North East - KGX 3-6 Oct

[FozzQuaker]

I'm booking to goto London in early October...

What's the best and cheapest booking options, it's been quite a while since I've been on a long distance Train Journey.

Also is that one of the Weekends LNER will be on strike and if so would it be worth maybe looking at getting a coach back to the North East.

Outbound, I'm looking at departing from SUN, NCL or DHM and I'm thinking about getting a Megabus or NatEx for the Return Leg...Should I check out Grand Central or Lumo for Cheaper fares?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

FQ

 

[Benjwri]

Also is that one of the Weekends LNER will be on strike

The LNER strike has been called off.

 

[FozzQuaker]

The LNER strike has been called off.

Ah right, cool, that's good news then, I don't watch the news or anything, so hadn't heard anything about, and I only knew they were on strike as my dad is an avid watcher of the news

 

[yorkie]

You can get it for around £100 from Shildon.

For example £100.57 by booking with us, departing 1233 and returning 1230:

Shildon > London Kings Cross - Search Results

The Split Ticketing Champions - Compare fares and get the best value for money through split tickets and booking cheap train tickets online and on our mobile app, E-Tickets to your phone, no booking fee, save up to 90%

tickets.railforums.co.uk

Or £108.90 if you book "direct" with LNER (LNER sometimes charges a premium for journeys from Shildon to London, as opposed to the cost of each leg to/from Darlington; our site will automatically look for cheaper combinations of tickets, without you having to do anything!)

You could search from Newcastle or Sunderland, to include Lumo/GC, but that would be a longer journey and then you have to include the cost of motoring, including parking.

 

[FozzQuaker]

You can get it for around £100 from Shildon.

For example £100.57 by booking with us, departing 1233 and returning 1230:

Shildon > London Kings Cross - Search Results

The Split Ticketing Champions - Compare fares and get the best value for money through split tickets and booking cheap train tickets online and on our mobile app, E-Tickets to your phone, no booking fee, save up to 90%

tickets.railforums.co.uk

Or £108.90 if you book "direct" with LNER (LNER sometimes charges a premium for journeys from Shildon to London, as opposed to the cost of each leg to/from Darlington; our site will automatically look for cheaper combinations of tickets, without you having to do anything!)

You could search from Newcastle or Sunderland, to include Lumo/GC, but that would be a longer journey and then you have to include the cost of motoring, including parking.

I'm not in Shildon anymore, never realised I still had from Shildon on my profile, I back over towards the Coast I. East Durham, which is why I mentioned SUN, NCL and DHM.

Thanks for the replies

 

[yorkie]

I'm not in Shildon anymore, never realised I still had from Shildon on my profile, I back over towards the Coast I. East Durham, which is why I mentioned SUN, NCL and DHM.

Thanks for the replies

Ah well just change the search origin to be from whichever location you want to choose

Out site will check for cheaper splits from any of them.

 

[paul1609]

Assuming that your happy with last flights of the day and have only hand luggage Id fly down with BA to Heathrow, economy basic for those dates return is just over £100. The ECML rail product is just too unreliable whether that's because of staffing or engineering issues. If you're on a budget I think any of the coach operators are ok, it's just the journey times really.

 

[miklcct]

Assuming that your happy with last flights of the day and have only hand luggage Id fly down with BA to Heathrow, economy basic for those dates return is just over £100. The ECML rail product is just too unreliable whether that's because of staffing or engineering issues. If you're on a budget I think any of the coach operators are ok, it's just the journey times really.

Honestly I won't suggest anyone travel by air between Newcastle and London, unless the whole ECML is out of action. Even if there is a major disruption, buying a flexible rail ticket for the first outgoing train is still a much convenient and hassle-free option compared to flying.

 

[FozzQuaker]

In the end I got a Return for 95 quid from Sunderland, going down on Grand Central and coming back on LNER through Leeds and York...

