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Manchester to London

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1B85

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Are there any more reasonably priced alternative routes or split tickets than the direct Virgin service? Cost is the primary concern, not too bothered about it taking a bit longer...
 
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jtuk

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Get to Crewe, Stafford etc and pick up the stopper that goes through Northampton?
 

Kite159

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Cheap Northern advance to Stoke/Crewe, then a West Midlands Railway/London Northwestern only ticket to London, either direct via the Trent Valley or going via New Street/Northampton.

Although I believe there is some recently introduced "West Midlands + TfW Rail" fares for travel via Crewe.
 

Joe Paxton

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Split tickets at Stoke-on-Trent.

Cheap London Northwestern Railway tickets from Stoke to London on their slower trains.

(Between Manchester and Stoke, there are cheaper Virgin-only tickets but you might appreciate the added flexibility of an any operator ticket.)
 

fishquinn

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Deerfold

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There are now Transport for Wales/West Midlands Trains only fares for Manchester-London that are very cheap in comparison to Virgin and it's just one change at Crewe for the WMT to London. http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=MAN&dest=EUS
Only £34 for the super off peak single (or £35 for the equivalent return). Off peak and anytime tickets are also available at a higher cost.
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=MAN&dest=EUS&rte=371&tkt=OPR

Just to add, the time restrictions do apply on Saturdays, but not on Sundays.
 

yorkie

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Are there any more reasonably priced alternative routes or split tickets than the direct Virgin service? Cost is the primary concern, not too bothered about it taking a bit longer...
When are you travelling?

Searching for 9am tomorrow on Trainsplit in value mode shows prices from £21.90 undiscounted single (on XC/WMT in this case)
 

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yorkie

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It can be, but probably not if the customer is happy to take West Midlands Trains between Crewe (or Stoke) and London.
 

telstarbox

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I used to have some success by splitting Advances - an XC one from Manchester to Birmingham or Coventry and then another on VT from there to London. This was a few years ago so the relative benefits may have shifted.
 

Starmill

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Cheap London Northwestern Railway tickets from Stoke to London on their slower trains.
Also note that this journey can be speeded up significantly by changing at Stafford and taking a WMT service via Atherstone, which nay be the same price - or by going from Manchester to Crewe instead of to Stoke-on-Trent.
 

Bensonby

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I used to do London-Manchester and back regularly in the mid 2000’s saving a lot of Monday going via Sheffield on TPE and EMT. Not sure if that is still a viable cheap route.
 

Hadders

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Walk up fares from Huddersfield aren’t cheaper but they give flexibility to travel via the WCML (Via Manchester) or the ECML to London.

The cheapest way of travelling from Manchester to London, using straightforward tickets, is using the WMT & TfW tickets.
 

Joe Paxton

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Walk up fares from Huddersfield aren’t cheaper but they give flexibility to travel via the WCML (Via Manchester) or the ECML to London.

The cheapest way of travelling from Manchester to London, using straightforward tickets, is using the WMT & TfW tickets.

Indeed so. I assume the WMT+TfW fares will get promoted in some form sooner or later, otherwise they'll just be an obscure ticket that only the cognoscenti know about!

I see you can buy them from Trainline-powered sites using the "check if slower routes with cheaper tickets are available" facility. None of the WebTIS sites seem to offer them yet via the "show slower routes" facility, and TrainSplit / trainscanbecheaper needs to be coaxed into offering them by using the "include / exclude selected operators" in the Advanced options.
 

Joe Paxton

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Cheap London Northwestern Railway tickets from Stoke to London on their slower trains.

Also note that this journey can be speeded up significantly by changing at Stafford and taking a WMT service via Atherstone, which nay be the same price - or by going from Manchester to Crewe instead of to Stoke-on-Trent.

Thanks... I think I'm stuck in the past, as before the London Midland (as was) Crewe services were speeded up some years ago, I'm pretty sure back then quicker to go via Stoke-on-Trent rather than Crewe (that's certainly what I and a group of friends did for a London-Manchester trip). However the world changes!
 

yorkie

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Thanks... I think I'm stuck in the past, as before the London Midland (as was) Crewe services were speeded up some years ago, I'm pretty sure back then quicker to go via Stoke-on-Trent rather than Crewe (that's certainly what I and a group of friends did for a London-Manchester trip). However the world changes!
Depends on connections but in the past if you went via Crewe you'd have had an extra change if you wanted to go direct on the WCML avoiding Alsager.

It's relatively fast and very cheap so it's found by Trainsplit without having to do any via points or restrict the search to any TOCs.

I used to do London-Manchester and back regularly in the mid 2000’s saving a lot of Monday going via Sheffield on TPE and EMT. Not sure if that is still a viable cheap route.
Its unlikely to be as cheap as going on West Midlands Trains and it will also be slower. But if anyone wanted to take that route, you could use Trainsplit's advanced mode and specify EMT and TPE only, or specify via Sheffield.
 

Hadders

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You used to be able to get LM to Stoke and change there for Virgin, taking advantage of Virgin only tickets between Stoke and Manchester.

Nowadays the WMT&TfW fares are better value.
 

Joe Paxton

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You used to be able to get LM to Stoke and change there for Virgin, taking advantage of Virgin only tickets between Stoke and Manchester.

You still can, of course - it's just that the WMT/LNR trains to Crewe are faster than they once were.

Nowadays the WMT&TfW fares are better value.

Indeed so.

How reliable is the hourly TfW service to and from Manchester?
 

jfollows

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How reliable is the hourly TfW service to and from Manchester?

Not in the least bit. It's extremely unreliable between Crewe and Manchester.

Often terminated short at Wilmslow once it becomes clear that they won't make it to Piccadilly in time for the return working to leave on time. Or never makes it past Crewe because of a cow on the line or a broken down freight train somewhere on the route from Cardiff.

I make a point of never planning to use them from Wilmslow to Manchester. Just not worth the hassle. In the other direction, if I happen to arrive in Manchester and there's one there then I use it.
 
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Joe Paxton

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How reliable is the hourly TfW service to and from Manchester?

Not in the least bit. It's extremely unreliable between Crewe and Manchester.

Often terminated short at Wilmslow once it becomes clear that they won't make it to Piccadilly in time for the return working to leave on time.

And that's my fear with this ticket - being stranded in Crewe or Wilmslow (or indeed at Man Picc) waiting for the next TfW service, or otherwise having an argument with the guard of A.N. Other TOC over whether or not my WMT+TfW-only ticket can be used on their train...
 

jfollows

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To be fair, I had a look at the running of the TfW service Crewe-Wilmslow-Manchester over the last seven days, 6/9 to 12/9, and there seem to have been only three significant alterations in that period:
  1. 8/9 1W45 & 1V20, turned at Crewe omitting Wilmslow, Stockport and Manchester in both directions
  2. 11/9 1W10 & 1V40, turned at Wilmslow omitting Stockport and Manchester in both directions
  3. 11/9 1V33 started Wilmslow 06:47 for Cardiff omitting Manchester and Stockport
So that's not "extremely unreliable" if it's representative of the usual service over a week.

However I do sense the service is prone to unreliability, and the long Newport-Crewe section does seem to get its number of disruptions which I see at Wilmslow as late, cancelled or terminated trains.

Today, 13/9, there are significant problems caused by a points failure in Manchester but these affect all services and not just the TfW ones.
 
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