Andy Pacer
Established Member
Tamworth is convenient by road from Derby and Nottingham, Rugby is convenient from Leicester and Northampton is convenient from Market Harborough, Kettering and Wellingborough. Parking is reasonably priced at all three. Fares are significantly lower. Same goes for Bletchley too. Obviously this only really applies for those with car access. Connecting CrossCountry services are of course available to Tamworth and to Nuneaton but these are generally low in capacity and therefore not necccesarily particularly cheap, plus it adds an extra connection. We're straying far from topic here but it's well known that on weekdays journeys on EMR from this area to London are always very expensive. This has improved slightly for people who can use the new Corby services as Advance availability is better on those.
Leicester to Tamworth? Via Derby? I was referring to the direct route which, I suspect, is also what @Howardh was referring to. Anything other than a train on the direct route will significantly impact journey time, even if it might be cheaper. The fact is that removing the intermediate stops south of Kettering on Leicester to London services has reduced the opportunities to save from splitting tickets.
Nuneaton tends to be my station of choice when using the train to/from London, despite living near Leicester and next to the MML!I know a fair few people from Derby who drive to Lichfield Trent Valley to get the train to London. It’s just off the A38 and therefore more convenient than Tamworth if driving.
Derby, Leicester and Nottingham fares to London are awful really.
That said, as part of this sale I've got a return trip tomorrow for £23 and also a ticket on the 0630 from Leicester on a Wednesday in a couple of weeks time for £11.50 (all as part of this sale).