Newcastle - Gatwick : breaking to Manchester

[aye2beeviasea]

Hello, I have a Gatwick to Newcastle super off peak return 9d ticket.

I want to break my return journey to visit Manchester.

Ticket was provided by work so I can't change the ticket in any way, just buy extra to fill in gaps.

What's the best way please? It looks to me like I can go York Leeds Sheffield and break there, then continue via Chesterfield Kettering St Pancras. Its that correct, or is there a quicker and/or cheaper way?

Thank you!

 

[Wallsendmag]

May be quicker to break at LDS and buy a return.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Hello, I have a Gatwick to Newcastle super off peak return 9d ticket.

I want to break my return journey to visit Manchester.

Ticket was provided by work so I can't change the ticket in any way, just buy extra to fill in gaps.

What's the best way please? It looks to me like I can go York Leeds Sheffield and break there, then continue via Chesterfield Kettering St Pancras. Its that correct, or is there a quicker and/or cheaper way?

Thank you!

Finding the absolute best way would be a problem of the same kind of complexity as the travelling salesman , but we can approximate something near it.

Somewhat surprisingly, your ticket isn't valid into St Pancras, nor is it valid into Euston. You have to either choose the ECML into King's Cross, or go with CrossCountry via Birmingham and then take the Reading-Gatwick Airport North Downs connection.

There are no restrictions on breaking your journey on the return and it might be desirable (and it's possible) to do this at any of York, Leeds, Wakefield and/or Doncaster. It's only possible to do it at Sheffield if you intend to go via Birmingham and Reading afterwards.

There are plenty of cheap Advances available from Leeds or Sheffield to Manchester if you book far enough in advance, or alternatively there are a variety of 'creative' alternatives to the extremely expensive walkup tickets which TransPennine would otherwise like you to pay for.

 

[JB_B]

...
Somewhat surprisingly, your ticket isn't valid into St Pancras, ....

I don't think that's right. Sheffield to St Pancras is doable on map combination YA+EY.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I don't think that's right. Sheffield to St Pancras is doable on map combination YA+EY.

I stand corrected!

 

[Starmill]

Are you making all of the journey (Newcastle > Sheffield > Manchester > Sheffield > London > Gatwick Airport) on one day? For travel on or before 19th April a Sheffield to Manchester return is £20.50. After that date the price rises to £22.40. A higher fare applies for travel before 0830 M-F.

 

[aye2beeviasea]

Thank you everyone for all your advice.

I'm planning on travelling on different days, and in the evening for both journeys. I'll be travelling in May.

I found the £22.40 Sheffield ticket which seems to cover what I need, the equivalent from Leeds is £22.70 - journey times for both seem about the same, so it's probably a question of which one is easiest to get to from Newcastle.

Edit: actually, I think it's probably a question of which one is easiest to get back to Gatwick via when starting at Manchester on a weekday evening!

 

[robbeech]

On a Crosscountry train from Newcastle they’re equally easy to get to. Some go via Leeds and others via Doncaster so do check but they both call at Sheffield.
There’s not a huge amount of time difference between Sheffield to London St Pancras and Leeds to King’s Cross, though you have to factor in the time between Leeds and Sheffield into the overall journey time if you go that way. Both have 2 direct trains per hour, one is slightly faster than the other.

As for the Manchester bit. There are generally more journey opportunities per hour between Manchester and Leeds than Sheffield so that might be advantageous.

Additionally if you went from Leeds and back and discovered disruption on the ECML you would still have an opportunity to go to Sheffield and down the MML. To St Pancras, or to Birmingham etc

 

[aye2beeviasea]

Thank you robbeech that's a really good point about options in the event of disruption. I think I'm leaning in favour of Leeds now.

 

[cuccir]

Chose Leeds: you can get on a TransPennine train from Newcastle to Manchester and won't have to change trains for that leg of your journey.

 

[robbeech]

Chose Leeds: you can get on a TransPennine train from Newcastle to Manchester and won't have to change trains for that leg of your journey.

A very good point as you’d be more than likely getting a TPE service to Manchester anyway so you might aswell board at Newcastle, unless you wanted to break your journey in Leeds of course.
Be advised that if you did break your journey you ticket would open the barrier on the way out but probably not on the way back in. You could use your Leeds to Manchester outward portion for this before your Manchester trip but would need to show your long distance ticket to a member of staff afterwards before continuing south.