Getting to Shetland from Grimsby

[DeeGee]

Good afternoon everyone.

I'm playing with the grains of an idea just now, to travel from my home in Grimsby up to Aberdeen on a Friday, to take the overnight ferry to Lerwick, in order to take part in the Bressay parkrun at 9.30am on the Saturday morning, spend the rest of Saturday exploring Lerwick and its environs, before getting the overnight ferry back to the mainland and a train home from Aberdeen.

I have had a brief look at the cost of return ferry tickets and return rail tickets to see if this is possible, and although it's a big old cost, it looks like fun.

I'm anticipating leaving Grimsby at around 0830 on the Friday morning, am looking for flexibility to break journey at, say, York or Newcastle or Edinburgh and to arrive in Aberdeen a couple of hours before the ferry, and likewise, flexibility on return to leave ABD when I'm ready, and to BoJ at en route again for a "proper" meal somewhere.

In straightforward railway terms, I've looked to split at Doncaster, as my departure from GMB will be peak but the bulk of my travel will be Off-Peak, and I'm getting £33.30 GMB<>DON and £159.00 DON<>ABD. On top of this I have to add the cost of my ferry, which is £72.00 return, plus a cabin- the budget for which will depend on the rest of the expense. (Total £264.30)

Now, I'm conscious that there are Rail+Sail fares on Scotrail to Lerwick, I can find these from EDI to Lerwick, and I guess they include just the ferry crossing. Those make the trip £33.30 GMB<>DON + £122.00 DON<>EDI + £130.10 EDI<>Lerwick (If I'm reading BR fares correctly - I can't get a fare online via any retailers as I believe only Scotrail sell these tickets over the phone)(Total £285.40)

I can't find any advance fares for any weekends in July, which is the "random" period I chose to look at.

Now, these fares are fine, I can work within them, but obviously every few quid I can save on railfare I can spend on beer, so I'm wondering if there are any additional ways I can finesse this fare. Trainsplit gives me some very nice fares which'll be on a dozen coupons, but some of them are advance, and I'm not certain I want to commit to fixed trains, or if I do, I want to break my journey at reasonable sized cities at reasonable mealtimes.

Having seen what Trainsplit can do (£129 or thereabouts) I might have a go at messing with the times a bit and booking some single legs, but before I do this, I'm wondering if there's anything that I've missed, like a railcard or a rover ticket that might help. I'm in my mid 40s and resident of Northern Lincolnshire, so there aren't any national railcards that work for me.

Thanks in advance if anyone has any clues outside of Trainsplit that might be able to help, although I realise that this is already a decent fare...

 

[realemil]

Just be aware of the "temporary" timetable imposed currently on ScotRail, meaning that from Edinburgh to Aberdeen there's a train every 2 hours.

Being limited to only anytime tickets will cost you quite a fair amount. Do you want to spend some time in Scotland too? e.g. in Dundee or the sorts? If the answer is no, you could purchase a Rail Sail ticket (which can only be bought via ScotRail's phone line, ticket office, or on-board) from Dundee to Lerwick, and purchase advance singles from Edinburgh to Dundee - a quick search shows £5 advance singles.

This would make the price £115 vice £130.10.

£33.30 GMB<>DON

Similarly for this, a quick search shows that GMB - DON has advance singles for £7.95 / £7.70 / £7.45 - as cheap as £6.xx - this is for today, with the 16:32 departure being £7.95. You could slash the costs in half (unless of course, you want to visit Habrough, Barnetby, or Scunthorpe!)

If you would like to spend X hours in cities, knowing which ones specifically would be useful (Do you want the same ones on the outward and return journey or different cities)

edit - corrected spelling mistake

 

[Haywain]

you could purchase a Rail Sale ticket (which can only be bought via ScotRail's phone line, ticket office, or on-board)

Sales ended on May 15th, and travel must be before 31st May.

Just be aware of the "temporary" timetable imposed currently on ScotRail, meaning that from Edinburgh to Aberdeen there's a train every 2 hours.

In particular noting changes meaning that last trains can be significantly earlier.

 

[realemil]

Sales ended on May 15th, and travel must be before 31st May.

Apologises, meant Sail and not Sale

Edited to prevent confusion

 

[railwaytrack]

Good afternoon everyone.

