Lake district trip

[yorkie]

A froup of us (I think I was discussing it with @Starmill @yorksrob @asharpe and possibly @crehld a few months ago) are considering a trip to the Lake District, probably over a couple of days in the Summer.

So far we have the following ideas:

• Walk the disused line between Threlkeld and Keswick*
• A boat trip (any recommendations)?
• Open top bus (599)?
  
• A ride on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway

If anyone can assist in planning a suitable itinerary or make suggestions on what to include that would be great.

* I have since discovered that we cannot walk the full route at present, due to flood damage in 2015

 

[skifans]

Being a uni student in Lancaster I spend quite a bit of my free time in the lake district, I much prefer though being on top of the hills rather then around the valley so haven't actually even been on any of the boats or walked that route. But I'll throw my thoughts out there on the buses.

First, single and return fares are insanely expensive, a day ticket is almost always worthwhile. For example between Bowness and Grasmere on the 599 costs £6.80 single or £11.30 return. A central lakes dayrider which allows unlimited travel on the route (and more) - £8.30. The also offer a group discount (known as a rambler) for day tickets which is 5 adults for £17.50 - which would work out at just over £2 per person per way for 4 - so much cheaper than singles. North west explorer tickets also offer very good value if you are traveling for a greater distance, unlimited travel across the lake district (and more) on the buses for £11.30 per day or £25.50 for 3 days. (5 adults group for one day is £32, unfortunately you can't buy a group 3 day). Buses are still cash only round here so make sure to have enough if you go for one of the more expensive options. You can though download the stagecoach app to pay by card, you type in your card details into their app and purchase a ticket which you then show the driver (don't scan it). Make sure your battery will last long enough though. Stagecoach have published locally that proper card payments will be arriving by summer (but no firm date), there is no sign of it yet and they already missed the previous January from their old marketing so I wouldn't hold your breath. You can also buy combined tickets for the buses and boats, but you can't get a group discount if you do this, so I wouldn't bother and instead buy a combined ticket for the Haverwaite railway and the boats (if you want to go on the Windermere ones) https://www.lakesiderailway.co.uk/standard-tickets/ Basically all of the buses are run by Stagecoach, the only real execption is the X112 (sometimes just X12) from Coniston to Barrow: https://blueworksph.com/timetables/ and the 525 from Ferry house (get the ferry from Bowness) to Hawkshead: https://www.mountain-goat.com/Transport-Services/525-Cross-Lakes-Experience Stagecoach also run the Saturdays only X8 express from Keswick to Kendal and beyond (https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s...yside/Lancashire/PrestonServiceX8-April18.pdf) you can use all of the above passes on this route just like any others, but for some reason, they never show it on their maps. You can also use the National Express 571 which runs a similar route on weekdays: https://coachtracker.nationalexpress.com/routes/571/I/Whitehaven-London

Stagecoach also operate open top buses on the 78 and 508 routes (the latter they only run on the short runs between Penrith and Patterdale). In my view I think the 78 is the most scenic. Although you only get the announcements about local history on the 599, they are pretty terrible though and are frequently broken and even if working too quiet. I'd also realy recommend rides on the 77a/77 round Honister and the 508 between Aira force and Windermere as they are in my view offer the best views. The 555 between Keswick and Grasmere are the 516 are very good as well.

I'd also really recomend a ride on the Cumbiran coast (definatly try and get a class 37) and Settle to Carlisle routes if you haven't done them already. If your staying near a station you can buy a Cumbrian day ranger (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/promotions/Cumbria_Day_Ranger.pdf) and make a circuet using them as well as the Furness and Benthan lines, its quite a long day though. I've not been on it but there also a narrow gauge steam line between Ravenglass and Eskdale.

If you fancy some things a little more active the walk up Catbells from Haws end (on the 77/77a) offers some very good views and only takes around 45 min each way. But you can get some very good views alot lower down, the path is very well marked but gets very steep and points and you might need to use your hands. The path up from Manesty (also 77/77a, or around another 20 min walk from here to the Lodore Hotel stop on the 78) (the path less steep and takes around 10 minutes longer, the views aren't as good though until you reach the summit). There is also a nice cycle route from Grasmere to Ferry house (bikes can travel on the ferry from here to Bowness and on the 599 from Bowness to Grasmere, but only a maximum of 2 on the bus so you'd have to split up, I very realy see any other cyclists on board, its off road around Grasmere, Rydal, and then signposted but on minor routes round to Windermere where it goes back off road.

