Advice getting from Robin Hood's Bay to London
 

Hey Fodorites,

I an walking the Coast to Coast path this summer and will end in Robin Hood's Bay. From there I need to go to London.

Rome2Rio suggests that I taxi from RHB to Staintondale where I take a bus (X93) to Scarborough where I catch a train to London with one stop in between. The costliest part of the trip is the last bit, the train from Scarborough to London, which is about 117 pounds. Buying the ticket in advance reduces the price substantially but I would need to buy a time specific ticket and all of the connections makes that a little iffy unless I string out the time by an hour or more which I would prefer not to do.

So, my question is how accurate are the bus timetables? Is a fifteen minute window from bus arrival at Scarborough station to the train leaving Scarborough station cutting it too closely?

One last question. When I checked the bus schedule (again bus X93), I see that it stops in RHB and continues to Scarborough train station. That's got me wondering why Rome2Rio suggests a taxi for the first leg? The time savings is not that great. Unless, there's a factor which escapes me, I would prefer eliminating an extra step and hence a little more uncertainty in the journey.

I always appreciate the time devoted to and advice offered on this board.

I wouldn't bother with R2R: traveline.info is what we all use, and it doesn't suggesting taxis.

Just follow the suggestion of a specialist and ignore the uninformed fantasies of a public transport website devised in a society that hasn't got the first idea about public transport.

They're probably going on about taxis because that's what they use in Moonee Ponds.

Local buses are generally reliable, and it'll take about 25 seconds from the station bus stop to the York-bound platform. But all sorts of things can go wrong and, since you're liable to forfeit the whole Advance train fare if you miss your train, I'd get the bus before the one you need to catch, and bring something to read while waiting.

R2R is only really useful for overviews as its data is c&&p. Do as flanner suggests and use traveline which is up to date.

You also need to understand train ticket pricing. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_...ket_types.aspx

good luck

£117 is the off peak walk up price for Scarborough to London, book several weeks in advance and it drops as low as £31.50. On that route the maximum you can book in advance for cheap tickets is a MAXIMUM of 12 weeks and may be lower at weekends

Thanks everyone. I'll check out traveling.info

I must visited both the traveline.info site and the national rail.co.uk site and the bus schedule was much different than what I saw on other sites. The frequency was hourly rather than every twenty minutes, etc. so I'm glad to have an accurate time table.

The train prices as reported by national rail.co.uk show a very brief window for discounted tickets and limited quantities as well so I'll be keen to watch for when the tickets go on sale.

Thanks again.