It's a long story, but I am trying to find a way to travel from a small town in Suffolk (near Cambridge and Ely) to York on a Sunday.

My research so far shows this involves travelling on more than one of the privatized regional services.

Unfortunately, I have had little luck finding a website where their schedules are integrated. The websites also assume a degree of familiarity with the various train stations en route that I do not have.

So far, the only route I can piece together requires travelling to London and starting out from there to York via either Liverpool St or Kings Cross.

Total travel time from Cambridge, including waits, is well in excess of 5 hours, and I would only arrive in York late in the day. My goal is to get there by noon.

Can anyone help me find a more effective way to do this trip ?

I really do not want to rent a car. Air travel is not out of the question, but I would prefer the train if possible.

Many thanks.

I just looked at qjump.co.uk. I don't understand your problem. On a Sunday, you can leave Cambridge at 8:05 and arrive at York at 11:20. It involves a bus, operated by WAGN, to Royston, then a WAGN train to Stevenage, connecting to a GNER train to York.

A quick check of schedules shows a 10:08 Central Train to Peterborough from Cambridge arriving at 11:03. Then a transfer on the GNER train at 11:19 which arrives in York at 12:36.
Hope this helps and if you need more info let us know.

Go to: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk This integrate all the UK train companies.

Just plug in your journey details, and it'll give you the fares, times, changes of all the available trains.

Your best bet would be a Central Trains service from Ely or Cambridge to Peterborough and then the Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) service from Peterborough to York. Ely is 45 mins from Peterborough and Cambridge is an hour. Peterborough to York is approximately 1hour 20 mins.

The reason the schedules are not integrated is that both legs of the journey are run by two different train operators. Central Trains operate on cross-country secondary routes from East to West and West to East, whereas GNER operate the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between London and the North-East and Scotland. Whichever way you do the journey will involve a change of train somewhere along the line.

If you need more information on train times, post back and I'll check them out for you.

Thank you all so much. This is a great help !

I've just visited the qjump site (thanks Ron) and the option suggested by Andrewmac looks to be the best one for me. It departs Ely at 1025 and arrives York (via Peterborough) at 1236.

I plan to travel from York to London the next day - 1830 arrives Kings Cross 2044.

It seems as though I can save a few pounds on the York/London leg by booking in advance. No such luck on the Ely-York stretch, however.

Again many thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

ppgan
The nationalrail.co.uk site is the least user friendly site I have experienced in a decade - nothing but repeated page not available and timed out messages.
We'll rent a car for our two day trip to Oakham/Hambleton!
M

Try www.railtrack.co.uk for train schedules & tickets - it's comprehensive and user friendly.

Thanks Daisy54,
After all day frustration getting through to Nationalrail, I received three different fares for the same trip: London - Oakham same seats times and days (36.3 GBP, 45.6 GBP and 72.6 GBP) none of which I could buy despite their avaivablity

Daisy54,
The railtrack.co.uk site links directly to the nationalrail.co.uk site for individual travelers. Same frustrations.
M

I think the nationalrail site is just having an off day today. I've been trying to look up some times since much earlier today with no luck.

I use the site a lot and have never had any problem with it before. I think it's excellent for getting train times. I would just suggest you give it a try tomorrow.

There's usually a few reasons given as to why the tickets are unavailable. And if there is a time out message, unfortunately you have taken too long.

For your ticket London - Oakham, you need to click on where they have little circles (one for outbound, one for return). If two circles can be clicked, it will be available.

I do the like the site, as it combines both QJump and The Train Line vendors.