Hi my name is Dr Richard Beeching and i've been traveling the rails in Britain for decades - usually with some kind of BritRail Pass and have used probably 30 passes all told on separate trips.
I totally love trains in general and British ones in particular. They are not the most modern in Europe, the most comfortable and not nearly the most punctual but every train ride in Britain is to me an adventure as well as a great way to get around as there are trains at least hourly going practically everywhere the normal tourist will want to go.
I'm intending this thread for folks pondering a British rail trip who really have little knowledge of what it's all about - to understand the rail system, give sample itineraries, explain all about passes and point to point regular tickets which, depending on plans, can be the better option, etc. In all i will seek to show why the British train option is a great way, especially for novice British visitors to tour the country (and of course not have to deal with driving on the 'wrong' side of the road)
Questions are welcomed anytime as are comments from others experienced in the ins and out of the British Rail system - formerly called BritRail but now since privatization not since there are 28 give or take a few independent rail franchises that now make up the British national rail network.
Back soon,
Dr Richard Beeching; PhD in British Rail Studies, Univ of Oxbridge, England.

Why is the man (whose doctorate wasn't from Oxbridge) who did more damage to Britain's railways than anyone else being allowed to come back from the grave?

I live somewhere Beeching made one railway line be destroyed because railway passengers would sooner or later disappear, and it'd be easier to close the line eventually if there was only one. Thirty five years later, traffic's nearly ten times what it was in his day. Beeching epitomises the inability of scientists (for all his pretensions to commercial competence, he was just another scientist too arrogant to understand the real world) to have the foggiest notion what real people were likely to do. And the absurd delusions that the politicians who hired him suffered from. It's no coincidence that Britain's next prime minister devotes an absurd proportion of his life to campaigning for the line Beeching destroyed to be rebuilt.

And precisely when was there any kind of organisation in Britain called BritRail?

Hi Pal,

I had an interesting experience with Britrail today, trying to book seats to london and back. I went through the national rail enquiries web-site. probably a mistake.

In fact I have NO idea whether I managed to book them or not. I'm not even sure whether I paid £150 for two return tickets or just one.

I suppose I'll find out when they turn up in the post. or not.

If I can't understand it, what chanc has anyone else got?

regards, ann

PS - please refrain from insulting Dr. Beeching. as I have posted before, i used to live in a house that he once owned, before he moved to East grinstead and set about the railways. I never did understand why they gave that job to a chemist.

This thread is confusing me.....

mainly on why we shouldn't insult Beeching because you once lived in a house he once lived in?

<<< I had an interesting experience with Britrail today >>>

Well if you will deal with some foreign travel agency rather than the train company what do you expect?

If booking tickets it's best to use the NXEC website - www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com

that my name is similar to some Richard Beeching i am not familiar with is not my fault, but a rather quirky, i admit, coincidence of history. This Dr Beeching, moi, did indeed matriculate from Oxbridge.
And this thread is meant for clueless foreign tourists contemplating a BritRail trip and not for Brits who are otherwise so clueless in many other areas.
So now back to the stated task at hand.
Dr Dick Beeching

Ah ok, I'm not confused now...I didn't know if it was PalenQ or the evil Dr Beeching offering to help!

how about the evil PalQ?

cheers, Dr Richard, some call me Dick, Beeching - again no relation to some other bloke in BritRail history of the same name, apparently.

What's the cost of petrol in U.K. right now? BritRail is more viable than ever, price wise?

http://www.petrolprices.com/

current avg fuel prices in U.K.

today is 114.2 p/litre

1 litre = .26 U.S. gal
1 litre - .22 U.K. gal

seems to be about $9/ U.S. gal