Doncaster - Oxford

[johnnychips]

Hi
I need to go to Oxford and back on Saturday and need to be flexible. An off- peak return is £86.20.

Can anybody suggest a split or a good split website, or thinking out of the box a bit, a return to somewhere on the MML or ECML and a bus across?

Thanks

 

[amateur]

Doncaster to cambridge via Peterborough

Then the x5 of course!

 

[johnnychips]

Doncaster to cambridge via Peterborough

Then the x5 of course!

Where does that cross the ECML?

 

[bb21]

The X5 crosses the ECML at St Neots.

It's quite a trek using the X5 for a day trip.

The £86 is very easily beaten for a day trip using Day Return fares on the XC route. For example,

Doncaster - Sheffield £6.30
Sheffield - Derby £11.30
Derby - Birmingham £16.30 or Derby - Coventry £17.90
Birmingham - Leamington Spa £10.60 or £9.50 Chiltern Only, or Coventry - Leamington Spa £5.30
Leamington Spa - Banbury £8.30
Banbury - Oxford £6.10

So £58.90, or £57.80 if you restrict yourself to Chiltern services only between Birmingham and Leamington, or £55.20 if you can restrict yourself to the hourly XC via Coventry. There may be cheaper splits at other stations with less frequent calls.

For Banbury - Oxford, a Cherwell Valley Day Ranger (the Oxford one - there are three versions) is £3.10. Some people will argue that it is only valid on FGW as that is the only TOC listed on NRE, and others will argue that Condition 10 means that it must be valid on all TOCs as no restriction is printed on the ticket. I leave you to decide how comfortable you feel using this ticket.

 

[lightning76]

Splitting at Sheffield, Burton, Leamington and Banbury (using Derbyshire Wayfarer for SHF-BUT) makes it £52.60, I think. It depends if by "flexible" if you can be bothered using trains that call at BUT. It may mean changing at Derby and/or Birmingham NS. Alternatively, split at DBY and BHM. If you do that it can also be cheaper to split at Coventry as well, but then you can't use trains that run via Solihull. As I say, it depends if by "flexible" you mean wanting to take any train, any time and stay on it, or if you just mean you don't want to be tied down by Advances. Your call.

 

[johnnychips]

Thanks for replies. I totally forgot about the X5' and when I looked it up it was about £54 return Donny to St Neots then £13 return on the bus. I also looked at the timetable and forgot how long it takes!

With the split tickets, I know the train has to stop at the stations. Can I go to Donny station tomorrow with a list or do I have to wait till Saturday? Or can I just buy and print at home?

 

[bb21]

Another cheaper alternative between Birmingham and Leamington which I forgot to mention earlier is to by a Network Daytripper (£6.40) and a Daytripper Plus add-on for Leamington (£2), so that brings that particular leg down to £8.40

Unfortunately I don't have any sample image for the Daytripper Plus add-on, and you may have to stop off at New Street to get it from the ticket office because stations outside the area may not know how to issue it.

 

[johnnychips]

Ok. And with L 76's suggestion of a Derbyshire Wayfarer I suppose I'd have to get out at Sheffield to buy it.

Thanks again for your great replies.

 

[lightning76]

You should be able to buy the Derbyshire Wayfarer from Doncaster. Swindon sell them without any trouble, and I'd imagine Doncaster sell them slightly more frequently. Same with the West Midlands tickets. If you look up the code on BRFares or railrover.org it will help if the clerk is unfamiliar with them.

 

[jkdd77]

Another cheaper alternative between Birmingham and Leamington which I forgot to mention earlier is to by a Network Daytripper (£6.40) and a Daytripper Plus add-on for Leamington (£2), so that brings that particular leg down to £8.40

The T & Cs of the Network Daytripper add-on, as you linked to, suggest it is only valid on trains to and from Leamington which do not stop at Coventry, which may reduce the number of trains available to the OP, although a glance at the XC timetable suggests that virtually all Doncaster- Oxford through trains do indeed avoid Coventry.

Does not cover travel on the Coventry to Leamington Spa train line.

 

[bb21]

The T & Cs of the Network Daytripper add-on, as you linked to, suggest it is only valid on trains to and from Leamington which do not stop at Coventry, which may reduce the number of trains available to the OP, although a glance at the XC timetable suggests that virtually all Doncaster- Oxford through trains do indeed avoid Coventry.

Yes, that is correct. This option rules out half of the trains leaving just the hourly service not going via Coventry (ie. non-Bournemouth services generally speaking).

 

[orpine]

Note - you can get stupidly cheap fares for Peterborough to Leamington (via Birmingham) if you're willing to commit to an Advance. As in £9.60 cheap!

 

[johnnychips]

Note - you can get stupidly cheap fares for Peterborough to Leamington (via Birmingham) if you're willing to commit to an Advance. As in £9.60 cheap!

I found Donny to St Neots advances to be also ridiculously cheap, but I can't predict how long I'll be in Oxford, and I don't really just want to sit in a pub for ages if what I need to do only takes an hour. So tomorrow I'll sit down and work out several itineraries at different times to take advantage of the suggestions. It'd help a lot if my contact in Oxford could at least commit to an initial meeting time, but it's complicated.

We're not spies or on an Internet date btw!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Thanks, had a great day, spent savings on a haircut and a few jars with some left over. Chiltern have free wifi in standard! Wow!