Me + Bike : Edinburgh to Penzance

[Ian]

I'm contemplating doing LEJOG come September and I'm trying to work out
the best way to get from Edinburgh to Penzance.

Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
for.

I could fly to Bristol with EasyJet, or Exeter with FlyBe and take the
train the remainder of the way. Both of which would be faster and
cheaper. But I'm a bit wary of taking a bike on a plane (also FlyBe
state on their website that bike are carried on a standby basis only!).

Anybody got any other suggestions, advice or experiences of taking a
bike on EasyJet of FlyBe?

TIA

Ian

 

[JLB]

Ian wrote:
> I'm contemplating doing LEJOG come September and I'm trying to work out
> the best way to get from Edinburgh to Penzance.
>
> Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
> to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
> for.
>
> I could fly to Bristol with EasyJet, or Exeter with FlyBe and take the
> train the remainder of the way. Both of which would be faster and
> cheaper. But I'm a bit wary of taking a bike on a plane (also FlyBe
> state on their website that bike are carried on a standby basis only!).
>
> Anybody got any other suggestions, advice or experiences of taking a
> bike on EasyJet of FlyBe?

I was travelling from SW England to Aberdeen a week ago last Sunday. I
thought I would save time by flying. First problem was that the flight
was full on the Plymouth - Cardiff leg (some football match at the
Millennium Stadium). So I flew from Cardiff. With the extra travel
needed to get to Cardiff, and a long delay at Cardiff waiting for a
replacement aircraft, the total journey time was 13 hours. Train all the
way would have been quicker and cheaper.

That's just one data point and not much use for weighing the
probabilities on your journey, but it illustrates the old saying that if
you have all the time in the world, fly.


--
Joe * If I cannot be free I'll be cheap

 

[vernon levy]

> Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
> to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
> for.
>
Something worth thinking abou tis trying to get a bargain weekend return
ticket (APEX?) to London and then travel from London to Cornwall on a
weekend return. At APEX rates I am sure that you will get a better price.

To give an indicator of savings to be made; London can be 'done' from Leeds
for around £20. Not sure of the West contry fares.

There's very little that can be done about journey time by rail...you are at
the mercy ofthe time table and connections...

Out of interest, how much quicker would the journey be via air and rail?
Have you factored in the waiting to book in and getting your bike back at
the other end of the flight as well as the travelling between airport and
rail station? Don't you have to partially dismantle your bike to prepare it
for the hold? Seems like a lot of faff to me.

 

[[email protected]]

Ian wrote:
> I'm contemplating doing LEJOG come September and I'm trying to work out
> the best way to get from Edinburgh to Penzance.
>
> Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
> to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
> for.

I did a search on trainline for Glasgow Penzance 27th June and got a 25
pound fare. I believe if you search too far ahead the cheap fares don't
show up as the train operators can't make them available until they
know about any track works.
Iain

 

[Not Responding]

Ian wrote:
> I'm contemplating doing LEJOG come September and I'm trying to work out
> the best way to get from Edinburgh to Penzance.
>
> Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
> to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
> for.

But let's face it, it's a long way - it's going to cost. Driving a car
would cost £75 in fuel alone each way. With a bit of forward planning,
you should be able to take the train for a lot less than that. A quick
look at the website says that singles can be as low as £25 with advance
booking or just £46 First Class.

> I could fly to Bristol with EasyJet, or Exeter with FlyBe and take the
> train the remainder of the way. Both of which would be faster and
> cheaper. But I'm a bit wary of taking a bike on a plane (also FlyBe
> state on their website that bike are carried on a standby basis only!).

And is it really cheaper? Once you add the tax & charges and the travel
to/from the airport and any parking, you're going to be hard pushed to
beat £25 on the train.

Sure, trains take longer but if you include travel at either end and
check in time, it's not a huge difference. Besides, think of the
environment, man.

> Anybody got any other suggestions, advice or experiences of taking a
> bike on EasyJet of FlyBe?

No. But I took a bike halfway up the country by train last year and it
was easy as pie - unlike the boredom of flying it was positively
enjoyable rather than endurable.

