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Wick to Penzance in a day?

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Requeststop

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Once upon a time, maybe 30 or so years back, it was possible to travel from Wick to Penzance within 24 hours. Like many others, I have just received a mail from GWR announcing a new timetable from December. Curiosity killing this cat, and very little else to do out here in PNG at 10PM, I logged onto realtimetrains and did a search for December 16th.


My God! GWR have at last seen sense and have re-timed the last train to Penzance from Plymouth so that it now doesn’t leave five minutes before the XC service 1V66 ex Glasgow arrives in Plymouth but you now have three minutes to race around under Plymouth Station to catch that last service to Penzance!

I’ve checked and double checked and the journey would be as follows.

Wick depart 06:18 2H60

Inverness arrive 10:35

Inverness depart 10:46 1B22

Edinburgh arrive 14:27

Edinburgh depart 14:53 9M86

Birmingham New Street arrive 19:05

Birmingham New Street depart 19:12 1V66

Plymouth arrive 22:35

Plymouth depart 22:38 2C44

Penzance arrive 00:35

It was once possible to travel the other way from Penzance to Wick within 24 hours, incredibly only starting on a Sunday morning. Again that was 30 years or so ago. I’ve still to see if under new timetables if it now once again possible but I somehow doubt it.

Maybe in the New Year, I will pay a visit in the New Year back to the UK with my UK rail rover and travel the Wick-Penzance route, praying for good connections all the way to Plymouth.
 
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Starmill

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Sadly, despite the obvious opportunity to make an improvement here, the official final connection from Birmingham New Street to Penzance is the 1812 departure from Birmingham New Street.
 

robbeech

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Officially maybe, and as I said the three minute connection is tight, but possible.
There’s potential for disaster if you miss it though, even in disruption as the railway won’t have to help you get to Penzance.
 

HughT

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In addition to Plymouth, the connection time at New St is less than the official minimum. But it would certainly be an interesting journey to try - so long as there was some sort of backup in place!
 

mp01

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It seems to be easily possible even today using either of the relevant sleeper trains.
 

IanD

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Not sure that's a valid connection at Birmingham either.

Edit: Beaten to it, should check for thread updates before hitting the post button :)
 

pdeaves

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National rail journey planner offers a 24hr 7min option:
upload_2019-10-4_8-50-5.png
14:49 Penzance [PNZ] Plymouth [PLY] 16:51
17:25 Plymouth [PLY] Tamworth [TAM] 21:19
21:35 Tamworth [TAM] Preston (Lancs) [PRE] 23:00
00:56 Preston (Lancs) [PRE] Inverness [INV] 08:42
10:41 Inverness [INV] Wick [WCK] 14:56
 

Peter Mugridge

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It seems to be easily possible even today using either of the relevant sleeper trains.
It is. I've done Land's End to John O'Groats and back again in 49 hours 49 minutes, measured at the gates of Land's End. The details are on the forum somewhere.
 

furnessvale

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It is. I've done Land's End to John O'Groats and back again in 49 hours 49 minutes, measured at the gates of Land's End. The details are on the forum somewhere.
I tried it many years ago. At Perth on the way back I lost the will to live and jumped on a train back to Lancashire.
 
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If you are young, fit & insane you could attempt the following in the reverse direction on the new timetable;

0458 Penzance - Paddington 0959
1030 Euston - Glasgow Central 1459
1508 Glasgow Queen St - Inverness 1827
1833 Inverness - Wick 2254

9 minutes to run like a scalded cat between Glasgow Central and Queen St, hoping the pedestrian crossing lights go in your favour, is right on the margin of what is just about possible.
From my experience, relying on LT to get you between Paddington and Euston in 31 minutes may be more of a risk!
 

