Stirling to Tamworth

[dtaylor84]

Hi,

I'm trying to find a slightly cheaper way to get from Stirling to Tamworth (and back again) but think I may have left it a bit late for any decent fares...

Outbound (Stirling to Tamworth) Thu 15/08/2013 to arrive by early evening preferably.

Return (Tamworth to Stirling) Sun 18/08/2013 preferably leaving about lunch time.

I had a play with various options (splitting at larbert, Wigan North Western, York...) but couldn't really find anything under £100 return. For that much I might as well drive, though I'd rather avoid that.

Thanks in advance for any help.
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With some ridiculous contortions (not helped by the return leg being on a Sunday) I found a combination of tickets for £93... but I'm not overly keen on trying to catch 25 trains. And that's still more than driving.

 

[yorkie]

The rail industry tries its best to be infeasible for these sort of journeys. If the number of changes wasn't bad enough, they make the fares unaffordable.

To get it for less than £100 is a challenge, but is possible, with changes at Haymarket, Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New St, by booking:

Stirling - Manchester (~£29 each way) via TPE & Connections (change Haymarket)
Manchester - Tamworth (~£18 each way) via XC & Connections (change Birmingham New St)

or with one less change, but one more ticket:

Stirling - Haymarket (£8 each way)
Haymarket - Crewe (~£37 each way) via Virgin Trains
Crewe - Tamworth (~£9 each way) via London Midland

 

[John @ home]

A cheaper price may well mean a slower journey. trainscanbecheaper suggests:

Stirling - Croy: 2 x £4.90 singles =£9.80 (Valid any train on date on ticket)
Croy - Oxenholme: Off-Peak Return £29.50 (Validity 2R: Mon-Fri - Not before 0900)
Oxenholme - Aughton Park: Off-Peak Return £20.30 (Validity 8A: Any train)
Aughton Park - Maghull: 2 x £2.75 singles =£5.50 (Valid any train on date on ticket)
Maghull - Tamworth: Super Off-Peak Return £16.50 (Validity LH : Mon-Fri - Not to arrive Tamworth before 1300).
Total £81.60

But my calculations are that this route involves a journey of 8 hours each way.

 

[dtaylor84]

To get it for less than £100 is a challenge, but is possible, with changes at Haymarket, Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New St, by booking:

Stirling - Manchester (~£29 each way) via TPE & Connections (change Haymarket)
Manchester - Tamworth (~£18 each way) via XC & Connections (change Birmingham New St)

Thanks very much for that, it's the best route I've seen so far. With some flexible timing it would be £85, which is just about competitive with the car (given I wouldn't need to drive)... It's an option, anyway.

John @ Home - thanks, I had seen that route, but as you say it's a bit impractical. More problematic was a lack of services on Sunday: I couldn't actually find a way to do that route. A slight variation cost a little more and was possible, but would be more like 12 hours on the return journey.

Thanks again.

 

[kieron]

There are £16.50 advance tickets for Stirling-Liverpool on the Thursday, and £29 ones doing back north from Liverpool or Manchester. The £16.50 Liverpool-Tamworth return isn't useful here, as it has a long afternoon peak on the Thursday, but there is a £28.80 one which is better.

You could go from Stirling at 12.23 on the Thursday to Liverpool from 17.05 to 17.48, and reach Tamworth at 19.18.

For the return, you could go from Tamworth at 13.00 to Liverpool from 15.14 to 15.31, and reach Stirling at 20.11.

This would involve 5 trains and a short journey across Glasgow in each direction. If you order now, it would cost:
£16.50 Stirling-Liverpool
£28.80 Liverpool-Tamworth return
£29 Liverpool-Stirling
£74.30 total

There are plenty of advance tickets to Liverpool and Manchester, so dtaylor84 can easily look at those if this is a bit late or a bit slow. The £28.80 return ticket is also valid for journeys between Tamworth and Manchester (both on maps TV+ML, and on journey planners).

All depends on dtaylor84's perception of the value of time, of course, and on how quickly and how cheaply he expects to drive there.