Glasgow to Sheffield

[Haydn1971]

Not particularly concerned about the price and/or the time, but I need to travel from Glasgow, home to Sheffield leaving Glasgow at about 4-5pm on Wednesday - looking at my options, I can either go via "Lancashire/Manchester" or via Edinburgh.

Any thoughts on either option with consideration to frequency of delays, platform changing, long distance 185 etc ?

 

[cuccir]

It's generally quicker via Manchester. Although 185s are small, you'd have the advantage of getting on at the start of the route, and thus should guarantee yourself a seat.

There's a direct train at 16:52, which avoids any platform changes and 185s! It is about 30 minutes slower than travelling via Manchester, however. I'm personally always a fan of the through train as opposed to changing, even it takes a bit longer.

 

[Haydn1971]

Ah, didn't see the direct train before - that's going to work a treat !

Not sure I fancied the 185 all the way, it's a nicer train than my usual Northern rides, but 5hrs - hmmm... Nah ! Mind, having said that, the CrossCountry direct train will be a slog too !

 

[Tomnick]

Personally I'd steer well clear of the XC train - I've never really enjoyed the experience, but that's always been on short journeys somewhere along the busy Birmingham - Leeds corridor. They're probably a little better once they get further north!

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Personally I'd steer well clear of the XC train - I've never really enjoyed the experience, but that's always been on short journeys somewhere along the busy Birmingham - Leeds corridor. They're probably a little better once they get further north!

I agree; were it an XC HST I'd go for the through train but 5 hours on a 4-car Voyager isn't my idea of fun.

If you're in no rush and like rugged scenery I'd take the 1640, change at Carlisle and enjoy a run down the Settle & Carlisle with one further change at Leeds. It's roughly the same journey time, the only worry being that if you're delayed, the 1818 is the last CAR-LDS of the day.

This would also be considerably cheaper than the through train if you split tickets and get a GLC-LDS single (route APPLEBY) then a LDS-SHF single. (total cost £52.50 as opposed to a through GLC-SHF at £108.70).

Have a look at www.trainscanbecheaper.info for more info.

 

[Haydn1971]

Done this several times now, the trip north on East Coast was fine, found an unbooked table seat and enjoyed the comfortable trip and free wifi on the Edinburgh-Glasgow leg, although the platforms are numbered odd at Waverley !

The northbound on TPE was also nice, seats comfy for a long trip, bar the lack of seat booking options via our work ticketing/travel system - found a table seat with ease though.

Southbound at 12:40 is an altogether more horrid experience, the Virgin/TPE option, tiny windows in the 390, a rush to swap trains at Preston onto the busy (from) Blackpool train, the 16:20 Man-Shf train was surprisingly less busy, southbound on the XC 22x was really awful, seats are nasty on a long trip, SMS seat booking didn't work, lots of family's and kids, no trolley until Newcastle !!! The best returns really are via East Coast with some shorter use of XC 22x from Newcastle if necessary. Practically impossible to use a laptop at anything but a table seat, shame the wifi on the long distance routes is so flippin expensive :-/

 

[ValleyLines142]

In fairness, the 1652 XC from Glasgow is booked for a 221, so that's 5 coaches available. Not only that, but Coach B is unreserved so you can sit there and also it starts at Glasgow anyway so you'll have the first choice of seats. If you arrive early you'll probably get a table in Coach B

 

[Haydn1971]

That's fine when you know which is Coach B ! But useful to know for the future

I didn't say above, but not only was the SMS system returning a "no reservations available" message, but non of the train LED displays were operational, so passengers were guessing which coach was which and then asking people to move... I swapped seats 5 times in the journey because of paper reservations, which isn't that great when I was trying to get some work done - I had a table to start, which was nice until Edinburgh :-/

 

[ValleyLines142]

Oh no! What a nightmare!

Well Coach A is First Class, so B is the one next to it. Coach F, at the other end, is the Quiet Zone. I know this off by heart so if anyone came up to me and started claiming seats I would have told them to jog on as Coach B is unreserved! I imagine a few people would try other coaches and claim the same seats too! Cheeky beggars!

Those seat reservations are absolute HELL ON EARTH!! As sophisticated as electronic seat reservations are, the system is highly unreliable and causes too many problems! DITCH THE SYSTEM!!