 

[Ian]

[email protected] wrote:
>
> Ian wrote:
>
>>I'm contemplating doing LEJOG come September and I'm trying to work out
>>the best way to get from Edinburgh to Penzance.
>>
>>Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
>>to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
>>for.
>
>
> I did a search on trainline for Glasgow Penzance 27th June and got a 25
> pound fare. I believe if you search too far ahead the cheap fares don't
> show up as the train operators can't make them available until they
> know about any track works.
> Iain
>

You must be doing something different/better - the cheapest I get for
those details is £61 :-(

Ian

 

[Ian]

Not Responding wrote:
>
> But let's face it, it's a long way - it's going to cost. Driving a car
> would cost £75 in fuel alone each way. With a bit of forward planning,
> you should be able to take the train for a lot less than that. A quick
> look at the website says that singles can be as low as £25 with advance
> booking or just £46 First Class.
>
I know the website seems to indicate the cheapest at £25, but these
seats are limited and I haven't seen a single train afferring the
journey at this price. - if anybody can give me some hints on getting
the best price on trainline I'm all ears. It may be worth pointing out
I would like to travel on a Saturday.

To be honest I would rather go by train than by plane - it's a much more
pleasant experience - hell if it cost £46 I would go first class.

Ian

 

[vernon levy]

> To be honest I would rather go by train than by plane - it's a much more
> pleasant experience - hell if it cost £46 I would go first class.
>


Like a previous poster mentioned, there is a limit as to how far in advance
one can book a ticket and get a cheap fare online. You may be better off
waiting a while before attempting online booking. Try ringing the rail
companies - sometimes the personal touch gets a better price than the online
'bargains'. You may alsop get a better insight into how to get the best
prices even if it means a break in the journey.

 

[Buck]

On 06/08/2005 20:28:05 Ian <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm contemplating doing LEJOG come September and I'm trying to work out
> the best way to get from Edinburgh to Penzance.

> Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
> to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
> for.

> I could fly to Bristol with EasyJet, or Exeter with FlyBe and take the
> train the remainder of the way. Both of which would be faster and
> cheaper. But I'm a bit wary of taking a bike on a plane (also FlyBe state
> on their website that bike are carried on a standby basis only!).

> Anybody got any other suggestions, advice or experiences of taking a bike
> on EasyJet of FlyBe?

You can take a bike on Squeezy for £10. I took a trike down to Nice a few
months back.

--
Buck

I would rather be out on my Catrike

http://www.catrike.co.uk

 

[mark]

"Ian" wrote ...
> I'm contemplating doing LEJOG come September and I'm trying to work out
> the best way to get from Edinburgh to Penzance.
>
> Trains seem the obvious choice, but it's a 10 hour journey and according
> to trainline a single would cost £125! - a bit more than I had bargained
> for.
>
> I could fly to Bristol with EasyJet, or Exeter with FlyBe and take the
> train the remainder of the way. Both of which would be faster and
> cheaper. But I'm a bit wary of taking a bike on a plane (also FlyBe
> state on their website that bike are carried on a standby basis only!).
>
> Anybody got any other suggestions, advice or experiences of taking a
> bike on EasyJet of FlyBe?
>
> TIA
>
> Ian

Last year I travelled from London Euston to Edinburgh on the Caledonian
Sleeper for GBP 19, I find it hard to believe that London to Penzance would
cost another 100 pounds! This was an APEX fare, booked online at ( I think)
the Scotrail website. I don't think you could get this kind of fare on a
Saturday, but it's worth a try.

My 19 pounds got me a shared sleeper compartment (except the other berth
remained empty), a breakfast of juice, coffee and a pastry, and a spot for
my bicycle (which I reserved with a toll free call from the US).

Much more pleasant than flying.
--
mark

 

[wheeler]

vernon levy wrote:
>> To be honest I would rather go by train than by plane - it's a much
>> more pleasant experience - hell if it cost £46 I would go first
>> class.
>>
>
>
> Like a previous poster mentioned, there is a limit as to how far in
> advance one can book a ticket and get a cheap fare online. You may
> be better off waiting a while before attempting online booking. Try
> ringing the rail companies - sometimes the personal touch gets a
> better price than the online 'bargains'. You may alsop get a better
> insight into how to get the best prices even if it means a break in
> the journey.

yup - they release the cheap tickets at random times in advance so far as I
can tell, affected by uncertainty over engineering (but not before about 6
weeks ahead I think). Persistence is worth it - if I'm doing a journey where
a cheap ticket is really considerably cheaper than standard, I just keeping
going on to the trainline every day or two to see what's come up. I do a lot
of travel on the trains and it's pretty rare that you end up having to pay
full whack if you get in well in advance.

