Recent content by ChrisC

Having read a number of interesting reports recently from the North East, I thought it was time that I reported on my few days staying in Darlington at the beginning of June. Except for passing through Darlington on the train occasionally, it is a town and an area which I have never explored...

Splitting tickets at Stonehaven can save you quite a bit on the return fare to both Leuchars or Dundee. It brings the Aberdeen to Dundee return down to below £20. I think almost all trains stop at Stonehaven so no real problem. You can book your tickets on the forum site to get the split.

Trent Barton does this, resulting in a day ticket including travel before 9am being very expensive. Their day ticket and daily cap for contactless is £8.80 but even if you make just one short journey before 9am the price for a day ticket or the daily cap rises to a ridiculous £12.30.

I did a 7 night stay at the Premier Inn in Inverness back in September 2019. Prices then were very high and I delayed my stay from earlier in the summer to get slightly cheaper prices after the school holidays in September. I remember it was the first time ever that I paid over £100 a night to...

I think any delays and diversions to the Pronto during the next week will be very ad hoc and unplanned as potholes are repaired and sections of the road are resurfaced. There have been evening diversions after 8pm during the last couple of weeks.

I agree perfect clear sky in Notts. Very strange here as the light level began to drop. About 15 minutes before max eclipse dozens of seagulls started to fly around in circles over the fields and above the village. We only usually see the occasional seagull here but the sky was full of them. No...

There also were delays on the 141 today when the road between Papplewick and Linby was closed for around 3 hours. They could have taken a shorter diversion by cutting through the Vaughan Estate between Linby and Papplewick Lane which avoids going through parts of Hucknall twice with the traffic...

Scarborough to Filey along the cliff top is well worth doing with the highlight being the short detour at the Filey end to walk up Filey Brigg. The other direction heading south from Filey to Bempton is also a good walk. Probably the most spectacular is the coastal walk south from Bempton to...

A few years ago I stayed for a few nights at The Queen Hotel directly opposite Chester Station entrance. It‘s a nice hotel with a good breakfast but nowhere close by to get a reasonable meal in the evening without a long walk towards the city centre. I didn’t want to eat expensive food in the...

No you wouldn’t, and probably not likely to happen, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea for even the current 158s to be able to run at a faster speed.

There‘s engineering works for the next 3 weekends between Chesterfield and Nottingham. EMR Liverpool to Norwich trains are not calling at Sheffield and Northern are running replacement buses between Sheffield and Nottingham. There‘s a much reduced train service between Sheffield and Chesterfield...

In a couple of weeks time I’m planning on travelling from Mansfield to Hull. As with most journeys travelling northwards from Mansfield, splitting at Shirebrook, Worksop or Sheffield can often save a considerable amount of money. In the past I have often changed at Worksop and Retford when...

It could have been worse! On Monday 20th July you would have seen just a 2 car 158 on that train. I travelled on it earlier in the afternoon on its outward journey to Liverpool and passengers were standing from Nottingham and it was absolutely rammed between Sheffield and Manchester.

I’ve only just got around to writing this, but back in April this year I enjoyed a stay up in Dundee travelling around using a Stagecoach 7 Day East Scotland Megarider. Considering the huge area it covers it was great value at £42 which is only £6 a day. I only used the ticket to explore the...

The problem is that day tickets are not as low as £6 when you move out of urban areas. Since the introduction of the single fare cap a few years ago the price of many day tickets which extend out of the urban areas to smaller towns and villages have increased significantly. Here in...