Boston - Stalybridge + PlusBus

[Scotty]

Good morining!

I'm travelling from Boston to Stalybridge on Saturday (football), and would like to add Stalybridge PlusBus to my journey, as there is a bus that runs from outside the station to outside the football ground. A local day ticket on the bus would be £3.50, but PlusBus (especially with my 16-25 railcard dicount) is much cheaper.

When travelling to the Manchester area, I've always split my tickets to take advantage of the Super Off Peak Day Return between Nottingham and Manchester, and sandwiching this with a Boston - Nottingham Off Peak Day Return, and a ticket to cover me at the other end (Manchester Stations - Stalybridge in this case). This comes to £23.75, as opposed to Boston - Stalybridge Off Peak Return which is £34.90.

However, when entering Manchester - Stalybridge into the East Coast booking engine, it doesn't give an option to add PlusBus. I then tried Stockport - Stalybridge, and again it doesn't appear. When I put in Boston - Stalybridge (the full journey), it DOES appear as an add on!

Is this because both the start and end of the MAN - SYB ticket are in Greater Manchester?

What is the cheapest ticket available that will cover me MAN - SYB, and allow PlusBus?

Thanks

 

[Solent&Wessex]

Good morining!

I'm travelling from Boston to Stalybridge on Saturday (football), and would like to add Stalybridge PlusBus to my journey, as there is a bus that runs from outside the station to outside the football ground. A local day ticket on the bus would be £3.50, but PlusBus (especially with my 16-25 railcard dicount) is much cheaper.

When travelling to the Manchester area, I've always split my tickets to take advantage of the Super Off Peak Day Return between Nottingham and Manchester, and sandwiching this with a Boston - Nottingham Off Peak Day Return, and a ticket to cover me at the other end (Manchester Stations - Stalybridge in this case). This comes to £23.75, as opposed to Boston - Stalybridge Off Peak Return which is £34.90.

However, when entering Manchester - Stalybridge into the East Coast booking engine, it doesn't give an option to add PlusBus. I then tried Stockport - Stalybridge, and again it doesn't appear. When I put in Boston - Stalybridge (the full journey), it DOES appear as an add on!

Is this because both the start and end of the MAN - SYB ticket are in Greater Manchester?

What is the cheapest ticket available that will cover me MAN - SYB, and allow PlusBus?

Thanks

You will probably want to purchase a Train and Bus Daysaver - this gives unlimited travel on all trains and buses in the GMPTE area. I believe this is currently priced at £5.50, so is cheaper than a MAN - SYB return and plusbus. This has the added advantage that it also allows travel on the city zone of the Metrolink, so you could go back into Victoria and across town via tram.

I doubt you'll be able to buy these online, but they can be purchased from Guards on the train, so you could buy it on the way towards Manchester - but don't count on them having a clue how to do it. I shall post instructions later when I get into work if you want.

 

[scrapy]

A Nottingham To Manchester (+Bus) ticket will cover you for your bus travel in Stalybridge (as it is valid anywhere in Greater Manchester). You could also use it to get the bus from Manchester to Stalybridge if on a budget. Journey time about 50 min.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Apparently a STALYBRIDGE PLUSBUS add-on is only available when travelling to/from a railway station outside of the Greater Manchester area.

http://www.plusbus.info/stalybridge-plusbus-greater-manchester

N.B. If the only bus journeys being contemplated are from Stalybridge Railway Station (or the nearby Stalybridge Bus Station) up to Bower Fold (Stalybridge Celtic FC) and back, the distance is just over one mile, and the cash bus fare may work out cheaper. (Still worth getting the bus to the ground though, as it's quite a steep hill up to Bower Fold!)

 

[Scotty]

A Nottingham To Manchester (+Bus) ticket will cover you for your bus travel in Stalybridge (as it is valid anywhere in Greater Manchester).

Perfect! Thank you. I'll spend the £1.85 on the MAN - SYB Off Peak Day Return (journey time is 15 minutes, hourly).

Thanks for all the replies

 

[OwlMan]

Why not buy a return to Stockport from Nottingham (£10-75+£2-20 plusbus ) as it is cheaper than a Manchester ticket.
The bus from Stockport to Bower Fold (near Stalybridge Ground) takes about an hour - changing at Hyde.
Peter

 

[Deerfold]

Apparently a STALYBRIDGE PLUSBUS add-on is only available when travelling to/from a railway station outside of the Greater Manchester area.

I think this is because the STALYBRIDGE PLUSBUS is valid thorughout Greater Manchester. This seems to be how plusbus works in PTE areas.

I'm not guaranteeing you wouldn't have any problems trying to use it on the other side of the PTE area though.

 

[Scotty]

Why not buy a return to Stockport from Nottingham (£10-75+£2-20 plusbus ) as it is cheaper than a Manchester ticket.
The bus from Stockport to Bower Fold (near Stalybridge Ground) takes about an hour - changing at Hyde.
Peter

There will be a few of us meeting up from differing parts of the country (me = east, others from north and south), so Manchester Picadilly is a perfect place to do so. Thanks though

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Plusbus tickets are not to be issued for rail travel completly within the Plusbus area.

For example, a Leagrave to Luton Plusbus ticket is not to be issued, as Leagrave is in the Luton Plusbus area.

The only time you will see a plusbus ticket issued from within that area is if it is issued with a rail ticket from outside that area.

For example, a Luton to Luton plusbus ticket with a Bedford to Luton rail ticket.

 

[Deerfold]

Plusbus tickets are not to be issued for rail travel completly within the Plusbus area.

For example, a Leagrave to Luton Plusbus ticket is not to be issued, as Leagrave is in the Luton Plusbus area.

The only time you will see a plusbus ticket issued from within that area is if it is issued with a rail ticket from outside that area.

For example, a Luton to Luton plusbus ticket with a Bedford to Luton rail ticket.

Yes, but it's not clear from the publicity how far you can use the PTE tickets and that they are in the same zone (they have maps where the validity goes off the edge of the page - would perhaps be better if they had PLUSBUS WYPTE or PLUBUS GMPTE instead of several with the same validity (for ease of recognition by bus drivers and where the boundaries are).