North west to Shaftesbury HELP

[chicky05]

I have been trying to find the cheapest way to travel from Liverpool/Manchester to Dorset, Shaftesbury is the nearest destination but I can arrive anywhere within 20miles of Shaftesbury, does anyone have any tips, I can travel at any time. I'm begining to get a bit fed up:cry: Thanks

 

[LexyBoy]

Closest station to Shaftesbury is Gillingham; Salisbury and Warminster seem to have good connexions by road to Shaftesbury so could also be used.

Beyond that, it would be useful to know how far in advance you can plan your travel, whether you're happy to take a long way round, and what your local station is. Also, do you have or are you eligible for any railcards?

 

[chicky05]

Thanks for your reply, I am not eligible for any cards and want to find the cheapest and shortest route, I have a car but 4 1/2 drive worries me

 

[cuccir]

Are you talking about a particular trip, or wanting general advice for a journey that you do fairly often? We really can only give good advice if we have the details of date of travel, how long between outward and return travel (same day, overnight, longer?) and a specific station that you want to use in the north-west. It really does make that much difference!

This website provides pretty comprehensive generic advice, but we'll need more details to help you further.

 

[Pen Mill]

Gillingham Dorset is the nearest station , 5 miles away.
Off Peak return from Manchester Piccadilly is £94.60

This would be a Cross-country service to Basingstoke (Bournemouth train) then a South West trains service to Gillingham. (Exeter train).
Approx journey time would be 5 hrs 20 mins.

 

[LexyBoy]

Cheapest and shortest often don't go together!

Direct fares/routes are as follows:

Manchester-Gillingham:
Off Peak Return, route Not London £94.60 - journey time ~5 hours (one change)
Off Peak Return, route via London** £104.40 - journey time ~5 hours (involves crossing London by Underground)
Looking 3 weeks in advance, there are no worthwhile Advance fares.
*Since London-Manchester trains are so frequent, you could probably get a faster journey than the journey planner suggests since it gives you ages to cross London.

Liverpool-Gillingham:
Off Peak Return, route via London** £104.40 - journey time ~5 hours
(Doesn't seem to be a Not London fare from Liverpool?)
Looking 3 weeks in advance, there are Advance singles for £30-£50 each way - so a modest saving is possible (at the expense of being fixed to particular trains)

Manchester-Salisbury:
Off Peak Return, route Not London £88.50 - journey time ~4-4.5 hours (one change at Basingstoke, Bristol or sometimes Southampton)
Off Peak Return, route via London** £100.10 - journey time ~4.5 hours* (involves crossing London by Underground)
Looking 3 weeks in advance, there are a few Advances tickets available for ~£20-30 so you should be able to make a reasonable saving if you can commit to particular trains.

**All these via London fares are also valid via the cross-country route (as it's cheaper), despite what Virgin want you to think. If you travel via London with a not London ticket, you'll be liable to an excess which is half the difference between the ticket held and the via London fare, per leg (provided that you're travelling at times the Off Peak ticket is valid for that route).


Splitting tickets along the route can allow you to make a journey more cheaply. For this journey, I would expect this to work by buying cheap Advances between Liverpool/Manchester and Euston, and separate Advances or an Off Peak Return between London and Dorset.

An easy split would be:
Liverpool - London, Super Off Peak Return route LM Only £25.50 (~3.5 h journey time)
Walk Euston-Waterloo (or Oyster single, £1.90).
Waterloo - Gillingham, Advance Singles £10-17 each way (2 h journey time)
Total ~£55 - but takes significantly longer.

 

[cuccir]

Post edited - disregard as information was incorrect, kept so that the thread makes sense.

Splitting tickets along the route can allow you to make a journey more cheaply. For this journey, I would expect this to work by buying cheap Advances between Liverpool/Manchester and Euston, and separate Advances or an Off Peak Return between London and Dorset.

It's worth noting that if chicky05 wants to split tickets in London, then she should consider making sure that she has a rail ticket to cover her tube journey. To put it as simply as possible: under the National Rail Conditions of Travel, if her entire journey is covered by train tickets, then any delays which occur while travelling are covered, and she will be able to use later trains if she is delayed on her journey. If, however, she walks or uses either an Oyster card or Tube ticket for the tube portion of her journey, then she is not using a train ticket for the whole route and so her two seperate potions of the journey would not be covered. This is relevant if she is buying Advance tickets, as these are only valid on one train, and can only be used later if she has been delayed whilst travelling on her train journey. By moving away from using her train ticket, she is considered to have begun a new journey.

An easy split would be:
Liverpool - London, Super Off Peak Return route LM Only £25.50 (~3.5 h journey time)
Walk Euston-Waterloo (or Oyster single, £1.90).
Waterloo - Gillingham, Advance Singles £10-17 each way (2 h journey time)
Total ~£55 - but takes significantly longer.

In this example, a delay to the Liverpool-London train which results in her missing the train at Waterloo would mean that her Advance ticket would be invalid, as she would have missed the only train for which it is valid. She may have to buy a new ticket from London to Gillingham (£40-£45 depending on time of day).

