Bath - Doncaster alternatives

[marcouk2]

Travelling down to Bath in March to visit family, I've booked via London on East Coast /FGW for the outward journey and was wondering if anyone knew of any unusual routes for my journey back north other than XC via Bristol or via London.

Playing around on trainscanbecheaper I wasn't able to find much beyond a couple of doglegged journeys using crosscountry.

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions.

 

[yorkie]

Travelling down to Bath in March to visit family, I've booked via London on East Coast /FGW for the outward journey

Yes, it's cheaper* (and more pleasant) to "split" in London for a journey like this, rather than take XC.

(* If you book far in advance, as you've done)

and was wondering if anyone knew of any unusual routes for my journey back north other than XC via Bristol or via London.

Playing around on trainscanbecheaper I wasn't able to find much beyond a couple of doglegged journeys using crosscountry.

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions.

Avoiding Bristol and avoiding London? the only route I can think of that avoids both would be to change at Reading.

If the requirement is to avoid Bristol and avoid London and avoid XC, then that is tricky, but maybe Bath - Reading, Reading-Banbury (a few FGW services), Banbury-Birmingham Moor St, Birmingham New St-Crewe, Crewe-Stockport, then Stockport-Doncaster.

Alternatively if you are happy to go via Bristol, but on a different route, you could change at Newport and Stockport.

Not sure if that's a permitted route on one ticket though...

 

[PermitToTravel]

Bath to Doncaster tickets are not valid via South Wales any more

 

[yorkie]

Bath to Doncaster tickets are not valid via South Wales any more

I'd strongly advise "splitting" if taking that route (or indeed almost any route between Bath & Doncaster!) anyway as it would likely be a lot cheaper.

You can get really cheap Newport-Stockport tickets, and likewise Stockport - Sheffield.

 

[marcouk2]

Cheers for that info Yorkie. With YP railcard, splitting at Newport and Stockport works out as just over £20 and avoids XC so definitely worth a go.