 

[DarloRich]

There is a combined rail seal deal with the Lakeside and Haverthwaite railway - it formed part of mt trip report

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Thanks very much for your advice, which is very useful for me as well, as I'm planning a visit to the Lakes in May.

I'm staying in Windermere (the hotel's been booked!) and taking the following trips

• a day on Lake Windermere, including the Lakeland Motor Museum and the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway
• A circular trip around the Cumbrian Coast Line from Windermere to Carlisle, stopping off at Ravenglass for a trip on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
• A day on Coniston Water
• A day in Carlisle (I know it isn't in the lakes, but there's some museums there that I want to see!)

I'm particularly interested in the bus information, especially the prices, which I was having some difficulty in finding, but no longer!

When are the Class 37s running on the Cumbrian Coast Line, please? I'll be there in the middle of May - is this too early? I'm going to book a "Freedom of the North West - Four in Eight Days" ticket, which I'll use for the following:

• Chester to Windermere (the incoming journey)
• The Cumbrian Coast Line trip
• A return from Windermere to Carlisle
• Windermere to Altrincham (the outgoing journey)

At just over £50 with a Senior Railcard, it's a good deal.

I'm also going to buy a Freedom of the Lake, Steam Train & Motor Museum ticket from Windermere Lake Cruises, which includes unlimited travel on Lake Windermere, the Lakeland Motor Museum and a trip on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway - this is £30 for an Adult (there are no Concession fares).

Most of what I'm going to do is totally new, so I'm looking forward to it.

 

[30907]

I would have thought a Lakes Day Ranger might be useful both to Ebbw Junction and to Yorkie.
The latest blurb speaks of a "half lake cruise" which is more restrictive than it used to be, but it covers almost all the Cumbrian Coast and all the key bus routes (bar Mountain Goat).
The 37s run all year but only one daily diagram now - see the diagrams thread.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Thanks - here are the Class 37 diagrams:
10:25 2C47 Lancaster Barrow-in-Furness 11:33 NT 37 Diagram 1
11:38 2C49 Barrow-in-Furness Carlisle 14:26 NT 37 Diagram 2
I don't think that I'll make them.

I did think about the Lakes Day Ranger, and had I only been travelling in the area, I'd have probably gone for one. However, using the wider ticket to travel in and out makes more sense, I think, so that's what I'm going to do - but thanks for that as well.

 

[BlueFox]

Several times a year I'll have a day on the buses in the lake district. My first of the year is tomorrow. Getting the train from Carlisle to Oxenholme in the morning, then using a Stagecoach explorer ticket to slowly make my way back home via Windermere and Keswick.


I recommend getting a copy of Stagecoach's Lakes Connection timetable booklet. It has timetables, route maps, ticket details and special offers for all their buses in the lake district. You should be able to get one from the bus stations at Windermere and Keswick, and from the Booths supermarkets nearby. If you have a Booths card, don't forget to take it with you to get a free drink in their cafe.

The open topped buses aren't on the most scenic routes. I'd recommend taking a trip on the 555 bus from Windermere to Keswick. Sit upstairs on the left for the best views. Then get the 77/77A for a more varied and more spectacular journey. Sit on the left on the 77A and the right on the 77 for the best views. A Stagecoach explorer ticket (£11.30) covers these journeys. There's also a group ticket for £32, for up to five adults.
The Explorer ticket covers a huge area, from Cheshire, much of Lancashire, all of Cumbria, and buses from Carlisle to Dumfries and Newcastle. If you're staying for more than a few days and plan to see more of the area the 7 day version (known as the NW Megarider Gold) is great value for £28


The best boat trip in my opinion is on the Ullswater steamers.

You can get combined bus and boat tickets.
The Ullswater one is £16.30 and includes an Explorer bus ticket. You can buy it on the bus, and there are often people from Stagecoach selling tickets at the bus stations in Windermere and Keswick.
Other bus/boat tickets are:
Coniston, £13.50 including a central lakes bus ticket, or £17 including an Explorer ticket.
Derwentwater, £13.50 including a Keswick and Honister bus ticket, or £17 with an Explorer.
Windermere, £12.50 with a central lakes bus ticker, or £15.80 with an Explorer.


The Lakes day ranger train/bus/boat ticket is excellent value (£23.80), and includes a boat trip on Windermere.
It's valid on the WCML between Penrith and Lancaster, the Windermere branch line, the Morecambe branch line, and round the coast from Lancaster as far as Workington. There are no peak time restrictions. It's valid on all Stagecoach buses in Cumbria, and the 555 to Lancaster. It also gives you discounts on the Lakeside railway, Ravenglass and Eskdale railway, and Ullswater steamers.
There should be something like a 4 in 8 day version of this ticket, as there's too much to do in one day.


