Transport costs

[ewt]

So, the travel PLN for this summer's little adventure is this:

Up to Edinburgh, stay overnight (or two nights? Need to speak to martling and others up there and find out crashspace), then from there to Inverness, catch a bus to Culbokie, spend two weeks with the hippies, then from there go to Mark, Somerset for a week of Ki-Aikido training. Then back home to London.

Now, I'm not really in good enough shape to take the bus - these are long, long drives, and I get bus-sick, and buses have a lot less space than trains do, and what with one thing and another I just don't think I can do long bus trips. Flying does take an awful lot of fuel, and invariably involves almost as much travel as taking the train, because of getting to and from airports at each end. So, I'm looking at taking the train.

I'm going to get saver tickets - open would be better, because then I could travel anytime, but saver tickets let me get away if the hippies all turn out to be moonies or whatever, and leave wiggle room for travel to and from Somerset (as I'll probably be travelling back with hairyears and he is as chaotic as I am when it comes to leaving at pre-arranged times). I'd get supersaver but they disable those for the summer.

This is going to cost £301.30.

Ow. That's if I buy the tickets, um, today. Sadly my Young Person's Railcard expires 28th July and I will not be able to renew it, being Too Old, until after I'm back at Trinty in September, so I won't be able to use it except for the single up to Edinburgh.

That's just the trains; it doesn't count the bus from Inverness to Culbokie and back, if such a thing even exists (may have to go halfies on a cab; it's only about 12 miles but I'm not sure how much this will cost), or the cab from Highbridge & Burnham to Mark, Somerset and back. I'm hoping to cadge lifts from various people for some of that but for obvious reasons I don't want to get into a car with a complete stranger in Inverness, and I may not have much luck with the Aikido bit, so I need to make sure I have the cashflow reserves to cover a few £20 cab rides.

I'm really annoyed that they've changed the policy on missed trains when you book specific trains; it used to be that if you booked a specific train but missed it or wanted to travel on another you could just pay a small fee. Now if you do that you have to buy a whole new standard-priced ticket, which is prohibitively expensive.

All-network rail passes are £565 for 14 days, though, so really not a good alternative here.

And people wonder why so many in the UK decide to drive...

Comments

[juliet]

Have you looked at getting a Network Railcard? £20 for the year, 1/3 off off-peak fares in the south-east. Won't be helpful for the Scottish bits but might be for the others.

Also may be worth phoning, esp if you were thinking of taking the sleeper to Edinburgh - they have lower fares than online, sometimes.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Srsly? They disable supersaver tickets for the summer? Shiiiit. I am supposed to be taking 3 Japanese people to Glasgow in September. When do they re-enable them?

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Ah, Internet sa only Saturdays. That looks less scary.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

I'm really annoyed that they've changed the policy on missed trains when you book specific trains; it used to be that if you booked a specific train but missed it or wanted to travel on another you could just pay a small fee.

I know Virgin made me buy a full ticket if I missed a train-locked ticket train as far back ago as 2000. If that bit me a couple more times I decided to never buy train-locked tickets again if I could possibly help it. It's nice to know that at least some operators were were nicer to you (for a while at least). Or it changed without me noticing :/

It's all a big conspiracy to make us all pay road tax, or something ;P

Also

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

Inverness -> Cullbockie bus timetable (http://www.stagecoachbus.com/timetables/22pckttt1604.pdf) [PDF; stagecoachbus.com] Not exactly the kind of service Londoners are used to, then...

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Trains make me want to die. My sister and I went up to London a couple of weekends ago and booked on the coach (late): £16.

My dad offered to pay our train fare, so I found out how much it would be a week in advance: £108. Haha, no.

Although if George Monbiot is to be believed, coaches are actually less CO2-intensive than trains.

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

Last time I went to Glasgow it was cheaper to fly that it was to take the train. I think flights to Edinburgh are about 80 quid... On the other hand this might make your inner hippy sad...

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

There're also much more serious luggage restrictions.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If they were not full of moron teenagers screaming about nothing and did not have less legroom than aeroplanes, I would so very never travel on a train again.

foning

[(Anonymous)]

When is it a good time to phone you today? I do hope you waved a Canadian flag yesterday!! We are 140 years young.
Mum

Re: Also

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering whether a train to Dingwall is a better idea. Confused.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Not worth it for the month or so between expiration of my YP railcard and being able to get a Student one. Also the Scottish bits are the expensive bits, for the most part.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

There are no supersaver tickets listed for the ones I've chosen, also in the past I have tried to get a supersaver ticket from Bath to London and found I cannot "because it is summer and we don't do those then". I'm not sure whehter it was Saturday though.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Coaches make me travel-sick to an extent that I'd be looking at spending a day recovering after each journey. Also I rarely fit in the seats. I find trains far more comfortable.