 

[paul1609]

Honestly I won't suggest anyone travel by air between Newcastle and London, unless the whole ECML is out of action. Even if there is a major disruption, buying a flexible rail ticket for the first outgoing train is still a much convenient and hassle-free option compared to flying.

I don't use the ECML to any great extent but the only successful trip that I've had in the last 2 years was a day return trip to Peterborough. Every other trip about 6 over the 2 year period has had the train in one direction cancelled because of crew shortage. Last Saturday was the worse with my train from York to KGX cancelled and the last train south at an incredibly early 20.00 crush loaded with drunks from York races. To be honest I can't see that ba from Newcastle airport with its metro connection to Heathrow T5 with its connections can possibly be as bad as the ECML. My next trip is to Hull I've booked very reasonable advances via Sheffield and MML. Sunderland will be flights or coaches.

 

[yorkie]

I don't use the ECML to any great extent but the only successful trip that I've had in the last 2 years was a day return trip to Peterborough. Every other trip about 6 over the 2 year period has had the train in one direction cancelled because of crew shortage. Last Saturday was the worse with my train from York to KGX cancelled and the last train south at an incredibly early 20.00 crush loaded with drunks from York races. To be honest I can't see that ba from Newcastle airport with its metro connection to Heathrow T5 with its connections can possibly be as bad as the ECML. My next trip is to Hull I've booked very reasonable advances via Sheffield and MML. Sunderland will be flights or coaches.

I am a regular user of the ECML; I've been on 17 LNER trains during June, July and August and only experienced 1 issue, when my train was cancelled and I incurred a delay of about 100 mins.

However, I do accept that LNER are desperately trying to price people off their trains, make people feel unwelcome by making threatening announcements, and are keen to make their rail service become more like an airline, this negating many of the benefits of rail.

However, despite LNER's best efforts to put people off, it remains the best option, unless the air fare is much cheaper.

 

[miklcct]

I am a regular use of the ECML; I've been on 17 LNER trains during June, July and August and only experienced 1 issue, when my train was cancelled and I incurred a delay of about 100 mins.

However, I do accept that LNER are desperately trying to price people off their trains, make them unwelcoming with threatening announcements, and are keen to make the railway become more like an airline.

However, despite LNER's best efforts to put people off, it remains the best option, unless the air fare is much cheaper.

I am also a regular user of the ECML, with 7 journeys on intercity trains in July and August this year already, plus a few more on Thameslink or Great Northern, and did not have any significant (Delay Repay worthy) problems at all, and only 1 problem (broken down train, which resulted in 50% Delay Repay) in my 4 journeys on ECML intercity trains earlier this year.

I haven't flown within the UK since February 2022, with all my 3 round-trips between southern England and Scotland all by ECML intercity trains.

 

[A S Leib]

Out of four journeys between King's Cross and Newcastle in the last twelve months, several more between Newcastle and York or Edinburgh, and around twenty between King's Cross and Doncaster or further north between May 2021 and last summer, I've only had three severe delays (one due to cable theft near Peterborough, one due to an electrical fault at King's Cross, and one due to extreme weather limiting speeds to 80 mph).

 

[paul1609]

The official figures from LNER suggest 10% of services are cancelled or part cancelled.
Only 52% of services arrive at final destination on time (despite the continual adding of more and more padding)

https://www.lner.co.uk/globalassets/2505---website-data--services--cancellations.pdf

 

[A S Leib]

The official figures from LNER suggest 10% of services are cancelled or part cancelled.
Only 52% of services arrive at final destination on time (despite the continual adding of more and more padding)

https://www.lner.co.uk/globalassets/2505---website-data--services--cancellations.pdf

Although a one in eleven chance that they'd be delayed by over fifteen minutes isn't ruinous, unless dependent on an irregular connecting service.

(Of course, cases where tight connections with infrequent services fail due to delays and connections not being held are bad when they happen, but I don't think applies in this case.)