London - Warrington 18/4/2011

[Freddie]

Afternoon all,

I wonder if you can pull any magic out of the hat for my journey home from London next month. I'm down providing First Aid for the marathon on the 17th, and am trying to work out how to get home fairly cheaply. (Treated myself to a First Advance on the way down, as it was only £1 more expensive )I could return on the Sunday night if that worked out better, but somehow I doubt it.

I usually take VWC from Euston to Warrington Bank Quay, but quite fancy using a different TOC/route for a change (and hopefully save some money).

I've noticed I could get a London Midland advance up to Crewe or Liverpool for about a tenner with a 16-25 Railcard, then a cheap single to Warrington, but I've never used LM before, so any thoughts on the service would be appreciated.

Any other possibilities?

Cheers,

Freddie

 

[island]

Avoid London Midland like the plague on weekends; they're in the throes of an overtime ban which is causing a lot of cancellations.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

What day are you proposing returning Northbound? Sunday 17th April or Monday 18th April?

First class advance singles are available on a number of trains on the Sunday at £59.00. Or standard class advance singles on the Monday (Dep 0730 or 0830) at £30.50.

Not sure how much you have paid for your First Advance on the way down, but it may have been cheaper to have bought an Off-Peak Return at £70-00 from Warrington Bank Quay to London Euston, and then a First Class upgrade at £15-00 each way if travelling both ways on the Sunday.

Please note that the FA Cup Semi-Final between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City is taking place at Wembley Stadium on the Sunday (kick-off 4.00 p.m.) so some Northbound services are likely to be busy after approximately 6.30 p.m.

 

[Freddie]

Sorry, I didn't explain myself too well there.

I'm travelling down on the Saturday, and was planning on returning on Monday, though I could do Sunday night if it worked out cheaper.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

As per my previous post, there are standard class advance singles on the Monday morning (18th April) direct from Euston to Warrington Bank Quay (Dep 0730 or 0830) at £30.50.

 

[bengolding]

If you can get the 05:39 from Euston to Warrington on Monday, a Std Advance is £15.50 with your railcard and only £22.75 for a First Advance, including breakfast! Prices then go up, but it is cheaper to go First Class on the 08:43 to Edinburgh (direct but via Birmingham), with a First Advance at £30.35.

The London Midland option is longer and involves a 35 min wait at Crewe for the Virgin connection. With the current disruption, you may well find your train starting/terminating at Northamption.

Enjoy the Marathon! Good to see Virgin are running earlybird trains again this year on the Sunday to Euston from Liverpool, Manchester and Wolves, arriving between 8 and 9am.

 

[bb21]

I think the 0539 is very good value.

Alternatively you can also go from St Pancras using EMT Advances and connect at Sheffield for Transpennine services to Manchester. Booked via www.EastMidlandsTrains.co.uk Advances for 18th starting after 1055 are £10.55 to Manchester. The 0955 departure is currently £12.55. However this itinerary does take 3 hours to get to Manchester.

From Manchester I think you might get a small saving by splitting at GMPTE boundary however I'm not 100% sure.

If you use cashback websites you might also get a small cashback by using them to get to the EMT website.

 

[Freddie]

Yeah, that 0539 would be very nice indeed, but I'm staying with someone out in Acton, so it'd mean getting up early and getting one of the first tubes of the day.

I think that EMT itinerary sounds great, thanks bb21! I can get picked up from Manchester, so that'll be fine

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Am I right in thinking they come from a combination of Timetables, Avantix, and local knowledge?

 

[bb21]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Am I right in thinking they come from a combination of Timetables, Avantix, and local knowledge?

And learning from the gurus. (No, no, I'm not one! )

By the way, you're welcome. Any more questions in the future just ask. We allegedly have more "experts" than any other forums. (Someone find me the quote quick! I'm poo at searching.)

 

[transportphoto]

Freddie - are you with SJA?

 

[Freddie]

Yeah, I'm an AFA with Durham LINKS.

We aren't getting any expenses for it, which certainly adds to the wish for cheap travel.

 

[yorkie]

We allegedly have more "experts" than any other forums. (Someone find me the quote quick! I'm poo at searching.)

I don't think there's any doubt about that. Where else is there?

The leading place for fares and, in particular, routeing used to be uk.railway newsgroup, but tickets don't crop up so often there these days, and the best experts there (collybs, John @ Home, barrykas etc post more here than there, anyway).

Moneysavingexpert has some experts, but again the best ones are on here. Occasionally I'll do the equivalent of a RPI and blitz the place, putting the incorrect posters (who are desperately trying to boost post counts, I guess) right. You do get people posting utter gibber on there, and they sometimes go uncorrected.

Yes, there's other forums, and there may well be one or two people who know their stuff, but only here can you be truly certain of getting a thorough answer to complex queries. No one person can know it all, it takes a lot of people to fully cover some issues. Also many of us meet up and discuss things (12 April is the next opportunity, as you know!) and I doubt that happens anywhere else either.

 

[bb21]

I don't think there's any doubt about that. Where else is there?

The leading place for fares and, in particular, routeing used to be uk.railway newsgroup, but tickets don't crop up so often there these days, and the best experts there (collybs, John @ Home, barrykas etc post more here than there, anyway).

Moneysavingexpert has some experts, but again the best ones are on here. Occasionally I'll do the equivalent of a RPI and blitz the place, putting the incorrect posters (who are desperately trying to boost post counts, I guess) right. You do get people posting utter gibber on there, and they sometimes go uncorrected.

Yes, there's other forums, and there may well be one or two people who know their stuff, but only here can you be truly certain of getting a thorough answer to complex queries. No one person can know it all, it takes a lot of people to fully cover some issues. Also many of us meet up and discuss things (12 April is the next opportunity, as you know!) and I doubt that happens anywhere else either.

I don't doubt one single thing you say. However being a scientist, I'm conditioned to use the word "alleged" or equivalent until something is actually proven.

And yes I'm looking forward to 12th. Gonna be a good day.

Now you've reminded me to check that blasted MSE site ...