Is it worth even thinking about booking ahead?

[DeeGee]

I've got a trip from Grimsby to Milton Keynes coming up in June. I used to do these by train all the time.

Sometimes I'd go ECML to London and then back north, a couple of times I went Sheffield to Bedford and then across.

My favourite route, at least on the outward was Grimsby to Manchester and then Manchester to MKC with a nice break of about an hour at Piccadilly to get food and a pint.

The route I would take depended mainly on the availability of Advance tickets.

So the booking horizons are coming up, and I'm contemplating travel by train. I've had a couple of false starts, post-pandemic. Binned a planned trip to Heathrow via train as I couldn't guarantee that TPE would run, and found that the return journey that I'd booked was truncated at Doncaster and a few of us bundled into a taxi for the last bit of the journey.

Simple question is, I know I can save a considerable amount of money by booking Advance tickets when they are released, have done many times, but I could do without the faff of planning a journey, missing my connections and messing about with alternative routes, or cancelling for a refund before travel and making alternative arrangements.

A car will cost me £108 for the weekend plus petrol, so the price difference for a walk-up fare isn't winning it if there's going to be disruption. Cheapest walk-up is £99.50 for East Mids 3 in 10 which restricts me to Sheffield Tamworth or going via Bedford (if the Marston Vale line is running).

What do you reasonably think are the chances come June of Transpennine and/or Avanti getting their acts together and running the timetable as published? What would you do, given the choice?

 

[mangyiscute]

Are you travelling on a weekend? From what I'm aware, TPE tend to be less reliable on weekends.
I wouldn't bet on them being sorted by June, considering how long all of this disruption has been lasting.
Personally, I would book the advances, and hope for the best - as you said you can get a refund on them if you do face cancellations, and then purchase a walk up fare instead for a similar cost as driving - personally I generally see like 10% of trains cancelled when I travel on Avanti (and I very rarely take TPE although I know the Cleethorpes route has been extremely unreliable) but looking at the last week theres at most one or two trains cancelled per day, so you'd have to get quite unlucky to be on a cancelled train. You can always say have a little extra time planned in Manchester which means you can then get a later train if one is cancelled (although of course you'd always be permitted to get the next avanti service from Manchester if you missed yours due to a delayed connection)

 

[Haywain]

going via Bedford (if the Marston Vale line is running).

I don't believe there is any chance of the Marston Vale line running again by June.

 

[DeeGee]

I don't believe there is any chance of the Marston Vale line running again by June.

Thanks.

 

[Haywain]

Thanks.

Another option for your journey might be EMR to Nottingham and then Derby - Tamworth - MK or to Leicester and then Nuneaton - MK.

 

[paul1609]

If the once a day National Express coach suits (9.55 Ex Grimsby / 16.00 Ex Leicester) why not go mixed mode £10.40 each way to Leicester walk through town pint lunch etc. £44 Off Peak return to MKC via Nuneaton.

 

[Starmill]

I don't believe there is any chance of the Marston Vale line running again by June.

Indeed, it will take some time longer than that to restore any train service, although the replacement bus is expected to continue (Monday - Saturday) if that were any use.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Another option for your journey might be EMR to Nottingham and then Derby - Tamworth - MK or to Leicester and then Nuneaton - MK.

Got to be the route if going by train and you need some sort of reliability. TPE can easily leave you hanging for 3 hours between trains with starting and stopping short and all out cancellations.

 

[DeeGee]

Another option for your journey might be EMR to Nottingham and then Derby - Tamworth - MK or to Leicester and then Nuneaton - MK.

I'll look at the timings for that based on the current timetable. That might well be a goer. Then the E Mids 3 in 7 *is* undoubtedly the most suitable walk-up fare, isn't it?

I need to remember that there are more connections in the East Midlands than there used to be when I used to do this trip every couple of months pre-pandemic and the Grimsby train stopped at Newark North Gate. Now, sadly, it's no use for a Heathrow trip with luggage, but is eminently more suitable for a trip to Nottingham.

If the once a day National Express coach suits (9.55 Ex Grimsby / 16.00 Ex Leicester) why not go mixed mode £10.40 each way to Leicester walk through town pint lunch etc. £44 Off Peak return to MKC via Nuneaton.

I need to be in Milton Keynes by about 8.30, so I'd be travelling down the Friday night after work, so not this time.

Indeed, it will take some time longer than that to restore any train service, although the replacement bus is expected to continue (Monday - Saturday) if that were any use.

If I were to do Marston Vale it would be for the experience of the line and new trains rather than as a useful itinerary, so on this occasion, I'll pass.

 

[Haywain]

If I were to do Marston Vale it would be for the experience of the line and new trains

It will be some time before the Marston Vale line can be experienced and considerably longer before new trains are likely to be seen, I'm afraid.

