Manchester City v Arsenal - FA Cup

[SirBroccoli]

Hi everyone,

Man City v Arsenal in the FA Cup has been confirmed as a 8pm kick off two weeks tonight, and I am looking to be part of the nearly 8000 Arsenal fans that will make the trip up to the Etihad Stadium for the game.

I'll be travelling from Basingstoke, and current thinking is to get a Off Peak Return to Waterloo with my Network Railcard, priced at £24.40 return, followed by the LNW/TfW only ticket to Manchester for £36.30. Fares for Avanti services going up north ballooned pretty quickly after the fixture was confirmed, and the timetable hasn't been sorted out for the Saturday travelling back.

I have noticed however that there are no TfW services between Manchester Piccadilly and Crewe on the 28th. Does that mean i'll have to buy a seperate ticket to meet the LNR train back, or would there be a easement on an occassion like this so I can use an Avanti train.

Anyway, can anyone do any better, particularly via Banbury and Birmingham so I can avoid London.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[danielcanning]

With the state of LNR and Avanti at the moment I think it would be a big risk travelling back from Manchester that late on Saturday. If it were me I'd drive up there and park in Ashton or Stockport.

 

[JonathanH]

Does that mean i'll have to buy a seperate ticket to meet the LNR train back, or would there be a easement on an occassion like this so I can use an Avanti train.

Engineering work closes the lines between Wilmslow and Stockport on 28 January. You will most likely have to use a Northern service to get from Manchester to Crewe, paying the additional cost as necessary, which should be small for an advance ticket - seem to be about £3.50 at the moment. It might be worth asking Transport for Wales what the alternative provision is and whether there is any easement to use other services. (I sometimes wonder whether they should allow travel via Chester on the Manchester to Llandudno services but that is off route.)

With the state of LNR and Avanti at the moment I think it would be a big risk travelling back from Manchester that late on Saturday. If it were me I'd drive up there and park in Ashton or Stockport.

The football match is on the Friday. The OP is travelling back from Manchester on Saturday at an unconstrained time (although after 1030 for the restrictions on the LNR/TfW ticket)

 

[mangyiscute]

Trainsplit gives a fare of £91.95 for the direct cross country service, so via London is probably better. You could look at going via Stoke on the way back to connect with the LNWR service in Stafford as it may be a decent amount quicker, but perhaps more expensive than a cheap northern advance to Crewe.
Hope it's a good match, come on the gunners!

 

[Snow1964]

Basingstoke - Manchester has loads of routings, and tickets, some of which you would only find on trainsplit etc by putting in via points

via London terminals
via Clapham Junction and Kensington Olympia
via Reading and Elizabeth line to Tottenham Court Road
via Reading and Banbury
via Salisbury and Bristol
via Newport and Chester
via Birmingham and variations
via Worcester parkway and Smethwick Galton Bridge

.... some of these are time consuming and silly, but might turn out to be cheapest

 

[Watershed]

Hi everyone,

Man City v Arsenal in the FA Cup has been confirmed as a 8pm kick off two weeks tonight, and I am looking to be part of the nearly 8000 Arsenal fans that will make the trip up to the Etihad Stadium for the game.

I'll be travelling from Basingstoke, and current thinking is to get a Off Peak Return to Waterloo with my Network Railcard, priced at £24.40 return, followed by the LNW/TfW only ticket to Manchester for £36.30. Fares for Avanti services going up north ballooned pretty quickly after the fixture was confirmed, and the timetable hasn't been sorted out for the Saturday travelling back.

I have noticed however that there are no TfW services between Manchester Piccadilly and Crewe on the 28th. Does that mean i'll have to buy a seperate ticket to meet the LNR train back, or would there be a easement on an occassion like this so I can use an Avanti train.

Anyway, can anyone do any better, particularly via Banbury and Birmingham so I can avoid London.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Cheers,
Alex

Unfortunately it's highly unlikely that Avanti or Northern would be willing to offer ticket acceptance on a TfW only ticket. As the TfW services have already been curtailed at Crewe, you're not entitled to such acceptance.

Buying an extra Advance ticket from Manchester to Crewe on the Saturday is likely going to be your cheapest option. As others have said, this currently starts at £3.50, so at least it's not a huge additional cost.

It's possible that a cheap Chiltern & Connections Advance from somewhere like Hook to Rugeley Town (unfortunately they're not available from Basingstoke or further north than Rugeley Town or Wolverhampton), plus a combination of tickets at either end, may be cheaper. However, this would result in a very slow journey indeed and so I don't think it's likely to be worthwhile unless cost is of the essence - in which case, a coach is likely to be the cheapest option.

 

[Kite159]

Trainsplit gives a fare of £91.95 for the direct cross country service, so via London is probably better. You could look at going via Stoke on the way back to connect with the LNWR service in Stafford as it may be a decent amount quicker, but perhaps more expensive than a cheap northern advance to Crewe.
Hope it's a good match, come on the gunners!

The engineering works are at Stockport with the XC services diverting via Wilmslow & Heald Green. Sadly not calling at Crewe to help spread the passenger load.

The northern trains are all stops via the airport (and hence take 1 hour 15 minutes) (shame Northern don't run any extra services nonstop Manchester Piccadilly to Wilmslow then all stops to Crewe)