All Line Rovers

[jay jay]

Can someone provide me with a link to a website with information regarding prices of the 7 and 14 day rovers? Also the applicable railcard discounts for these? I dont know if it is me being thick but I cannot seem to find the information on the Nat Rail Enquiries site?

 

[ChrisTheRef]

The new NRE site is awful. What do you want to know? I'm doing one in 33 days (not that I'm counting!)

 

[jay jay]

The new NRE site is awful. What do you want to know? I'm doing one in 33 days (not that I'm counting!)

I bet you are looking forward to it! I am just after information regarding the cost of it and whether I can get a discount using my 16-25 railcard? In addition, I heard you have to pay a supplement for a berth on the Caledonian Sleeper? How much is the supplement?

 

[First class]

ScotRail Berth is £39 supplement, and you may have to share. Solo occupency, if available should cost £59 if I remember correctly. Both subject to mandatory reservations- i.e. you can't (supposedly) get a berth unless you've made and paid for a reservation prior to boarding.
You are eligible though to occupy the seated portion of the sleeper- although on the Fort William section- this involves a rude awakening around 12am-1am in the morning to be moved to a different coach. The seated sleeper requires a reservation too, but it is impossible to get one for the Fort William seats- the ticket office, if they know how to do it, will always do it to Inverness.

YP Discounts Permitted @ a 34% reduction on Standard fares.

7 day - £430 (YP should be £283)
14 day - £650 (YP should be £429)

Get yourself an PAYG Oyster card for London, throw about £20 on it and you'll find it a lot easier and cheaper to move around the London terminals.

 

[jay jay]

ScotRail Berth is £39 single, and subject to mandatory reservations- i.e. you can't (supposedly) get a berth unless you've made and paid for a reservation prior to boarding.
You are eligible though to occupy the seated portion of the sleeper- although on the Fort William section- this involves a rude awakening around 12am-1am in the morning to be moved to a different coach.

YP Discounts Permitted @ a 34% reduction

7 day - £430 (YP should be £283)
14 day - £650 (YP should be £429)

Get yourself an Oyster card for London, throw about £20 on it and you'll find it a lot easier and cheaper to move around the London terminals.

Super! Thats a great help - so if I knew which day I wanted to travel say from Euston to Fort William I could ring them up, tell them I will have an ALR and I can simply pay the supplement?

 

[furryfeet]

try this

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/rangers_and_rovers.html

Note that YP railcard cannot get discount on the 1st class versions

 

[First class]

try this

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/rangers_and_rovers.html

Note that YP railcard cannot get discount on the 1st class versions

Doesn't work hence my post

Fares information is blank.

Super! Thats a great help - so if I knew which day I wanted to travel say from Euston to Fort William I could ring them up, tell them I will have an ALR and I can simply pay the supplement?

Yeah- you can go to any booking office though- if you want to book on the phone- use ScotRail telesales as they'll have more experience booking them and won't take as long processing it for you (in theory).

Obviously subject to availability, but they could suggest other (less busy) days if no berths are left.

 

[MCR247]

Super! Thats a great help - so if I knew which day I wanted to travel say from Euston to Fort William I could ring them up, tell them I will have an ALR and I can simply pay the supplement?

I'm planning on doing a 7 day FC one in the summer! It was that or a 14 day standard, but FC all the way!

 

[jay jay]

I'm planning on doing a 7 day FC one in the summer! It was that or a 14 day standard, but FC all the way!

Its a shame there is no discount for 16-25 in First... any reason for this?

I dont know where to start in terms of where to go. Obviously as well as high mileage I am looking at visiting places I have never been before, particularly in north scotland, Cornwall and Wales. Those of you with experience of doing these ALR in the past, would you reccommend a base plan of your week (or two) before you go or is it best to go places as and when?

 

[MCR247]

http://thomas-cairns.co.uk/ Try here

 

[First class]

Its a shame there is no discount for 16-25 in First... any reason for this?

