Euston Easter Closure - alternative routes

[parkender102]

Euston Station is closed over Easter - on Bank Holiday Easter Monday 22nd April I'm travelling on the Return Portion of an Off Peak Return from Shotton to Farnborough Main or North (Restriction VN Valid only via London). A far easier route (although more time consuming and to meet the via London Only criteria) would be to travel via Birmingham to London Marylebone and continue my journey from there. I can take the Underground (the ticket is valid for Cross London Transfer) to Waterloo and take a Farnborough train from there. Is this ticket valid via this route (are restrictions being lifted?).

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Euston Station is closed over Easter - on Bank Holiday Easter Monday 22nd April I'm travelling on the Return Portion of an Off Peak Return from Shotton to Farnborough Main or North (Restriction VN Valid only via London). A far easier route (although more time consuming and to meet the via London Only criteria) would be to travel via Birmingham to London Marylebone and continue my journey from there. I can take the Underground (the ticket is valid for Cross London Transfer) to Waterloo and take a Farnborough train from there. Is this ticket valid via this route (are restrictions being lifted?).

You can always go via Marylebone - or even via Reading, Slough and London, though not via Reading and Wokingham avoiding London - on that ticket, closure or not.

If you did want to avoid London entirely, and go via Reading and Wokingham, you could either get a new ticket to cover you between Reading and Farnborough or you could obtain a change-of-route excess to "via Banbury", which would cost half the difference between the "via London" and "via Banbury" routes - i.e. £5.65 at public rate, or £3.73 if you have a Railcard. The latter option is likely to be cheaper.

However, FastJP suggests that the fastest route is to use Virgin Trains as far as Harrow & Wealdstone, which is where they are terminating during the Euston closure, and then taking the Overground and/or Underground and SWR onwards.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Just to clarify. Virgin Trains North Wales service is operating Holyhead to Crewe only on the Monday. You will need to change at Crewe anyway. Virgin are then only going as far south as Milton Keynes. London NorthWestern are going as far South as Northampton. Best bet is to go via Birmingham, through trains from Shotton to Birmingham still running as normal.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Just to clarify. Virgin Trains North Wales service is operating Holyhead to Crewe only on the Monday. You will need to change at Crewe anyway. Virgin are then only going as far south as Milton Keynes. London NorthWestern are going as far South as Northampton. Best bet is to go via Birmingham, through trains from Shotton to Birmingham still running as normal.

Virgin are operating as far south as Harrow & Wealdstone as far as I can tell.

 

[Deafdoggie]

The North Wales Service is only to Crewe anyway, making an additional change there regardless. Some Virgin services go to Milton Keynes some to Harrow. Depends on time of day

 

[gordonthemoron]

The North Wales Service is only to Crewe anyway, making an additional change there regardless. Some Virgin services go to Milton Keynes some to Harrow. Depends on time of day

That link says that a limited service is operating between MK-Crewe-North Wales and that other Virgin services are operating as far south as Harrow and Wealdstone on Monday 22nd April. I hate to think how crowded H&W will be

 

[Deafdoggie]

Nothing from Chester/North Wales to Harrow on Monday. so changing at Crewe is really unavoidable.

 

[krus_aragon]

Best bet is to go via Birmingham, through trains from Shotton to Birmingham still running as normal.

Virgin don't serve Shotton, so you'ld have to take a TfW train to Chester, before changing again at Crewe.

The trouble is that the (coast) TfW services that call at Shotton are headed toward Manchester, not Birmingham. The Holyhead - Brimingham services don't serve Shotton (except a few trains in the early morning or late evening).

A glance at travel planners indicate that the route via Birmingham would typically be Shotton - Wrexham General (along the borderlands), then Wrexham General - Birmingham (on the hour that you have a Holyhead - Birmingham service, or take a Holyhead-Cardiff service as far as Shrewsbury and change). It's not going to be any quicker than taking the Virgin service, but it may be less crowded.

If departing from Flint or Chester is practical, that may cut out a change or two if you're aiming for the Birmingham option.

 

[parkender102]

Thanks for the replies - I may use the Marylebone Route then - Harrow and Wealdstone and Underground route looks OK but it looks like Virgin can't guarantee whether you'll end up at Milton Keynes or Harrow and Wealdstone! I'm in no hurry that day so the change from my normal journey with Virgin into Euston will be nice. Marylebone is also possibly the nicest station to arrive in the Capital with it's Old World charm and relatively small size.

 

[parkender102]

Virgin don't serve Shotton, so you'ld have to take a TfW train to Chester, before changing again at Crewe.

The trouble is that the (coast) TfW services that call at Shotton are headed toward Manchester, not Birmingham. The Holyhead - Brimingham services don't serve Shotton (except a few trains in the early morning or late evening).

A glance at travel planners indicate that the route via Birmingham would typically be Shotton - Wrexham General (along the borderlands), then Wrexham General - Birmingham (on the hour that you have a Holyhead - Birmingham service, or take a Holyhead-Cardiff service as far as Shrewsbury and change for Birmingham. It's not going to be any quicker than taking the Virgin service, but it may be less crowded.

If departing from Flint or Chester is practical, that may cut out a change or two if you're aiming for the Birmingham option.

Thanks - my normal route is (ATW) Shotton - Chester (change), (ATW) Chester - Crewe (change), (Virgin) Crewe - London Euston as the connections are pretty good.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Thanks for the replies - I may use the Marylebone Route then - Harrow and Wealdstone and Underground route looks OK but it looks like Virgin can't guarantee whether you'll end up at Milton Keynes or Harrow and Wealdstone! I'm in no hurry that day so the change from my normal journey with Virgin into Euston will be nice. Marylebone is also possibly the nicest station to arrive in the Capital with it's Old World charm and relatively small size.

The Virgin services that are shown on fastJP as going to Harrow & Wealdstone definitely are going there, and I can't see any times where the route that way is overtaken. Going via Marylebone may be more, or it may be or less crowded - as those who want a through train to Birmingham will have to use that route, but on the other hand it is still quicker for most to go via Harrow & Wealdstone. I'd say get a seat reservation on a service to Harrow & Wealdstone if at all available.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I can guarantee that Birmingham - London (and vice versa) on Chiltern will be a deeply unpleasant experience over the Easter weekend as most people will ignore the alternative routes Virgin have published and head for Moor Street/Marylebone, and it's physically impossible to squeeze 8 Pendolinos worth of passengers an hour into 2 Chiltern services an hour.

It should also be noted that Manchester City are at home to Tottenham Hotspur, and Wolverhampton Wanderers are at home to Brighton & Hove Albion, on Saturday; and Aston Villa are at home to Millwall, and Reading are at home to West Bromwich Albion, on Monday.