[martling.livejournal.com]

When are you headed up?

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

But to fly to Edinburgh I have to get myself to Luton or Heathrow or Gatwick or Standsted or, best-case, City airport. Then when I get to the airport in Edinburgh I have to figure out where the hell everything is, and take similar overpriced-or-underconvenient transport to get to somewhere that's sensible. I also have to spend stupid amounts of time sitting around waiting for things to happen.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

21st July, I think. I'll have a mirrorshard in tow. I'm meant to get to the hippies near Culbokie by 23rd July, so coming up on the 21st would give me a day travel-free in Edinburgh.

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

http://www.flybybus.com/ this claims it costs £3 to the city center, so I think it would probably work out cheaper that the £300ish the train costs, on the other hand, you are not wrong about time spent sitting around in airports...

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's fine. The point was "trains are ridiculously overpriced", not "you should go on a coach. :)

[welikegoats.livejournal.com]

Have you tried the old trick of breaking your ticket (not your trip) at strategic locations? Multiple tickets are often cheaper than one ticket. I also assume you are avoiding peak times.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

All-network rail passes are £565 for 14 days, though, so really not a good alternative here.

Now I'm wondering if it'd be fun to get one of those tickets and have a sort-of roaming holiday.

[poggle.livejournal.com]

I thought they only showed the saver tickets on the train website 3 weeks before travelling.

I could be wrong, I have been in the past.

Re: Also

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if that will help if you wanted to go by bus. The bus from Dingwell (http://www.stagecoachbus.com/timetables/2123pckttt03012007.pdf) [PDF; stagecoachbus.com] is even less frequent then the one from Inverness. It is however 5.7 miles away (http://www.mapquest.co.uk/mq/directions/directionsMail.do?ABCDEEDCBA=c2VhcmNoMD1FVSEhITU3LjU5NjIzOi00LjQzMTM4ISEhISEhRGluZ3dhbGwhISFTY290bGFuZCEhIVJvc3MtU2hpcmUhISEhISFHQiEhITImc2VhcmNoMT1FVSEhITU3LjYwMTEwOTotNC4zMzk3OCEhISEhIUN1bGJva2llISEhU2NvdGxhbmQhISFSb3NzLVNoaXJlISEhISEhR0IhISEyJmNlbnRyYWxMYXRpdHVkZT01Ny42MTIyNTQmY2VudHJhbExvbmdpdHVkZT0tNC4zODU3NiZkaXN0YW5jZVVuaXQ9TWlsZXMmem9vbWxldmVsPTYmcmVnaW9uPUVVJg==) [mapquest.co.uk] so should be much cheaper if you wanted to train and then grab a cab. Not sure how they do for cab companies though... Could that be something to ask the hippies? It's probably a bit too far for you to walk if there wasn't one and there were no more buses or you had hours to wait.

The fairly frequent bus service (http://www.stagecoachbus.com/timetables/25pckttt03012007.pdf) [PDF; stagecoachbus.com] from Dingwell that initially looked like it might be promising doesn't help as it runs kinda at a tangent; road distance wise Conon Bridge is 5.6 miles away from Culbockie. Saves a whole 160 metres... Map to show what I'm talking about if you don't have one open already (http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=260500&y=859500&z=6&sv=260500,859500&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf&ax=260500&ay=859500). [streetmap.co.uk]

I hope I'm not taking any fun away. I appear to enjoy poking at travel stuff far too much, even if it's not my own travel...

[spaglet.livejournal.com]

Longer distance costs because Network Southeast fares aren't so bad, and thus nobody of any practical importance really notices.

I'm looking forward to reading about your experience of Utopia: I'm in two minds about it, as his stated objective is writing a book and, effectively, game playing. The sale of his house might have been a good investment, for the former, and the latter? Maybe he's hoping it'll settle the notion in enough people's minds that things might turn out okay.

On the other hand, I would say what he's doing is too important to play a game with.

[martling.livejournal.com]

Okay. I'm not quite sure yet whether I'll be here that weekend - I may have to be helping move aircraft down south ready for a competition that starts on the 28th. Hopefully should know within this week.