One thing to not about the buses in the lake district is that the roads can get extremely busy in the summer, they're not really suitable for the amount of traffic. It can be particularly bad in the Windermere/Ambleside/Grasmere area. So you can get some severe delays on the buses.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Thanks - some more things to look at, there!

 

[skifans]

I very much agree with BlueFox about the Lakes Connection guides, they are very good. You can also download them online from https://issuu.com/stagecoachcumbrianorthlancs/docs/lakes_connection_guide_summer_2018 but stragnley not from Stagecoaches own site.

 

[BlueFox]

I very much agree with BlueFox about the Lakes Connection guides, they are very good. You can also download them online fromhttps://issuu.com/stagecoachcumbrianorthlancs/docs/lakes_connection_guide_summer_2018 but stragnley not from Stagecoaches own site.

You can't actually download it from that site, for some reason it's disabled so you have to read it online.
You can download it from here: https://mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/CU/cms/pdf/lakes-Connection-Guide-Summer-2018-lr.pdf

 

[skifans]

You can't actually download it from that site, for some reason it's disabled so you have to read it online.
You can download it from here: https://mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/CU/cms/pdf/lakes-Connection-Guide-Summer-2018-lr.pdf

Even better, the previous site requires an account to download, but not to view. I always feel like they must be somewhere deep down in Stagecoache's website but have never found them on there.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Thank you, folks - this will be very useful.

 

[30907]

Thanks - here are the Class 37 diagrams:
10:25 2C47 Lancaster Barrow-in-Furness 11:33 NT 37 Diagram 1
11:38 2C49 Barrow-in-Furness Carlisle 14:26 NT 37 Diagram 2
I don't think that I'll make them.

There are, of course later (and earlier) trains, but I agree it would be difficult to do a circular from WDM incorporating Ravenglass as well - though do-able starting at 0850 going clockwise

 

[skifans]

Does anyone know what sets will be 37 hauled after the tomettime change - in trying to work out of getting the 6 bus between Windermere and either Ulverston or Barrow gives more options for a circle. But with only 5 departures a day it will depend how well they meet the trains if they make any difference.

A corner could also be cut by getting the 508 bus between Windermere and Penrith which in my view is worth a trip in its own right. Or by getting the 555 Windermere to Keswick and change onto the 554 to Carlisle, which still has very good views.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Thanks - here are the Class 37 diagrams:
10:25 2C47 Lancaster Barrow-in-Furness 11:33 NT 37 Diagram 1
11:38 2C49 Barrow-in-Furness Carlisle 14:26 NT 37 Diagram 2
I don't think that I'll make them.

There are, of course later (and earlier) trains, but I agree it would be difficult to do a circular from WDM incorporating Ravenglass as well - though do-able starting at 0850 going clockwise

Actually, it's perfectly possible to do a round trip including the R&E without leaving WDM too early or returning too late. These are the times that I've worked out:

Depart Windermere 08.50 09.47
Arrive Oxenholme Lake District 09.07 10.06
Depart Oxenholme Lake District 09.12 10.12
Arrive Lancaster 09.27 10.27
Depart Lancaster 09.45 11.05
Arrive Barrow-in-Furness 10.52 12.03
Depart Barrow-in-Furness 11.40 12.36
Arrive Ravenglass for Eskdale 12.34 13.21

Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway D S S
Depart Ravenglass 12.45 13.50 14.50
Arrive Dalegarth for Boot 13.30 14.30 15.30
Depart Dalegarth for Boot 13.50 14.50 15.50
Arrive Ravenglass 14.30 15.30 16.30
Approx. forty minute trip each way. S = Steam hauled D = Diesel hauled

Depart Ravenglass for Eskdale 15.33 17.28
Arrive Carlisle 17.28 19.10
Depart Carlisle 17.53 19.34
Arrive Oxenholme Lake District 18.29 20.13
Depart Oxenholme Lake District 18.38 20.22
Arrive Windermere 18.58 20.41

As I thought, none of these include those two Class 37 diagrams, though.

 

[30907]

All you need do is wait at Lancaster for the 1025 and connect at Barrow onto the 1140. I would choose a day when the 37 is doing the Preston run, so if the connection doesn't make you will have got your 37 anyway.
The same loco will be on the 1533 off Ravenglass.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I thought that you might like to know what happened last week during my Lake District trip.