There are ways round this. Advance tickets with Virgin Trains can be purchased to from Manchester or Liverpool to London Zone 1 (to find these tickets, the chicky05 can search for 'Manchester to Waterloo'). This would then cover her for the whole journey. I'm less certain about what she could do with regards to the London Midland option above.

 

[LexyBoy]

To put it as simply as possible: under the National Rail Conditions of Travel, if her entire journey is covered by train tickets, then any delays which occur while travelling are covered, and she will be able to use later trains if she is delayed on her journey. If, however, she walks or uses either an Oyster card or Tube ticket for the tube portion of her journey, then she is not using a train ticket for the whole route and so her two seperate potions of the journey would not be covered.

I disagree. The Advance Fares FAQ states:

Q22. Can a passenger travel on any other service than the one on which they are reserved, without changing the booking?

A. the following principles apply.

1) Start of the Journey. It is the passenger responsibility to turn up at the start of the journey in time for the departure of the first train. If they miss it due to parking problems, taxis not turning up, etc, they must buy a new ticket,

2) Once the journey has begun. If the passenger is delayed and the train company or it's partners [are] at fault, which should be check by [staff] control office, change to a train of the same company is allowed to get them to their destination with the least delay. This is irrespective of the combination of rail tickets held. Examples are:

Included: are passsengers on valid:

Through domestic or international tickets. e.g. Brighton-Scarborough route TOC X & connections;

Through rail and partner tickets for which there is a through bus, tube, ferry or metro fare, e.g. Zone U12-Leeds, Wisbeach coach-York, Ryde Pier-Hull, etc;

Combination of rail only tickets.

e.g. Rail season ticket Skipton-Leeds and Advance Leeds-Peterborough, or adjoining advance fares;

Combination of rail and partner tickets.

e.g. Brighton-Zone U12 plus advance London-Manchester, or;

e.g. Advance ticket Bristol-Paddington plus tube single ticket, plus advance ticket Kings Cross to Hull;

All Zones Travelcards, PTE-products (where rail is included) plus advance fares, etc;

Combination of Eurostar tickets into the UK and then either advance tickets from London terminals or "London Intnl CIV" or Lndon Eurostar CIV;

Not included for the avoidance of doubt, are:

Non train company travel on separate tickets, e.g. tickets that begin on bus-only, tube-only, ferry-only or metro-only tickets. (this includes "PlusBus", which is a local day-rover bus ticket not compatible with a medium/long distance advance single ticket, so are kept as separate tickets),
(...)

Which is to say, that as long as the first part of the journey is on a rail ticket, you're covered (not sure about walking; generally walking to connect between stations is allowed but it's not mentioned in the above). If the journey began in London, a Travelcard or U12 etc would be needed to cover potential delays.

I'd agree that one may as well buy to London U12 (etc) when possible, as it saves having an extra ticket. The Advance fares Waterloo-Gillingham are of fairly marginal value IMO, as I'd not consider the saving on £30 Advance fares to be worth it, and would buy the Off Peak Return at £45. Using Advances for part of a journey like this just adds to the stress of travelling and often means long waits whilst you wait for the booked train.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
On an unrelated note, National Express fares for Manchester-Gillingham (changing at London Victoria) are around £20 each way for travel in a couple of weeks (the fares don't seem to change so fast). An "open return" is from £55.90 for travel tomorrow.

Travel time is ~7 hours.

Might be worth considering if you can get a cheap rail Advance in one direction but not the other.

 

[cuccir]

Ah OK, I stand corrected. I'll delete my post accordingly!

 

[bb21]

You might also need to bear in mind the times of the bus connections, as they don't run very frequently.

Damory Coaches 309 links Shaftesbury and Gillingham Station and takes approximately 12 minutes. They run every 2 hours and the timetable is here.

Wilts & Dorset 29 links Shaftesbury and Salisbury Bus Station (a 10-minute walk from the Railway Station) and runs every 90 minutes during the day. The timetable is here.

I cannot find any connection from Warminster.

There is also another possibility, from Poole, as megatrain offer fares from £1 from London Waterloo. Wilts & Dorset X8 runs hourly from Poole Bus Station (a short walk through the shopping centre from the Railway Station) to Blandford, where you can change onto Damory Coaches 309. The timetable for the X8 is here. An Explorer valid for unlimited travel in a day is available for £7.50. This might well be cheaper than paying for the two trips separately bearing in mind that a single ticket from Poole to Blandford costs an eye-watering £5.20.

 

[chicky05]

Thank you all for such good information

 

[moonrakerz]

I cannot find any connection from Warminster.

Good road - A350, but no buses or the like !

Gillingham is the best bet. Don't forget to ask for Gillingham not Jillingham ! My daughter lives in that area and once asked for Strood and was given a ticket to Stroud !!

 

[OwlMan]

You might also need to bear in mind the times of the bus connections, as they don't run very frequently.

Damory Coaches 309 links Shaftesbury and Gillingham Station and takes approximately 12 minutes. They run every 2 hours and the timetable is here.

There are also the 59 & 158 services see http://www.outandaboutbybus.co.uk/gillinghamshaftesbury.htm