On Wednesday I travelled from Sheffield to New Street on the 11:56 XC service, it was absolutely rammed, I had to stand for around half the journey, getting a bit long in the tooth for that.
I am returning next Wednesday 31st, I'm not tied to a specific time as long as its off peak, can anyone advise which trains are going to be quieter, I will try and reserve a seat at the station in the next day or two, I was unable to reserve one on the outbound journey as the tickets were purchased from the machine at my original start point. Thanks.
Reserving should help since there is a lot of passenger turnover at Birmingham and Sheffield. Others may be able to point you to 10 car diagrams through BHM rather than 4 or 5, but these can't always be relied upon.
I have stopped using XC long distance for a quieter and more comfortable, if slightly longer journey. My advice is to consider going via Derby. Leg 1 Birmingham to Derby on one of the XC Nottingham services (Class 170s originating at Cardiff/Gloucester/Birmingham) and then EMR to Sheffield.
If you have an off peak return your ticket is valid on these XC services to Derby and on EMR onwards.
For future reference there are often very reasonable advance fares both on the north end of the MML and the XC Nottinghams, and a split ticket site like the forum site/Trainsplit will easily give you itineraries, if you select "Cheapest" or "Best Value".
The penalty is only about 20 minutes.
For future reference, I can see itineraries offered today at short notice for about £21 through much of the day, made up of a to £7 advance to Derby and a £9.30 XC advance to Birmingham (and £4.89 Trainsplit commission). You're very very likely to get a seat or those services, and the EMR service will have seat reservations anyway. The other way has even more availability at the same price.
With two weeks notice, you can get this down to a touch over £15 in total, made up of £5.50 to Sheff and £6.90 to Derby (plus £2.75 commission).
Considering it's £40 for split flexible tickets and £59 for the off peak return you may well have bought from the machine, it's a win-win!
These prices and itineraries apply in both directions so may be useful for next time!
I would also add, you wouldn't be able to buy this split from a machine, if for some reason you don't use booking sites, but if you research the times/tickets yourself and ask for them specifically at the ticket office at Sheffield or Birmingham, they will be able to sell the split.
