Northern complimentary ticket, where should I go?

Llandudno · 23 Mar 2020

Need a bit of cheering up during these dire times!

I have a Northern complimentary ticket issued (eventually) after a cancelled train.

Starting and finishing same day from Chesterfield, has anyone any ideas where I should travel on it, obviously I will wait until things are back to normal!

I was thinking of:
Chesterfield to Scarborough via Hull
Carlisle via Settle

RailUK Forums

xotGD · 23 Mar 2020

A circular trip covering the S&C, the Cumbrian coast and Bentham Line is my recommendation. Write in Whitehaven as your destination.

AndrewE · 23 Mar 2020

xotGD said:
A circular trip covering the S&C, the Cumbrian coast and Bentham Line is my recommendation. Write in Whitehaven as your destination.

...when you are allowed out again! Has it got an expiry date? (If it has I would challenge that as an "unfair term.") Let's hope we don't expire first...

xotGD · 24 Mar 2020

AndrewE said:
...when you are allowed out again! Has it got an expiry date? (If it has I would challenge that as an "unfair term.") Let's hope we don't expire first...

Fortunately they don't have expiry dates. I have a couple that I was saving for the summer. Maybe summer 2021 instead.

Kite159 · 24 Mar 2020

Llandudno said:
I was thinking of:
Chesterfield to Scarborough via Hull

Well assuming it happens, Northern are meant to be introducing a York - Scarborough service from May, so you can probably do a round trip

Chesterfield - Sheffield - Scarborough - York - (Harrogate) - Leeds - (Barnsley) - Chesterfield

yorkie · 24 Mar 2020

AndrewE said:
...when you are allowed out again! Has it got an expiry date? (If it has I would challenge that as an "unfair term.") Let's hope we don't expire first...

No expiry date but as others have said I would advise against leaving it a very long time. Next year should be absolutely fine.

NorthWestRover · 24 Mar 2020

I've got one of these too. If I'm starting and ending in Wigan, can I do Cumbrian Coast to Carlisle, Settle & Carlisle to Leeds, then back to Wigan? Where would I put as my destination?

yorkie · 24 Mar 2020

NorthWestRover said:
I've got one of these too. If I'm starting and ending in Wigan, can I do Cumbrian Coast to Carlisle, Settle & Carlisle to Leeds, then back to Wigan? Where would I put as my destination?

Somewhere on the Cumbrian Coast; it doesn't really matter where. I'd be inclined to put somewhere like Workington.

Llandudno · 24 Mar 2020

Kite159 said:
Well assuming it happens, Northern are meant to be introducing a York - Scarborough service from May, so you can probably do a round trip

Chesterfield - Sheffield - Scarborough - York - (Harrogate) - Leeds - (Barnsley) - Chesterfield

Like the sound of that.

I wonder if I caught a bus to Whitby whether I could get back from Whitby by using only Northern trains, I think the gap between Middlesbrough and York May be an issue?

yorkie · 24 Mar 2020

Llandudno said:
Like the sound of that.

I wonder if I caught a bus to Whitby whether I could get back from Whitby by using only Northern trains, I think the gap between Middlesbrough and York May be an issue?

You could not do that without either
- staying overnight; or
- buying a ticket between either Darlington/Eaglescliffe/Thornaby and York, for travel with XC/LNER/GC/TPE

An Anytime Single on GC is £12, available on board the train (assuming GC do actually survive but let's not get into that now!)

_toommm_ · 26 Mar 2020

You could go the very long way round from Whitby: Whitby - Middlesbrough - Newcastle (via Sunderland) - Carlisle - Lancaster (via Cumbrian Coast) - Preston - Manchester Piccadilly - Sheffield (Hope Valley Stopper) - Chesterfield. I suspect that would be in excess of 10 hours though!

yorkie · 26 Mar 2020

_toommm_ said:
You could go the very long way round from Whitby: Whitby - Middlesbrough - Newcastle (via Sunderland) - Carlisle - Lancaster (via Cumbrian Coast) - Preston - Manchester Piccadilly - Sheffield (Hope Valley Stopper) - Chesterfield. I suspect that would be in excess of 10 hours though!

That route would take a lot longer than that, but can be done in a day (which I'll get to in a moment).

It can be done in 10h 37min; as it happens there is an easy way to find out the fastest journey on Northern only (and you could identify longer journeys by specifying via points).

Northern sent me an email about a year ago as follows:

"By utilising a really good planning website called Fast Journey Planner (http://www.fastjp.com/#new?) you can plan a journey to and from anywhere, and more importantly you can select to either use only or exclude certain rail operators, so if you enter your preferred journey, click on 'Transport Operators', select 'Only use Selected Operators' from the menu and then select 'Northern', when you then hit the 'Search for Trains' button it will only find journeys that include Northern trains, and no other, making it easier to plan a trip and make the most out of your vouchers. This will only plot a single journey, to don't forget to plan your return as well."

And here you go:
https://www.fastjp.com/#journeys?or...T&odate=20200522&otime=0800&maxres=1&maxch=10

0845 Whitby - Middlesbrough 1015
1031 Middlesbrough - Newcastle 1154 (you could change at Hexham instead)
1223 Newcastle - Carlisle 1346
1450 Carlisle - Leeds 1739
1803 Leeds - Chesterfield 1922

It is also possible to go via Workington & Barrow, specifying those via points we get:

https://www.fastjp.com/#journeys?or...T&odate=20200522&otime=0800&maxres=1&maxch=10

Total journey time 12 hr 34 min

Of course, this would necessitate an overnight stay.

Llandudno · 27 Mar 2020

Some great options there.

I think the overnight stay in Whitby swings it, fish and chips washed down by a couple of pints of Sam Smiths Old Brewery Bitter!

Heaven!

Just need to eradicate the damn virus!

Jamesrob637 · 30 Mar 2020

Llandudno said:
Some great options there.

I think the overnight stay in Whitby swings it, fish and chips washed down by a couple of pints of Sam Smiths Old Brewery Bitter!

Heaven!

Just need to eradicate the damn virus!

Stay in the Angel - the Wetherspoons which doubles up as a hotel. Then you're near the station and the front. Don't eat at the Magpie, nice as it may be, but at the Fisherman's Wife at the end up the hill on the north side of the river. Well worth the short climb.

Llandudno · 1 Apr 2020

Jamesrob637 said:
Stay in the Angel - the Wetherspoons which doubles up as a hotel. Then you're near the station and the front. Don't eat at the Magpie, nice as it may be, but at the Fisherman's Wife at the end up the hill on the north side of the river. Well worth the short climb.

I hope the ‘Fisherman’s Wife’ is a restaurant....!

I suspect it may have been a different type of business back in Captain Cook’s days!

Jamesrob637 · 2 Apr 2020

Llandudno said:
I hope the ‘Fisherman’s Wife’ is a restaurant....!

I suspect it may have been a different type of business back in Captain Cook’s days!

Probably! Don't expect local chippy prices, but the best thing to do would be to have a late lunch then you won't need much if anything for the rest of the day.

Northern complimentary ticket, where should I go?

Llandudno

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xotGD

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AndrewE

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xotGD

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Kite159

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yorkie

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NorthWestRover

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yorkie

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Llandudno

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_toommm_

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yorkie

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