Kite159

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Could you do it in 24 hours by using the 2nd departure from Wick, then to Edinburgh for the 17:00 Kings Cross service before the Penzance sleeper?
 

bspahh

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Could you do it in 24 hours by using the 2nd departure from Wick, then to Edinburgh for the 17:00 Kings Cross service before the Penzance sleeper?
23 hours 57 minutes
Code:
Wick       d08:02 a12:26 Inverness
Inverness  d12:50 a16:34 Edinburgh
Edinburgh  d17:00 a21:37 London Kings Cross
Paddington d23:45 a07:59 Penzance

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G61221/2019/12/17/advanced
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G60276/2019/12/17/advanced
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y71618/2019/12/17/advanced
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y94165/2019/12/17/advanced
 

306024

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It is. I've done Land's End to John O'Groats and back again in 49 hours 49 minutes, measured at the gates of Land's End. The details are on the forum somewhere.

Done half of that, Lands End to John O'Groats, but at a more leisurely pace staying in Leeds and Inverness. Highlights (?) were the Cross Country HST failed at Sheffield - no central door locking, and the Scotrail 170 failed near Aviemore having run out of fuel. Got there nevertheless.
 

Class 170101

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The journey from Wick to Plymouth as started at the top of the thread is possible but rather than changing just at New Street change the journey as follows

14:52 Edinburgh to Crewe 17:57
18:07 Crewe to Birmingham New Street 18:57
19:12 Birmingham to New Street to Plymouth 22:38
 
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mp01

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As mentioned above a very easy alternative available today is 1600 from Wick, 2045 sleeper from Inverness and then a leisure;y trip across London for either 0903 to Plymouth for a connection to Penzance or 1003 straight through.
 

Phil G

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I guess the spirit of the original post was all in the same day rather than just any 24 hour period. So would Edinburgh to kings cross and Paddington to Penzance be a better bet than using cross country?
 

route101

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If you are young, fit & insane you could attempt the following in the reverse direction on the new timetable;

0458 Penzance - Paddington 0959
1030 Euston - Glasgow Central 1459
1508 Glasgow Queen St - Inverness 1827
1833 Inverness - Wick 2254

9 minutes to run like a scalded cat between Glasgow Central and Queen St, hoping the pedestrian crossing lights go in your favour, is right on the margin of what is just about possible.
From my experience, relying on LT to get you between Paddington and Euston in 31 minutes may be more of a risk!

Thats tight , i did manage to get between Central and Queen St in 5 mins once . I find the Virgins are often a little late in Glasgow now
 

Starmill

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Officially maybe, and as I said the three minute connection is tight, but possible.
It's a bit pointless though isn't it? Even a 2 minute delay and you're unlikely to make it. If you have the money for a taxi from Plymouth to Penzance anyway then you'd probably be better off spending it on a hotel en route?
 

37047

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I like the idea of this... it's got me pondering some sort of compass point trip as my next rail adventure - possibly Lowestoft-Penzance-Arisaig-Thurso-Lowestoft, or some variant of that.
 

smsm1

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I like the idea of this... it's got me pondering some sort of compass point trip as my next rail adventure - possibly Lowestoft-Penzance-Arisaig-Thurso-Lowestoft, or some variant of that.
I've contemplated doing a roughly around the coast option sort of keeping to the mainlines, and seeing if it can be done in a week or two (i.e. the limits of the all line rover.)
 

aleandrail

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Is it possible to go from Penzance to Wick/thurso travelling in nothing higher than a 170,say. Time not being a issue
 

jawr256

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Is it possible to go from Penzance to Wick/thurso travelling in nothing higher than a 170,say. Time not being a issue
For example: you can get Penzance-Newport on GWR 150/158 with possible changes at Plymouth/Exeter/Taunton, if there are still diagrams which are not HST GTi
Then Newport-Manchester Piccadilly on TfW 158 (sometimes replaces the usual 175).
Manchester Victoria - Leeds - Carlisle on Northern 15x.
Carlisle - Glasgow Central on Scotrail 156
Glasgow Queen Street - Inverness on 158/170 (planned to be replaced by HSTs I think)
Inverness - Thurso on 158
 
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