 

[Wallsendmag]

If I were to do Marston Vale it would be for the experience of the line and new trains rather than as a useful itinerary, so on this occasion, I'll pass.

You've never been on a 150?

 

[DeeGee]

You've never been on a 150?

Are those the ones that used to run on that line? I've only done it twice, once Bedford to Bow Brickhill and once to Fenny Stratford.

I don't know why, but they seemed different from other similar trains that I've been on before.

They were a kind of Sprinter, weren't they, but seemed rather different from the trains we get between Grimsby and Nottingham. I'm guessing that it was an older unloved interior and they were being run down in expectation of the D-Trains.

Still, that's all a bit off-topic.

Bringing it back on-topic, looking at the itinerary via Nottingham and Tamworth, and the timings, is there anything at Tamworth? My memory of it was trying to find my way up to a high-level platform, then freezing once I was there with nowhere nice to wait.

I'll be needing my tea at some point on the journey and Tamworth seems to be the only place with a decent length stop, unless I stop longer at Nottingham, and then I have an even longer wait at Tamworth.

 

[Alex365Dash]

Are those the ones that used to run on that line? I've only done it twice, once Bedford to Bow Brickhill and once to Fenny Stratford.

If you’re looking for the new upcycled D Stock you were expecting to run the service, your best bet would be finding it on the Island Line.

 

[Joey Beauchamp]

Are those the ones that used to run on that line? I've only done it twice, once Bedford to Bow Brickhill and once to Fenny Stratford.

I don't know why, but they seemed different from other similar trains that I've been on before.

They were a kind of Sprinter, weren't they, but seemed rather different from the trains we get between Grimsby and Nottingham. I'm guessing that it was an older unloved interior and they were being run down in expectation of the D-Trains.

Still, that's all a bit off-topic.

Bringing it back on-topic, looking at the itinerary via Nottingham and Tamworth, and the timings, is there anything at Tamworth? My memory of it was trying to find my way up to a high-level platform, then freezing once I was there with nowhere nice to wait.

I'll be needing my tea at some point on the journey and Tamworth seems to be the only place with a decent length stop, unless I stop longer at Nottingham, and then I have an even longer wait at Tamworth.

The area around Tamworth is a wasteland in terms of facilities as I discovered on a recent trip to Burton for the football. There is a pub called The Albert 3mins walk away, which was surprisingly nice (too posh if anything) and served food.

 

[jfowkes]

Just FYI, Bedford-MK is far easier on the X5 bus than it is by train. Bedford bus station is about a 10 minute walk (signposted) from the train station.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just FYI, Bedford-MK is far easier on the X5 bus than it is by train. Bedford bus station is about a 10 minute walk (signposted) from the train station.

Only two quid at the moment too.

(Bedford to Oxford on the X5 must be one of the best value two quid bus fares going, and I half recall they'll do through from Cambridge with a change from the 905 at £2 too!)

 

[DeeGee]

If you’re looking for the new upcycled D Stock you were expecting to run the service, your best bet would be finding it on the Island Line.

Thankfully, riding D stock isn't the main purpose of my journey.

It would have been a slight additional pull regarding my modal choice, but as I'd be travelling back on a Sunday anyway, I wouldn't have been able to base my whole itinerary on the Marston Vale line anyway.

Just FYI, Bedford-MK is far easier on the X5 bus than it is by train. Bedford bus station is about a 10 minute walk (signposted) from the train station.

Some more timings to have a look at, thanks.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Mar 2023 ==

(...a bit later...)

I've not looked that the X5 Bus yet, and it's dawning on me that the fact that my final destination for the night is Stadium MK means that my journey should be Grimsby to Bletchley. Food for thought.

I've found an itinerary to MKC which on current timing gives me 25 mins at Leicester and 25 mins at Nuneaton. Will I have time to at least pick something up to eat? At least Nuneaton instead of Tamworth means I don't have to spend as long on the final leg. But I'll be stuck with a reserved final leg on Avanti, won't I?

 

[DeeGee]

(...2 months later...)

I'm still planning this one. I've got a hire car booked as fallback, but as my employer is relocating to a location which is now far less useful for either the hire car depot, or Grimsby Town rail station, I've taken the day off work and I'll ride around on the trains for a day to get down to Bletchley. So I'm relatively certain I'll get and East Midlands 3 in 7.

This means I'll also be having a ride round on the trains on the journey home as well. I've got no itinerary planned, I'll just see where things take me. What I'm wondering, though, is if I should fancy detouring to Birmingham, whether a Off Peak day Single from Coventry to Tamworth would be the best way to get back into the East Midlands Ranger zone and back onto the basic line of route towards Lincoln or Sheffield. As I understand it, if I'm travelling on a Rover, I don't need to stop at the appropriate split station - is that still the case?