I'm playing with the grains of an idea just now, to travel from my home in Grimsby up to Aberdeen on a Friday, to take the overnight ferry to Lerwick, in order to take part in the Bressay parkrun at 9.30am on the Saturday morning, spend the rest of Saturday exploring Lerwick and its environs, before getting the overnight ferry back to the mainland and a train home from Aberdeen.

I have had a brief look at the cost of return ferry tickets and return rail tickets to see if this is possible, and although it's a big old cost, it looks like fun.

I'm anticipating leaving Grimsby at around 0830 on the Friday morning, am looking for flexibility to break journey at, say, York or Newcastle or Edinburgh and to arrive in Aberdeen a couple of hours before the ferry, and likewise, flexibility on return to leave ABD when I'm ready, and to BoJ at en route again for a "proper" meal somewhere.

In straightforward railway terms, I've looked to split at Doncaster, as my departure from GMB will be peak but the bulk of my travel will be Off-Peak, and I'm getting £33.30 GMB<>DON and £159.00 DON<>ABD. On top of this I have to add the cost of my ferry, which is £72.00 return, plus a cabin- the budget for which will depend on the rest of the expense. (Total £264.30)

Now, I'm conscious that there are Rail+Sail fares on Scotrail to Lerwick, I can find these from EDI to Lerwick, and I guess they include just the ferry crossing. Those make the trip £33.30 GMB<>DON + £122.00 DON<>EDI + £130.10 EDI<>Lerwick (If I'm reading BR fares correctly - I can't get a fare online via any retailers as I believe only Scotrail sell these tickets over the phone)(Total £285.40)

I can't find any advance fares for any weekends in July, which is the "random" period I chose to look at.

Now, these fares are fine, I can work within them, but obviously every few quid I can save on railfare I can spend on beer, so I'm wondering if there are any additional ways I can finesse this fare. Trainsplit gives me some very nice fares which'll be on a dozen coupons, but some of them are advance, and I'm not certain I want to commit to fixed trains, or if I do, I want to break my journey at reasonable sized cities at reasonable mealtimes.

Having seen what Trainsplit can do (£129 or thereabouts) I might have a go at messing with the times a bit and booking some single legs, but before I do this, I'm wondering if there's anything that I've missed, like a railcard or a rover ticket that might help. I'm in my mid 40s and resident of Northern Lincolnshire, so there aren't any national railcards that work for me.

Thanks in advance if anyone has any clues outside of Trainsplit that might be able to help, although I realise that this is already a decent fare...

You could buy a Sail Rail ticket from Dunbar to Lerwick (£103.50 Any Time Day Single or £152.20 Off Peak Open Return or £175.00 Any Time Open Return) which is the furthest south that Sail Rail tickets are sold so this may work out cheaper as you would then only need to buy the Grimsby to Dunbar tickets.

 

[CompactDstrxion]

Grimsby to Glasgow TPE Only Off Peak Return is £101.50 and would be valid to depart after 8am on the Friday, changing at Manchester Piccadilly, and valid for break of journey. Is that potentially useful?

 

[Starmill]

If you go to new.trainsplit.com you can click flexible after you've done your search. However do take care if it offers you any of the CrossCountry only or LNER only flexible fares from Edinburgh towards Aberdeen as these aren't good value and there are few of these services.

 

[DeeGee]

Just be aware of the "temporary" timetable imposed currently on ScotRail, meaning that from Edinburgh to Aberdeen there's a train every 2 hours.

That's current, isn't it? Realistically, how long will that be going on until?

Being limited to only anytime tickets will cost you quite a fair amount. Do you want to spend some time in Scotland too? e.g. in Dundee or the sorts? If the answer is no, you could purchase a Rail Sail ticket (which can only be bought via ScotRail's phone line, ticket office, or on-board) from Dundee to Lerwick, and purchase advance singles from Edinburgh to Dundee - a quick search shows £5 advance singles.


This would make the price £115 vice £130.10.

That works quite well, so, is it £110 for RailSail from Dundee?

Ironically, the only reason I'm needing an anytime ticket is for the GMB<>DON bit, and even the that's only on the outward. Advances would work fine for me there.

My fear of booking advances home is that I'm taking a boat as the first leg and I can't be certain just how reliable a connection it will be.

