Street to Cheltenham and Cheltenham to Plymouth is a total of £18.35 each way - a saving of £9.40 on a return journey.
If you buy your ticket on the CrossCountry website, you can also select your own seat. What I do is find a seat that is available for the complete journey by booking and cancelling a Birmingham to Plymouth ticket, then book my two tickets selecting that seat.
One ticket available from Plymouth into Cornwall (which may not work out the cheapest) is a Ride Cornwall ticket which costs £8.30 with a railcard and allows unlimited bus and train travel for the day.
Quote from: Tony on June 06, 2015, 08:43:12 PM
Arriva Cross Country are the biggest rip off merchants going and on popular days don't even offer the cheap tickets. I would be very surprised if you got those prices very often, if at all
Isn't this the truth. I would also add that XC is the worst rail company out there by some margin.
I regularly do an XC journey which, if booked as one trip, offers only a £58.30 anytime single. Book it as two separate legs and advances miraculously become available and it can be done for as little as £20 even when booked just a week or so beforehand.
Apart from the HSTs their trains are awful too, and that's before you come to the idiotic use of two carriages from Birmingham to Stansted at busy times. They must think that people actually want to stand up.
The standstead situation is down to central trains...basically it interworks with the Leicester stoppers
Quote from: the trainbasher on June 21, 2015, 02:10:54 PM
The standstead situation is down to central trains...basically it interworks with the Leicester stoppers
Which are also too small for what they carry. As with Cardiff services, as with Bournemouth services, as with nearly every XC train I've caught that's full and standing room only
Quote from: the trainbasher on June 21, 2015, 02:10:54 PM
The stansted situation is down to central trains...basically it interworks with the Leicester stoppers
@the trainbasher I would hardly still blame Central Trains, how long have Cross Country been operating the route.
Have they invested in any new carriages, no, just use the ones they inherited, plus they have had plenty of time to amend the timetable so that it doesn't interwork with the Leicester stoppers.
Isn't it a case of Cross Country trying to make the most money with limited or no investment.
Quote from: Kevin on June 21, 2015, 09:27:41 PM
Which are also too small for what they carry. As with Cardiff services, as with Bournemouth services, as with nearly every XC train I've caught that's full and standing room only
Agreed you can never find a seat on their services, especially brum to Bournemouth which are always crammed. Also their trains are old, with voyagers being ex Virgin
Quote from: Kevin on June 21, 2015, 09:27:41 PM
Which are also too small for what they carry. As with Cardiff services, as with Bournemouth services, as with nearly every XC train I've caught that's full and standing room only
I saw a Voyager leaving New Street bound for Newcastle only a few weeks ago which had left a substantial number of people behind, and have witnessed the same on a two-car to Stansted also.
While XC can only work with what they're allowed to, the whole franchise is a shambolic, badly-organised mess. The regular cancellation of hourly services 'because a staff member is unavailable' is wearing very thin as well.
You're complaining about 170s operating the Birmingham - Leicester - Stansted line - so where are you going to get the three car units from? The Cardiff - Birmingham - Derby - Nottingham route is ridiculously busy as well even with a three car unit!
The biggest downfall with the XC franchise was undertaken in Virgin days where the HSTs were replaced by Voyagers halving capacity on their entire network.
If you want more carriages then pay more for the train service and then the DfT will put more funding to XC for new carriages - except you've got to remember that the operation doesn't serve London so it doesn't matter what happens with it.
Quote from: T840MAK on June 26, 2015, 02:24:46 PM
You're complaining about 170s operating the Birmingham - Leicester - Stansted line - so where are you going to get the three car units from? The Cardiff - Birmingham - Derby - Nottingham route is ridiculously busy as well even with a three car unit!
The biggest downfall with the XC franchise was undertaken in Virgin days where the HSTs were replaced by Voyagers halving capacity on their entire network.
If you want more carriages then pay more for the train service and then the DfT will put more funding to XC for new carriages - except you've got to remember that the operation doesn't serve London so it doesn't matter what happens with it.
Virgin didn't half the capacity because the doubled the frequency of all routes, so they replaced a 6-car hauled set or 7-car HST with 8, 9 or 10 cars of Voyager, much that I would have preferred the HSTs to remain, you cannot blame Voyagers for a reduction in capacity, all they did, along with the improved timetable was attract too many people to match the extra capacity they provided
Quote from: T840MAK on June 26, 2015, 02:24:46 PM
You're complaining about 170s operating the Birmingham - Leicester - Stansted line - so where are you going to get the three car units from? The Cardiff - Birmingham - Derby - Nottingham route is ridiculously busy as well even with a three car unit!
In comes the angry know-it-all again.
I am not complaining about 170s on the Birmingham to Stansteds. I'm complaining about the
two-car 170s they regularly use there to suit operational convenience, rather than meeting passenger demand.
It is not acceptable to expect people to stand throughout a journey which is this long.
Quote from: barry619 on June 27, 2015, 10:44:39 AM
In comes the angry know-it-all again.
I am not complaining about 170s on the Birmingham to Stansteds. I'm complaining about the two-car 170s they regularly use there to suit operational convenience, rather than meeting passenger demand.
It is not acceptable to expect people to stand throughout a journey which is this long.
I'm not sure where you've got me being an angry know-it-all from considering I've made very few posts on this forum and you don't even know me.
