European Railroad Discussion > Yankees Coming To The UK

My wife and I are planning on coming to the UK next spring. We, of course, want to go to York ( a must-do) and we want to ride some of your trains. I suppose I must agree to some UK sights that do not have flanged wheels but that is a price I will pay. In looking at fares, we are sort of amazed at the prices and levels of service to say nothiong of who is operating them. I would greatly appreciate some help in getting us started. Best place to get rail travel information, etc?
Many thanks!
 

Check out www.seat61.com it is a great website!!!

fredstout Wrote:
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> I would greatly
> appreciate some help in getting us started. Best
> place to get rail travel information, etc?
> Many thanks!

Can you be a bit more specific about times, what you want to see, where you want to go?

Assuming you visit York from London by train you can either travel on Virgin East Coast or Grand Central, the latter is an open access (for profit) operator which runs three trains each way between London and Sunderland in NE London, which stop at York. Virgin East Coast is the principal operator running 125 mph trains every half an hour or so from London King's Cross to York, fastest journey time is 110 minutes non-stop. York is a major junction with trains arriving from other parts of the country.

Where else do you want to go to? Bath, some 100 miles west of London, is a good day trip destination. It's a beautiful Georgian (18th century) city with Roman remains. Hourly 125 mph diesel HSTs from London Paddington. The universitit cities of Oxford and Cambridge are each about an hour from London. You can ride a brand new service from London Marylebone to Oxford which uses a new/rebuilt stretch of line; two trains an hour in each direction.

Away from London Edinburgh the capital of Scotland is a wonderful city, easily reached by train in about four and a half hours (Virgin East Coast again) and the site of the Forth Railway Bridge, which even today is still a spectacular piece of Victorian engineering. And the ride up the East Coast Mainline can be pretty spectacular too, especially north of York - sit on the right hand side.

There are tourist railways in almost every part of GB, my favourites are the narrow gauge railways in the mountainous NW corner of Wales; more of a trek from London but easily reached nevertheless.

HTH

Buy a Britt Rail Pass from EuroRail. It will save you tons of money in the long run. And you can get on any train you want without a reservation (excepting sleepers of course). That way if you miss the train you had bought a very expensive ticket for, you aren't out of luck. It's even good on the Heathrow Express when you arrive. I find U.K. fares to be generally higher than on the continent. And buy a first class pass. Second Class or "standard" as I think they call it is often full and very cramped with some often having to stand. First is normally empty excepting at rush hour and on some more popular routes. If you like steam there are lots of excellent preserved heritage railways in the country. I'ms sure a search on line will guide you to them. My view, the best are the Bluebell just south of London (connection from Victoria), the North Yorkshire Moors, and the Severn Valley. All have connections with Network Rail. 

Before you buy a pass figure out how much you are going to ride. If you are only riding trains a few days or only riding a train one or two times each way then the pass may be much more expensive than what you can do with advance ticketing. Go to the National Rail site and start playtesting your trip now.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

You will not be able to buy tickets yet for trains in the Spring but you can at least figure out how much Advance Tickets will be. The Advance Tickets are available for purchase usually around two months out. A few Train Operating Companies will put a fare out then put a slightly lower fare out a few days later but most the low fare is offered first. These fares will then increase as tickets are sold and the time gets closer. My dad and I spent a month mostly in the UK in 2013 and I saved a lot by doing the homework and buying the Advance Tickets. The drawback with the Advance Tickets as Anderson said is that they are usually for a specific train. In 2013 I was still able to use a swipe type credit card way before our Third World nation had ever heard of chipped credit cards to procure the tickets once over. Hopefully you will have a chipped card by then. One small benefit of buying individual tickets is to collect ticket holders. I now have collectible ticket holders from East Coast.

Making connections in the UK is not at all like here in the US. Other than during Sunday engineering works the trains run ontime for the most part. Other thing I can suggest is to stay outside of London as much as possible if you can plan it. Too many Americans stay in London because that's all they have heard of in England then come back with the idea that the entire country is too expensive. Premier Inn is somewhere between a Quality Inn, LaQuinta or Super 8 in amenities. If you book in advance, you can stay in nice downtown hotels for as little as 29 Pounds Sterling which is around $45 US. Most of these Premier Inns are near the railway stations so you will not need a cab. If you do want to venture out further then take the buses. The transit system in the UK are unreal compared to the US. Even in small places there are buses and buses go almost everywhere. In the month long trip I put my dad in a taxi because he was sick, and that was it for taxi cabs for the whole month, until we got back to the US. In a two week trip I only took one taxi over there in March (name of the town) to get to a signalbox in between trains. For the total trip planner experience take a look at Traveline. It will give you the trains and buses to get between specific places.

http://www.traveline.info/

If you need more help there are plenty of people here to ask both living in the UK or have traveled there. Really going to England was much easier and much less expensive than I had ever expected. I hope this helped and have fun.

Jim

On the National Rail website there are also a lot of Rover and Ranger tickets listed, which could give you unlimited riding privileges within certain areas if you are interested only in a couple of regions. 

As a Yank myself, living in London for a year, I have been amazed at the level of train services provided, how everything is in good repair, and how smoothly everything (usually) works.  It's not Amtrak. 

While  in York suggest I suggest the following circle trip. York to Leeds then Leeds to Carlisle via the Settle and Carlisle line--great scenery including passage over the Ribblehead Viaduct. Then Carlisle to Newcastle and finally Newcastle to York via the East Coast Mail line. Should be able to do the trip in a day--a long one. However it will provide distinctive scenery plus you will experience Inter City trains, Regional trains and Branch line trains. 

In terms of hotel accommodation you cannot go far wrong with Premier Travel Inns as stated by a previous poster. The best place to get train times is http://www.thetrainline.com/. Places to visit. Well the most obvious place most tourists tend to go to is London. Plenty of things to see, shopping and museums etc, but it is very expensive and is not representative of the U.K as a whole. Depending on how much time you have I would definitely recommend York, Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, and Cambridge as cities to visit which have much historical significance and are all beautiful in their own right. Areas of natural beauty include The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Scottish Highlands, Cornwall and the Cotswolds. Noteworthy rail journeys include The Seattle and Carlisle line, The West Highland Line, East Coast Mainline from Newcastle to Edinburgh, West Coast Mainline from Preston to Glasgow, Great Western Mainline from Bristol to Penzance. Railway attractions other than York RM which I can recommend include Didcot Railway Center, Pendon Model Railway, Severn Valley Railway, North Yorkshire Moors Railway and Locomotion at Shildon. Whilst rail prices are not cheap, if you plan your trip carefully and book in advance there are good deals to be had. The U.K. Passenger railway network is in better shape now than it has been for decades. There are now more new trains than ever and the U.K. Operates more trains at 100mph + than any other country IIRC. Most inter city services are clean, punctual and frequent. My advice would be to plan to spend your time in specific areas where there are things that interest you and minimise travelling. For example staying in York puts you in easy reach of the Seatle and Carlisle line, is close to the beautiful North Yorkshire Dales and close to the North Yorkshire Moors railway. Edinburgh is a good place to stay in Scotland, 3 hours from York by train and you could then go to either Inverness or Glasgow to sample the Scottish Highlands. The choices are endless, but please try to get beyond London.

Enjoy your trip wherever you go.

Chris