Similarly for this, a quick search shows that GMB - DON has advance singles for £7.95 / £7.70 / £7.45 - as cheap as £6.xx - this is for today, with the 16:32 departure being £7.95. You could slash the costs in half (unless of course, you want to visit Habrough, Barnetby, or Scunthorpe!)

Funnily enough, I've never looked at GMB-DON advances. I'll look closer at those. I presume there to be a lot less availability outward at 0830 am though...?

If you would like to spend X hours in cities, knowing which ones specifically would be useful (Do you want the same ones on the outward and return journey or different cities)

edit - corrected spelling mistake

In terms of where I want to break my journey, it may be more sensible for me to have a more in-depth look at timetables and then go from there.

For instance, on the outward, I'd probably get the 0831 from Grimsby, changing at Doncaster gets me to Newcastle at 1140. I can BoJ there for an hour before the 1240 to EDI, and onwards to ABD arriving at 1706, in plenty of time for the Lerwick boat.

I'm not beholden to direct trains on the return, indeed, looking at it, if I can leave Aberdeen before 10 I can spend a couple of hours in Dundee, where I've never been before, for lunch, have my tea in York and still make it home for bedtime. I want to break the journeys up rather than making the most direct and quickest trip, because even though I like a train, I'd rather not spend a whole day on one.

But I suppose if I can put an itinerary like this together, there's no point me worrying about getting advances so long as I'm splitting at Newcastle outwards and Dundee and York returning, or in the case of the SailRail ticket, starting the ticket at Dundee anyway.

Grimsby to Glasgow TPE Only Off Peak Return is £101.50 and would be valid to depart after 8am on the Friday, changing at Manchester Piccadilly, and valid for break of journey. Is that potentially useful?

Ooh. Yes, perhaps! I'll look at those timings...

 

[Starmill]

That's current, isn't it? Realistically, how long will that be going on until?

For the foreseeable future. Nobody can say more accurately than that I'm afraid.

 

[DeeGee]

You could buy a Sail Rail ticket from Dunbar to Lerwick (£103.50 Any Time Day Single or £152.20 Off Peak Open Return or £175.00 Any Time Open Return) which is the furthest south that Sail Rail tickets are sold so this may work out cheaper as you would then only need to buy the Grimsby to Dunbar tickets.

I wouldn't have an LNER train stopping there though, would I? It's cheaper from Waverley, where my train will definitely stop.

 

[Starmill]

I presume there to be a lot less availability outward at 0830 am though...?

I would expect lots of availability at pretty much all times of day; trains between Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes were never close to capacity even as three cars, except for summer weekends but for traffic going the other way. As six cars there's substantial over-provision now, not that all will necccesarily be six.

 

[DeeGee]

For the foreseeable future. Nobody can say more accurately than that I'm afraid.

Would an itinerary bought online today for maybe eight weekends hence show the temporary working? Or the usual timetable, in which case I'm in a world of issues with split ticketing if the TOC only has to get me to the split point, aren't I?

I would expect lots of availability at pretty much all times of day; trains between Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes were never close to capacity even as three cars, except for summer weekends but for traffic going the other way. As six cars there's substantial over-provision now, not that all will necccesarily be six.

This is very true, I've only once ever, travelling at any time of day, not been able to sit down on that stretch.

 

[Starmill]

Would an itinerary bought online today for maybe eight weekends hence show the temporary working? Or the usual timetable, in which case I'm in a world of issues with split ticketing if the TOC only has to get me to the split point, aren't I?

Currently the timetable will not be up to date. However as trainsplit will show you where the split points are it's probably not going to be an enormous issue unless one of them is Carnoustie or Stonehaven.

 

[realemil]

That works quite well, so, is it £110 for RailSail from Dundee?

Ironically, the only reason I'm needing an anytime ticket is for the GMB<>DON bit, and even the that's only on the outward. Advances would work fine for me there.

My fear of booking advances home is that I'm taking a boat as the first leg and I can't be certain just how reliable a connection it will be.

£105 for the RailSale from Dundee, £5 advances each direction come to £10 total. If you miss your connection, you (should) be able to take the next available service, as you still hold a valid rail ticket for your previous part, but unsure how it works with railsail tickets.

Funnily enough, I've never looked at GMB-DON advances. I'll look closer at those. I presume there to be a lot less availability outward at 0830 am though...?