I'm simply saying that CrossCountry are better off with a fleet of 3 car 170s for all their class 170 routes - if you've got a problem with the capacity on the Stansted route then by all means bring it up with CrossCountry, however just remember that they have 16 3-car units, which spend the majority of their time on the longer Cardiff - Nottingham route. I've never had any capacity problems in the few times that I've used the Birmingham - Leicester / Stansted services - mind you, I've never dropped a 2-car on there either as all times I've done that it has been a three car unit.
Quote from: Tony on June 26, 2015, 03:36:05 PM
Virgin didn't half the capacity because the doubled the frequency of all routes, so they replaced a 6-car hauled set or 7-car HST with 8, 9 or 10 cars of Voyager, much that I would have preferred the HSTs to remain, you cannot blame Voyagers for a reduction in capacity, all they did, along with the improved timetable was attract too many people to match the extra capacity they provided
Thanks for this Tony - I can't actually remember how VTXC ran with the HSTs - maybe I'm too young to remember it, however I'm just going off what I've been told by other people, so it is refreshing to know how the services actually ran.
I found another Cross Country rip-off today.
I needed a ticket from Kiveton Park to Tamworth.
Any time single is £39.90 for a not Birmingham routed ticket, now I am not sure why you would need to go via Birmingham as the two routes are either Kiveton Park-Sheffield-Tamworth, or the more interesting Kiveton Park-Worksop-Nottingham-Tamworth.
The only off-peak single is valid via Birmingham making it more expensive than the anytime ticket to make sure no-one buys one!
Quote from: Tony on March 25, 2021, 05:39:29 PM
I found another Cross Country rip-off today.
I needed a ticket from Kiveton Park to Tamworth.
Any time single is £39.90 for a not Birmingham routed ticket, now I am not sure why you would need to go via Birmingham as the two routes are either Kiveton Park-Sheffield-Tamworth, or the more interesting Kiveton Park-Worksop-Nottingham-Tamworth.
The only off-peak single is valid via Birmingham making it more expensive than the anytime ticket to make sure no-one buys one!
There are various ones or used to be on that line, to do a day return from Birmingham to Sheffield which I used to do regularly, other than splitting at Derby the cheapest way to do it was a Day Return from Birmingham to Saxilby which was valid via Sheffield or Nottingham and you could get a Day Return whereas it was only a Saver Return on XC. Haven't done the trip now for a long time so don't know if that still works out or not.
I recall years ago needing to go from Doncaster to Kiveton Park, the fare was priced via Northern so was cheap being within SYPTE but the ticket also was valid via Retford it seemed so went via GNER instead of a long journey on a Pacer...
Quote from: Cheese on March 25, 2021, 06:16:47 PM
There are various ones or used to be on that line, to do a day return from Birmingham to Sheffield which I used to do regularly, other than splitting at Derby the cheapest way to do it was a Day Return from Birmingham to Saxilby which was valid via Sheffield or Nottingham and you could get a Day Return whereas it was only a Saver Return on XC. Haven't done the trip now for a long time so don't know if that still works out or not.
I recall years ago needing to go from Doncaster to Kiveton Park, the fare was priced via Northern so was cheap being within SYPTE but the ticket also was valid via Retford it seemed so went via GNER instead of a long journey on a Pacer...
Another cheap way to do a day return from Birmingham to Sheffield is to split at Burton-on-Trent. Day return Birmingham to Burton then Derbyshire Wayfarer (£13.40 adult) Burton to Sheffield. Down side - Derbyshire Wayfarer can only be purchased in the area of validity (although that does include Burton Station). Up side - also valid on buses throughout Derbyshire and a little beyond, including via Sheffield, so good to reach the Peak District.
I heard West mids trains were losing £million a week through strike
action?. there is a way they could save money .... simply
cut their fares by 50% . then they would only be losing half a million
(Dave Allan classic)
Thought I'd resurrect this thread with a bit of an 'anomality' I just found!
I've booked myself a stay in Borth, Wales at the end of April, and was just looking at rail ticket prices.
A return journey from New Street to Borth on Transport For Wales will cost me £64.10.
However, for my companions who will be joining me and travelling from Wolverhampton, the return journey cost is £45.90?
It is therefore cheaper for me to book a return from Wolverhampton, then pay £4.20 x2 to travel to Wolverhampton from Birmingham New Street. From New Street, it would of course be the exact same train, so there's no physical change required.
This makes no sense to me?
QuoteThought I'd resurrect this thread with a bit of an 'anomality' I just found!
I've booked myself a stay in Borth, Wales at the end of April, and was just looking at rail ticket prices.
A return journey from New Street to Borth on Transport For Wales will cost me £64.10.
However, for my companions who will be joining me and travelling from Wolverhampton, the return journey cost is £45.90?
It is therefore cheaper for me to book a return from Wolverhampton, then pay £4.20 x2 to travel to Wolverhampton from Birmingham New Street. From New Street, it would of course be the exact same train, so there's no physical change required.
This makes no sense to me?
I'm pretty sure that's a concept called ticket splitting. You can basically "split" your tickets to from your starting station to a "middle" stop and then a middle stop to your end destination, which ends up being cheaper overall. It's perfectly legitimate as long as the train stops at this middle station.
It can be cheaper due to how they calculate rail fares.