Permitted routes Newcastle - Manchester

Hi all,

I'm in Newcastle today and have an open return which I expect I will use to get home from around 2/3pm. Ideally I'd like to experience some different routes on the way home from the standard TPE route, as I've travelled very few of the lines in Yorkshire. Obviously I don't want to run afoul of the permitted routes, so I'd appreciate any creative suggestions for how I might get home!

(My ticket is an open return via any permitted and with no operator restrictions)

Thanks in advance

Plethora said:

Hi all,

I'm in Newcastle today and have an open return which I expect I will use to get home from around 2/3pm. Ideally I'd like to experience some different routes on the way home from the standard TPE route, as I've travelled very few of the lines in Yorkshire. Obviously I don't want to run afoul of the permitted routes, so I'd appreciate any creative suggestions for how I might get home!

(My ticket is an open return via any permitted and with no operator restrictions)

Thanks in advance

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Well, if you're in no hurry you could go via the Tyne Valley Line to Carlisle and thence on the Cumbrian Coast Line down to Barrow and then Lancaster. Alternatively you could take the Settle-Carlisle line down to Hellifield but unfortunately it's not permitted to continue on to Leeds from there (which wouldn't be massively unreasonable), so you'd either have to ask the conductor whether they're OK with that or otherwise ask whether they're OK with you continuing on to Skipton (or else buying a new ticket from Hellifield to Skipton) and then taking take the bus from Skipton to Clitheroe and onwards. Or you could simply go down the WCML from Carlisle, which certainly isn't a bad run either!

You can go via Hartlepool and Middlesborough if you fancy a bit more of a direct route, and then down to York and via Harrogate and the Calder Valley Line into Manchester. Alternatively you could go down to Doncaster from Newcastle and then into Manchester on the Hope Valley Line.

That's just a summary of what the relevant map combinations, namely HV+HA, MG+GN and MN, allow.

Thank you, that's a very helpful summary. The Harrogate line was on my radar, so I might do something incorporating that. It probably also depends in part on how the new timetable works out over the course of today. I'm also very interested in the Skipton line though, so let's see how we go!

Plethora said:

Thank you, that's a very helpful summary. The Harrogate line was on my radar, so I might do something incorporating that. It probably also depends in part on how the new timetable works out over the course of today. I'm also very interested in the Skipton line though, so let's see how we go!

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Check the bus timetables from Skipton first, or buy Hellifield-Bradford/Leeds, as NRE takes a dim view of NCL-CAR-LDS-MAN as a through route.

I went ECML + Harrogate in the end. Out of interest is Leeds - Sheffield permitted if Doncaster is kosher?

As far as I can see no. There’s none of the map combinations that include the link between Leeds and either Wakefield station. Happy to be corrected by those with more knowledge.

robbeech said:

As far as I can see no. There’s none of the map combinations that include the link between Leeds and either Wakefield station. Happy to be corrected by those with more knowledge.

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That's correct. You also get the shortest route but that goes Leeds-Huddersfield so isn't any help.

Plethora said:

I went ECML + Harrogate in the end. Out of interest is Leeds - Sheffield permitted if Doncaster is kosher?

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York - Manchester is valid via Sheffield so I presume it would be from Newcastle.

Plethora said:

I went ECML + Harrogate in the end. Out of interest is Leeds - Sheffield permitted if Doncaster is kosher?

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No; you can go via Doncaster and Sheffield, but not via Leeds and Sheffield.

To be fair it would be a slow journey to go via Leeds and Sheffield.

A couple of years ago the diverted trains used the route via Doncaster and Sheffield so it makes sense (of course these would be valid under the direct trains rule anyway, but it makes sense having this diversionary route a mapped route as otherwise it causes issues for journeys to/from other stations e.g. Metrocentre to Mauldeth Road).

greyman42 said:

York - Manchester is valid via Sheffield so I presume it would be from Newcastle.

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It doesn't work like that.

Also the question was asking about via Leeds and Sheffield. That isn't permitted from York to Manchester, nor from Newcastle to Manchester.