I dont know where to start in terms of where to go. Obviously as well as high mileage I am looking at visiting places I have never been before, particularly in north scotland, Cornwall and Wales. Those of you with experience of doing these ALR in the past, would you reccommend a base plan of your week (or two) before you go or is it best to go places as and when?

I would imagine the 16-25 railcard is only valid for standard class because the perception of young people is that they don't know how to behave in the first class environment- where retired couples stare romantically out of the windows whilst supping on their complimentary sherry and the executives hammer away at their laptops and blackberrys.
I think it's mainly to try and keep first class 'exclusive'.

I do around 6-7 seven day ALR trips a year (I get 75% discount). I break the network up into parts, and over the week will complete that part, for example:

Part 1: Wales
Part 2: Scotland
Part 3: Midlands/London/South East (maybe 14-day version)
Part 4: North East
Part 5: South West
Part 6: Specific Trains (E.g. WAG Express, WSMR)
Part 7: Would be the NW, but as I live here and can generally get free travel, I tend not to spend a specific week doing this.

My "top tip" - Check the lines/stations that have very few trains a day/week/month etc, like Coombe Halt, Denton, Berney Arms, Ince & Elton and timetable around them so you can say you've been to these very difficult places.

I reckon from about 2012, I'll have the confidence to apply for my free FIP vouchers which will effectively give me a free unlimited all line rover for nearly every country in Europe. I'm still a bit weary of using these in the likes of Bosnia!

 

[jay jay]

I would imagine the 16-25 railcard is only valid for standard class because the perception of young people is that they don't know how to behave in the first class environment- where retired couples stare romantically out of the windows whilst supping on their complimentary sherry and the executives hammer away at their laptops and blackberrys.
I think it's mainly to try and keep first class 'exclusive'.

I do around 6-7 seven day ALR trips a year (I get 75% discount). I break the network up into parts, and over the week will complete that part, for example:

Part 1: Wales
Part 2: Scotland
Part 3: Midlands/London/South East (maybe 14-day version)
Part 4: North East
Part 5: South West
Part 6: Specific Trains (E.g. WAG Express, WSMR)
Part 7: Would be the NW, but as I live here and can generally get free travel, I tend not to spend a specific week doing this.

My "top tip" - Check the lines/stations that have very few trains a day/week/month etc, like Coombe Halt, Denton, Berney Arms, Ince & Elton and timetable around them so you can say you've been to these very difficult places.

I reckon from about 2012, I'll have the confidence to apply for my free FIP vouchers which will effectively give me a free unlimited all line rover for nearly every country in Europe. I'm still a bit weary of using these in the likes of Bosnia!

So do you get 75% off First Class too???? Thanks for the advice, I totally see the logic in your plan. Being based in the south east and being in and around London very regularly I am lucky enough to not have to worry about it. If doing a 7 day I was thinking of doing 2 days in and around Scotland, 1 day around the north of england, 2 days north wales and into south wales then 2 days Devon and Cornwall.
I like the sound of your FIP vouchers plan. I have travelled from London to Barcelona (Paris to Barcelona overnight) and across from France into Germany and the Czezh Republic - also many ski trips down to the south of france. Its simply fantastic!

 

[First class]

So do you get 75% off First Class too????

I did have a 1st Class Privilege Pass (TOC Card) enabling the 75% reduction in 1st Class for a period then unfortunately lost first class discounts due to various changes and I got issued with a similar card, but only allowing 75% of in standard, but can still travel 1st on the weekend for anything between £5 and £20 supplement, (Weekend First!).

I'd recommend a trip on High Speed 1 with your ALR seeing as your down that way anyway...

http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/index.php/highspeed

 

[Dolive22]

First Class, do you have the prices for first class rovers?

Are rovers used mainly by enthusiasts or do they have another use?

 

[ChrisTheRef]

I don't see myself as an enthusiast. I'm going with my two best friends and we're going and doing touristy things in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Durham, York, Cambridge etc etc. We're not "line bashing"

The ticket is nice because it gives us the flexibility of changing our plans as and when we feel like it.