It's available basically all the time. They're quite common on certain flows, and sold a lot more often than full-priced singles.

But I suppose if I can put an itinerary like this together, there's no point me worrying about getting advances so long as I'm splitting at Newcastle outwards and Dundee and York returning, or in the case of the SailRail ticket, starting the ticket at Dundee anyway.

Yup - if you split at certain points, you can get tickets considerably cheaper.

You could quite easily get splits at Newcastle / York (even Edinburgh!).

 

[swaldman]

My fear of booking advances home is that I'm taking a boat as the first leg and I can't be certain just how reliable a connection it will be.

For what it's worth, I've missed that boat due to trains but I've never missed a train due to the boat. In summer especially (so weather is not an issue) they're pretty reliable. Although I realise that may be of limited comfort outside of the "delayed train, you can get the next one" rules. (Do rail/sail tickets integrate like this in the event of delays??)

You mentioned cabin costs. It may be that you want a cabin for yourself out of choice, but at least pre-covid Northlink were one of the few ferry companies that would still allow you to book a bunk in a shared cabin for much less money. Although they might have stopped it for the pandemic, I guess. And it does carry the risk of sharing with 3 drunk oilmen

 

[DeeGee]

Currently the timetable will not be up to date. However as trainsplit will show you where the split points are it's probably not going to be an enormous issue unless one of them is Carnoustie or Stonehaven.

Split point on Trainsplit both ways was Stonehaven. Why would this be an issue? Is it a sparsely-served limited services shack?

 

[Class800]

Split point on Trainsplit both ways was Stonehaven. Why would this be an issue? Is it a sparsely-served limited services shack?

Stonehaven calls not on every train on Scotrail - it seems a standard call on LNER. Depends on your itinerary

 

[Starmill]

Split point on Trainsplit both ways was Stonehaven. Why would this be an issue? Is it a sparsely-served limited services shack?

It's a major town, but lots of services between Glasgow Queen Street or Edinburgh and Aberdeen don't stop there. You may wish to wait for the emergency timetable for weekends to be published, and to check what trains are stopping at Stonehaven this Friday.

Alternatively, just book the split tickets on Trainsplit and print out a copy of your booking confirmation; when you get to the station if there's no service that calls at Stonehaven, show it to the staff and see what they say. They might authorise you to travel anyway. They would be obliged to organise you something, though it may result in a delay.

 

[paul1609]

The problem Ive found with the Shetland Ferry is the price and/or availability of cabins. My advice would be if you can't afford/get a proper cabin to consider flying instead. On my last trip south I booked a sort of pod seat which frankly was awful. I got very little sleep and was a zombie walking around Aberdeen and on the flight home. ( i was a sailor for 30 years so its not normally a problem sleeping at sea)
Also if you've never done Shetland before a day isn't enough to see the sights especially given the cost of travelling there and Lerwick isn't really the highlight of Shetland either imho.

 

[318259]

Stonehaven is nice enough, and the fish and chip shop at the seafront is excellent.

It’s not a station that the intercity services often stop at. It’s usually the local service to Inverurie that stops at Stonehaven.

 

[Class800]

Stonehaven is nice enough, and the fish and chip shop at the seafront is excellent.

It’s not a station that the intercity services often stop at. It’s usually the local service to Inverurie that stops at Stonehaven.

It's served by LNER intercity services. The Bay fish and chips is excellent but has a reputation for being very slow

 

[Wallsendmag]

Stonehaven is nice enough, and the fish and chip shop at the seafront is excellent.

It’s not a station that the intercity services often stop at. It’s usually the local service to Inverurie that stops at Stonehaven.

Intercity or Inter7City ?

 

[najaB]

The Bay fish and chips is excellent but has a reputation for being very slow

I concur on both points. I prefer The Carron, faster and also claims to be the place that the deep-friend Mars bar was invented.

 

[Mag_seven]

If you want to discuss Chip Shops then here is the thread to do it.

Chip Shop discussion

We would welcome a thread to discuss how fish & chip shops differ around the country; if anyone would like to create one, feel free to do so and you may also link to any such thread from this one. OK, let’s do it. Just some observations having moved from near Manchester to South Yorkshire...

www.railforums.co.uk

Now can we keep this thread for fares advice for getting from Grimsby to Shetland

thanks