Train to Manchester
 

Hello, I am taking a train up to Manchester from London on Saturday, March 8th. I am looking for any advice regarding taking the train. I believe that it takes about 3 hours, from London Euston to Manchester Piccadily. How reliable is this particular train? I am planning on getting there by 11am. Does anyone have any advice about getting up there? Should I buy tickets before hand? How early I should arrive for my train? That type of thing.

Thanks

ic96

In the absence of a reply from anyone else - be careful - I haven't used a train in the UK for 20 years but my family do -

We live just outside Manchester and the networks policy seems to be low pricing of prebooked tickets. There are horror stories of travellers being charged £150 for a second class ticket London to Manchester at peak times. A pre-booked ticket travelling say at 10am not 8am could be as little as £20.

As I said I have very little personal experience just the local news reports here. Other may be able to give you their personal experiences.

I just took the train London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly a few weeks back

You do NOT want to buy a ticket at the station just prior to the train as the 2nd class one way fare is 133 pounds or about an astounding $250 - this is what they said on the train PA to warn folks with discounted tickets for specific trains to make sure they were on the right train or they'd have to cough up full fare - 133 quid

But no one should pay full fare as there is a panoply of varying discounted tickets with varying conditions - go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and look at all the fares and conditions. Some discounted ones may be available the day before in London perhaps, etc.

But don't pay walk up fare

Trains on this notorious West Coast line are dependably late it seems - my train up was diverted off the direct line because of an electrical power failure and limped into Manchester about an hour late. The fastest trains take about 2.5 hours i believe.

Therefore if you must be there by 11am - must for some reason leave about 7 - two trains most hours run by Virgin Trains.

Train doors they say may close one minute before scheduled departure.

I am looking at the websites, but the cheapest I see is 124.80 GBP for 2 people.

This is the day of the FA Cup Quarterfinal at Old Trafford, so I am guessing that all the cheap tickets are booked solid already?

If you look at www.thetrainline.com
you will find tickets as cheap as £13 one way. They have to be delivered by mail or picked up by credit card at selected locations.
Having said that, I travel to Manchester from London a few times a year and always take the bus: I have found trains unreliable, slow, crowded, cancelled at the last minute, a nightmare at weekends etc. If you are on a tight schedule I'd think very carefully about relying on the train.

Yeah, I just checked, they are all booked.

How does the bus route work?

Hello, I am taking a train up to Manchester from London on Saturday, March 8th>>>>

For a bet?

www.nationalexpress.com
Just put in departure and arrival points and dates. It tends to be cheaper booking a return than 2 singles. Pay online by card and print your own ticket.

What would be the depart and arrive locations? Seems like there are a bunch. Also, how long does the bus take? The train is like 3 hours.

Well, where are you leaving from in London? Central London is Victoria Coach station. Arrival in Manchester is central bus station Chorlton street right in the centre near Piccadilly.
If you look at the website you will see the trip takes about 4 hours or sometimes a bit longer.

buses can take much longer than trains, even on this line IME - traffic snarls getting even out of London and to me just not as comfy as being able to get up and walk around a train a bit but i think U.K. buses are generally much cheaper than trains

It's not looking good. The buses that are 4.5 hours up to Manchester don't start arriving until 1pm, which is about 15 minutes into gametime. The other buses are like 6-7 hours......that is ridiculous.

I'd like not to, but it seems like the only choice I have is to take the train and splurge.

Do last minute train deals pop up? Or do the cheap tix go first, and never come back?

Try getting a cheap flight early in morning to Manchester International, which i believe is on the Old Trafford side of town?

Or pricing a train ticket to Stockport instead of Manchester? Perhaps they reserve some cheap tickets for Stockport folk?

Don't know anything about Stockport, where is that? Sorry my English geography besides the major cities isn't too good.

Well i think it's the last stop usually before Manchester - very close and lots of regular commuter trains to town.

I was just thinking like airlines in U.S. are infamous for having wildly differing fares for different cities where it can be cheaper to fly to a city and then your destination than even flying from that city directly to your destination

A simple check on sites will tell you this i guess