Durham to King's Cross Direct

[boxy321]

I can normally sort this myself...

On the 4th Feb a mate is trying to get his son from uni at Durham to Kings's Cross on VTEC. Easy?

The timetable shows roughly hourly direct trains, but the journey planners don't! VTEC state no direct trains (and no engineering works), NRE do show engineering planned over that weekend.

Can someone clarify if it's the works causing the confusion or dodgy timetables, or has Durham become a new Rugby with only a few fast trains a day?

Thanks all.

 

[mildertduck]

There are buses between Peterborough and Hitchin that weekend:

"If you are travelling on Virgin Trains East Coast, trains are diverted between Peterborough and London Kings Cross extending your journey time by 75 minutes.
Due to limited capacity on the diversionary routes, other trains will run to an amended timetable terminating or starting at either York, Doncaster or Peterborough."

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=04/02/2017&TOC=gr

This will pretty much remove a lot of the direct trains - given the VTEC website gave me an option using Crosscounty changing at Sheffield to East Midlands, or changing at Peterborough going via Stansted airport(!), it might be better trying another weekend, or doing the journey Friday evening if possible...

 

[Failed Unit]

Engineering works, but further South, the trains are diverted via Cambridge.

I would actually be quicker for your mate to travel via Sheffield.

Although East Coast are still calling at Durham, the trains stopping at the station terminate at Doncaster.

So the options are really XC - Sheffield and into St Pancras or East Coast to York / Darlington and then pick up a diverted service.

 

[boxy321]

Many thanks. They're heading to Twickenham so can't pick another day.

I've passed it on!

 

[Failed Unit]

Many thanks. They're heading to Twickenham so can't pick another day.

I've passed it on!

Investigate going via Reading on XC - may come to nothing - but worth a try.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Many thanks. They're heading to Twickenham so can't pick another day.

The 0703 from Durham is direct to London Kings Cross, gets in at 1105.

As an aside, your mate should buy the ticket to Twickenham. The advance fare to Twickenham is £68, but to Kings Cross is £65, so may as well get the through ticket.

 

[cuccir]

Similarly coming back (if it's a day trip) some of the later returns are direct eg the 18:47/19:47 from Kings Cross. The same is the case if returning on the Sunday. A further thought is that changing at Darlington is usually much easier than at York as it's a smaller and easier to use station.

 

[Closet2405]

Another alternative is to get the bus through to Sunderland and get a Grand Central service to Kings Cross. They're far less frequent than Virgin from Durham, but the journey planner does show them going all the way (note that it takes quite a lot longer though).