 

[John Hearns]

On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:51:33 +0100, vernon levy wrote:

>
> Something worth thinking abou tis trying to get a bargain weekend return
> ticket (APEX?) to London and then travel from London to Cornwall on a
> weekend return. At APEX rates I am sure that you will get a better price.

I think the Glasgow/Penzance journey mentioned above is the cross country
Virgin Trains Glasgow/Penzance via Birmingham service.
Takes ten hours.
7:40 from Glasgow means an early start from Edinburgh.


The idea of routing via London could mean an extra hour in bed.
4.5 hours Edinburgh to Kings Cross on GNER, which has excellent bike
accomodation. Cycle over to Paddinton. What's the journey time from there?

 

[Jon Senior]

John Hearns wrote:
> The idea of routing via London could mean an extra hour in bed.
> 4.5 hours Edinburgh to Kings Cross on GNER, which has excellent bike
> accomodation. Cycle over to Paddinton. What's the journey time from there?

Routing via London will probably cost more (Unless you are using the
special offer tickets). Transfer across town by bike is easy (Now done
this three times and despite getting lost once, it's still faster than
the tube.

Both GNER and Virgin run special offer tickets that are specific to
their services. I believe the Virgin one looked like being around half
price to do Edinburgh - Portsmouth, so that may be worth looking into.

Jon

 

[Nick Kew]

John Hearns wrote:
> On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:51:33 +0100, vernon levy wrote:
>
>
>>Something worth thinking abou tis trying to get a bargain weekend return
>>ticket (APEX?) to London and then travel from London to Cornwall on a
>>weekend return. At APEX rates I am sure that you will get a better price.
>
>
> I think the Glasgow/Penzance journey mentioned above is the cross country
> Virgin Trains Glasgow/Penzance via Birmingham service.
> Takes ten hours.

FWIW, those non-London-centric routes have finally been upgraded, and
are now probably the most comfortable[1] trains in the country (at
least for standard class) as well as much more punctual than of old.

> 7:40 from Glasgow means an early start from Edinburgh.

Seems a strange route from Edinbug.

> The idea of routing via London could mean an extra hour in bed.
> 4.5 hours Edinburgh to Kings Cross on GNER, which has excellent bike
> accomodation. Cycle over to Paddinton. What's the journey time from there?

5.5 - 6+ hours. It's a long way, and gets slow (but much more scenic)
once you're out of the southeast (i.e. past Exeter).

Shirley from Edinbug you'd either travel direct or at worst change
somewhere on-route, like Noocastl, York or Brum.

[1] Except when you get on at Bris'l heading southwest at 17:44 on
the Friday of a weekend that turned out to be a b***** bank holiday:-(

--
Nick Kew

 

[John Hearns]

On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:57:30 +0100, Nick Kew wrote:

>
>
> FWIW, those non-London-centric routes have finally been upgraded, and are
> now probably the most comfortable[1] trains in the country (at least for
> standard class) as well as much more punctual than of old.
May I nicely disagree?
I travel a lot by train.
The nicest staff are on Midland Mainline, and they have some nice new
trains.
GNER are a good company, and have some spiffing Eurostar trains going to
Leeds and some refurbished trains on the Edinburgh route.
Good cooked breakfasts on GNER.
I got a Chiltern Railways back yesterday - brand new train with excellent
air conditioning.


My experience of Virgin has been less good. I find the seats cramped.
They do have a laptop power socket though.
On the occasions I caught a Virgin train from Manchester one was horribly
overcrowded. To save standing on the 'bellows' between carriages I swapped
to a Midland Mainline at Stockport.
On the other the air con had failed, so we were seated in first class.
I shudder to think of having breakfast on a Virgin train.
What's it like?


Sad to say the Midland Mainline to Manchester is no more.
I used to enjoy the trip through Dore Junction and then the Pennines.

>> 7:40 from Glasgow means an early start from Edinburgh.
>
> Seems a strange route from Edinbug.
I agree - what I meant was Waverley to Queen Stree then a quick
pedal across to Central, for the direct train to Penzance.

 

[[email protected]]

Did you ask for quotes for a return journey. Site said something about
needing to quote for a return to show all cheap fares.