Birmingham New St to London (Central area)

[Old Timer]

Chaps !

I might have to do some work involving extensive travelling between Central London and Birmingham.

I am advised that some sort of Rover ticket would be a better option than approaching Virgin ?

I am looking for first class by the way, and ideally an option to allows the free food, as this will save me a massive amount of time in the long term as it looks like being long days for me !

If any of you very clever ticketing Gurus can oblige with some advice I would be very grateful.

Thank you

Old Timer

 

[37401]

really depends on how often your traveling, there is the ALR and comes in 4 different packages

standard 1 week £430, £284 with railcard
Standard 2 weeks £650, £429 with railcard
First class 1 week £650, £429 with railcard
First class 2 weeks £990, £653 with railcard

its not cheap however, ill do abit more digging for you trying to see if you can combine rangers to get you there, I know a Heart of England rover will get you as far as Milton keynes

there is also the Thames Rover, if you combine the HoE and this you can get to London but you can only do Birmingham-Oxford-London Paddington

there is also splitting tickets

ill keep looking for you however

hope ive been some help

Ian

 

[Mojo]

Do you have more info? How many times you will be travelling in a week and whether you will be returning some day. Will you be catching the same trains every day; there are some savings to be made by splitting at either Milton Keynes or Rugby, however only 1tph calls at either of those locations each, and it's a different train, so if you split there (without one being a season), you will be limited to only 1 out of a possible 3tph.

 

[mathmo]

A weekly season ticket is £339.40 First Class or £216.20 Standard: this is better value than an ALR if you're only travelling between Birmingham and London but is far from cheap!

 

[yorkie]

A weekly season ticket is £339.40 First Class or £216.20 Standard: this is better value than an ALR if you're only travelling between Birmingham and London but is far from cheap!

Good value compared to the cost of walk-on returns though. Just 2 trips in a week and you save money (assuming peak time travel)!

 

[37401]

for once OT it looks like you are the one owing the pint

 

[Old Timer]

To answer a few queries raised.

1) Travelling daily, in the Peak

2) Would prefer to have freedom of a non stop Coventry service without a splitting ticket

Question : Is it possible to get greater than Weekly and that being the case would I have to apporach Virgin as a special arrangement ??

In BR days Birmingham was a special case and although not then quoted at the booking office, Division was able to authorise anything beyond a weekly up to a yearly. I remember Sir Lew Grade having a yearly 1st Class Euston to Birmingham in about 1975 !

 

[37401]

IIRC season tickets are, weekly, monthly or yearly

so you may need to buy several 1 week tickets, but I could be wrong, ive only ever seen a 7 day ticket appear on the fast ticket machines

 

[clagmonster]

You can get a season for any period of time from a weeky to an annual.

 

[yorkie]

Neither of the above two posts is correct, I believe!

You can get any season from a monthly to an annual (e.g. 1 month & 3 days or whatever) on nearly all routes.

For many routes you can also get weekly seasons.

 

[John @ home]

The prices until 1 January 2010 for 7-day season tickets between Birmingham New Street and London Terminals are:

Route Any Permitted
First Class £339.40
Standard £216.20

Route High Wycombe
First Class £245.40
Standard £163.60

Route Northampton
First Class £224.60
Standard £149.70

Route London Midland only
First Class £180.00
Standard £120.00

In all cases, a monthly is 3.84 times a weekly and an annual is 40 times a weekly. Periods from 1 month 1 day to 10 months 11 days are pro rata at the monthly rate.

It is not obvious to me why there is a First Class route High Wycombe fare because Chiltern do not have First Class accommodation.

John

 

[yorkie]

It is not obvious to me why there is a First Class route High Wycombe fare because Chiltern do not have First Class accommodation.

The only time it could be used is when Virgin divert via High Wycombe (for people with more money than sense - as an Off Peak return with Weekend First upgrade would be considerably cheaper), or if the customer changes trains at Banbury it could be used north of there on XC. I doubt anyone would actually do that.

 

[Old Timer]

Gentlemen,

My sincere thanks for all the hard work you have done and the information provided.

Old Timer

 

[Railjet]

Where are you based? If you were more in Amsterdam than the UK over the past 6 months and/or could prove some kind of residency there, you could of course get an InterRail ticket which would be way cheaper.