To recap, this was my basic plan, staying in Windermere and taking the following trips

• a day on Lake Windermere, including the Lakeland Motor Museum and the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway.

This actually ended up as two trips on Lake Windermere, one for the Museum and one for the Railway. I
thought that I wouldn't have enough time to do both on the same day, which may have been a mistake,
but t did mean that I wasn't rushing around too much on either day.

• A circular trip around the Cumbrian Coast Line from Windermere to Carlisle, stopping off at Ravenglass for a trip on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway

This worked fine, except that I missed my preferred connection from Ravenglass to Carlisle by just a few
minutes which meant that I had a long wait for the next one - and the pub next to the station was shut!

• A day on Coniston Water

This was fine - and very interesting.

• A day in Carlisle (I know it isn't in the lakes, but there's some museums there that I want to see!)

This worked out well.

I'm particularly interested in the bus information, especially the prices, which I was having some difficulty in finding, but no longer!

I thought that the bus services were very good, and took a few of them.

When are the Class 37s running on the Cumbrian Coast Line, please? I'll be there in the middle of May - is this too early?

I didn't manage to catch one of the Class 37 hauled services, but I did see 37402 twice - at Barrow and Workington. 68003 "Rapid" (on the front) and 68004 "Astute" (on the rear) took me from Barrow to Ravenglass, and I saw them later on the return journey. I also saw 68033 and 68034 on a nuclear flask train passing through Ravenglass during my "long wait" and there were a couple of others at Sellafield, although I didn't record any numbers.

I'm going to book a "Freedom of the North West - Four in Eight Days" ticket, which I'll use for the following:

• Chester to Windermere (the incoming journey)
• The Cumbrian Coast Line trip
• A return from Windermere to Carlisle
• Windermere to Altrincham (the outgoing journey)

At just over £50 with a Senior Railcard, it's a good deal.

You may have seen a note on my efforts to buy this at Llandudno elsewhere on the Forum, so I'll just say here that I was eventually successful and it was good value.

I'm also going to buy a Freedom of the Lake, Steam Train & Motor Museum ticket from Windermere Lake Cruises, which includes unlimited travel on Lake Windermere, the Lakeland Motor Museum and a trip on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway - this is £30 for an Adult (there are no Concession fares).

Because I took two trips on the lake, I bought two different tickets. One gave unlimited travel on Lake Windermere and entry to the Lakeland Motor Museum, and the other was a return cruise on Lake Windermere and a return trip on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway. For this reason, they cost me more than £30 (about £40-ish, I think), but they were good value for all that.

So, there we are ... a very enjoyable week, and one which has got me thinking about a return visit at some time - hopefully not too far away!

 

[PHILIPE]

Don't forget that 1 of the LHCS is now T&T Class 68s

 

[fowler9]

As Blue Fox mentioned the 555 is brilliant. I'll be on the top deck the weekend after next from Ambleside to Keswick going to the Keswick beer festival. I'll probably get the ferry from Ambleside to Bowness and back on the Saturday which is very pleasant. We may alternatively go for a walk in the hills around Ambleside. We go to the Keswick Beer Festival every year, the first weekend in June and have used a number of permutations of what we do (Apart from the beer festival which is the Friday evening, I recommend it for any beer festival fans, a truly lovely location outdoors if the weather allows which it has the last six years thank God) .

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Don't forget that 1 of the LHCS is now T&T Class 68s

Yes, that was obviously the one that I caught - it was the 11.40 from Barrow. As I said, I did see them later on the return journey, which would have been around 16.00 - 16.30 (ish) from Ravenglass.

 

[ashworth]

For anyone visiting the area for more than a couple of days and wanting to travel by bus I would recommend getting a 7 Day Stagecoach North West Megarider Gold. This ticket is fantastic value and covers a huge area. It includes most Stagecoach services in Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire West & Chester and Cumbria. Also extending to Bolton, Wigan, Kirkby Lonsdale, Ingleton, Dumfries and Newcastle. I think the 7 Day Ticket still only costs about £28.

I’ve had many a good holiday up in the North West travelling around by rail and bus by using one of these plus a 7 Day North West Rail Rover. Having the bus ticket in addition to the Rail Rover is very useful to cut corners to make circular journeys easier. Among other places I’ve used the bus between Penrith and Workington, Windermere and Barrow, and further south between Preston and Southport where the journey by rail is quite a long way around.