 

[Dolive22]

I guess that's a yes to my question. I think what made me think that they were mainly for enthusiasts was the post about hitting the rarely used stations.

I thought they might be used in the same way as the Swiss Pass, which sounds like what you are doing. But they seem to cost a multiple of what a Swiss Pass costs for the same period, and with the British railways not having a reputation quite as good as the Swiss Railway I didn't think many people would buy it for transport. That and the fact they make it so hard to find out about made me think they were mainly for enthusiasts.

What your doing is pretty much what I had in mind for them. Have you done this before? If so how did it go?

 

[rail-britain]

ScotRail Berth is £39 supplement
Solo occupency, if available should cost £59

From my receipts from last year, First Class was £43

During the planning stage I firstly worked out what routes and trains I specifically wanted to travel on
The first stage was to list ALL the loco hauled services
I decided the rover should start on a Saturday and finish on a Friday, this made it easier for sleeper reservations to commence on the Sunday and end on the Friday
The rover started with the first Saturday of the Great Yarmouth loco hauled services, and this was rather tight in getting from Scotland
The solution was to travel on the last Friday night sleeper from Scotland to Euston, leaving Falkirk at 00:23 (in effect Saturday morning)
As the days went past virtually every connection was made, even with some small delays
The only time I was let down was a HST failure between Kings Cross and Aberdeen, to meet the sleeper

I also wanted to experience some routes I had never been on, such as Plymouth to Penzance, Marylebone to Wrexham, Crewe to Holyhead, Liverpool Street to Norwich, Paddington to Bristol / Cardiff, and Cardiff to Crewe

On completion of the rover I then submitted all the compensation claims
This came to just over £200 for 6 delays out of 77 services

Effectively the last three days just filled up some time, and were nothing more than relaxed Glasgow - Euston trips

I am not likely to perform a 14 day First Class ALR, reducing it to 7 day this year

 

[Ivo]

I'm looking at running a 14-day pass in June (conveniently timed between end of Uni and expiry of Railcard), possibly with the exceedingly dim idea of running on a sleeper service every second night and using that as my only sleep! Dumb or dumber?

I'm not so sure about some of the recommended places. As for Denton, though, do you think it would be possible to do that run (i.e. Stockport to Stalybridge, or vice versa [I forget which] and asking the conductor for a stop to take a quick video of the train at it and also at Reddish South...? Also, am I right to think that they can be used on the Ffestiniog (or however it's spelt) Railway?

 

[GodAtum]

Can I get a Freedom of the SouthWest Rover for 1st class?

 

[rail-britain]

I'm looking at running a 14-day pass in June (conveniently timed between end of Uni and expiry of Railcard), possibly with the exceedingly dim idea of running on a sleeper service every second night and using that as my only sleep! Dumb or dumber?

I will be planning my next one around that time
The summer timetable is usually available in April and you can then spend a few weeks making up some trips, depending on what you like
I use mine quite intensively, the trick is to allow double the minimum interchange time (where possible) or to have an alternative travel plan
Towards the end of the day increase this substantially if you need to guarantee a connection to the sleeper
Personally, only use the sleeper to go the entire route where required and in order to start your next day where you need to be
Last year I used the sleepers to get me TO London, only using one northbound to get me to Fort William
This also meant the sleeper lounge was relatively quiet on boarding, the only exception being Edinburgh, but I asked the steward to reserve me a seat as a First Class ticket holder

 

[northwichcat]

The ticket is nice because it gives us the flexibility of changing our plans as and when we feel like it.

I've been looking at how much they cost compared to advance tickets and I'm convinced that you could go around the coast of England on advance tickets for a lot less than a weekly rover but as you say the pass lets you change your plans as and when you want as well as jumping on and off any local train you want at no extra cost.

 

[Techniquest]

Can I get a Freedom of the SouthWest Rover for 1st class?

No, although you can use Weekend First supplements