Nottingham to Glasgow , the cheap way !

[route101]

Last Thursday i took a trip from Nottingham to Glasgow . After some consideration i went for the cheapest option , railcard advance on Northern service to Leeds and anytime return from Leeds to Glasgow via Appleby .

New lines on this trip were Nottingham to the join before Chesterfield and Sheffield to Leeds via Barnsley.

1417 Nottingham to Leeds was first up , a 158 which departed from platform 4 at the eastern end of Nottingham station . Compared to most of Scotrail 158s , the northern examples are very retro . Seats are comfortable . Service was fairly quiet leaving Nottingham .

Sheffield marked the half way point , a city yet to visit . The service got a lot busier here and meadowhall . Rolling countryside towards Leeds . Stopped at Wakefield Kirkgate , must of been sone up .
I think a trolley service would be suitable for this service , its 2 hours .

Leeds was busy and only had around half an hour for the connection to Carlisle . Been a while since id done this line .
The 1649 was a 2 car 158 and was very busy with commuters as far as skipton . Looking at the timetable its possible to commute from Carlisle , though i doubt many do.
Sunshine came out over the Ribblehead . I dozed off after appleby .

Arrived bang on time at Carlisle , not long here for connection on Virgin trains to Glasgow . A 9 car pendo on the 1948 , first in a while for a 9 car . Service was fairly quiet and made up around 4 minutes to arrive at 2105 , where i walked briskly to catch my bus home at 2119 ,a connection ive missed a few times .

Compared to flying down its almost double the length of time , but more enjoyable .

 

[Kite159]

A nice trip towards Glasgow via the S&C, if any service is shouting out to be pick up only for the local stations towards Skipton is that service (after all there are probably some commuters who would use that one vice a 333 due to being 2+2 with tables)

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, the Nottingham - Leeds train could probably do with a trolley.

Given the length of the journey, I'm a little surprised its only double the time of the flight. Even then, watching the countryside has got to be better than hanging around in airports.

 

[route101]

A nice trip towards Glasgow via the S&C, if any service is shouting out to be pick up only for the local stations towards Skipton is that service (after all there are probably some commuters who would use that one vice a 333 due to being 2+2 with tables)

Only stops at Shipley , Bingley and Keighley . Pretty sure this is a new service at 1649.

 

[route101]

Yes, the Nottingham - Leeds train could probably do with a trolley.

Given the length of the journey, I'm a little surprised its only double the time of the flight. Even then, watching the countryside has got to be better than hanging around in airports.

I flew down left the house at 5am , got to airport at 530am , flight was at 7am but did not leave till 725am , landed at 825am , on bus at 842 am , arrived into Nottingham at 915am .
If flight was on time i suspect i could of got to nottingham around 845am. Latest i would leave my house would be 530 am .So i could in theory get it down to 3 hour 15 mins door to door .

The train up i left Nottingham at 1417 and i got to my house at 2200 .The thing is there was not much waiting around at Leeds or Carlisle , it felt quite fast

Would be interesting what is the quickest , via Derby and Crewe , via Manchester , via Newark , via tamworth etc

 

[yorksrob]

I flew down left the house at 5am , got to airport at 530am , flight was at 7am but did not leave till 725am , landed at 825am , on bus at 842 am , arrived into Nottingham at 915am .
If flight was on time i suspect i could of got to nottingham around 845am. Latest i would leave my house would be 530 am .So i could in theory get it down to 3 hour 15 mins door to door .

The train up i left Nottingham at 1417 and i got to my house at 2200 .The thing is there was not much waiting around at Leeds or Carlisle , it felt quite fast

Would be interesting what is the quickest , via Derby and Crewe , via Manchester , via Newark , via tamworth etc

Yes, actually being on the move, as opposed to faffing around at the beginning/end of the journey does make a difference.

 

[30907]

Only stops at Shipley , Bingley and Keighley . Pretty sure this is a new service at 1649.

Correct, part of the May shake-up, and was 3 cars when I last saw it. There was a Morecambe in roughly that path which IIRC stopped at Steeton as well.

 

[route101]

Correct, part of the May shake-up, and was 3 cars when I last saw it. There was a Morecambe in roughly that path which IIRC stopped at Steeton as well.

Was a 2 car when i was on it . The Northern 158s have a retro 90s interior , comfy seats mind .

 

[DanTrain]

I flew down left the house at 5am , got to airport at 530am , flight was at 7am but did not leave till 725am , landed at 825am , on bus at 842 am , arrived into Nottingham at 915am .
If flight was on time i suspect i could of got to nottingham around 845am. Latest i would leave my house would be 530 am .So i could in theory get it down to 3 hour 15 mins door to door .

The train up i left Nottingham at 1417 and i got to my house at 2200 .The thing is there was not much waiting around at Leeds or Carlisle , it felt quite fast

Would be interesting what is the quickest , via Derby and Crewe , via Manchester , via Newark , via tamworth etc

Can be done in 5 hours if you find a VTWC Glasgow that calls at Tamworth. Otherwise, the quickest way is changing at Man Picc/Ox Rd and Wigan NW at 5h 12. The easiest option is to change at Chesterfield for the XC, but it does take nearly 6 hours!

 

[ashworth]

Can be done in 5 hours if you find a VTWC Glasgow that calls at Tamworth. Otherwise, the quickest way is changing at Man Picc/Ox Rd and Wigan NW at 5h 12. The easiest option is to change at Chesterfield for the XC, but it does take nearly 6 hours!

Nottingham to Glasgow, or indeed most destinations in Scotland, has not been an easy, comfortable, or indeed fast journey for many years now. I am not, however, suggesting that the answer is to restore the direct Nottingham to Glasgow services via Settle to Carlisle as I don’t think that is being realistic.

It was not helped when the Crewe service was cut back to Derby, meaning an additional change of train at Derby. There used to be quite good connections at Crewe to/from Nottingham into fast services on the WCML to Scotland. These days the connections are not good at Crewe and also there’s the inconvenience of a change at Derby and sometimes an overcrowded 153 between Derby and Crewe.
In a similar way changing at Grantham to the ECML is no longer an easy option as very few Edinburgh trains call at Grantham these days.
Changing at Manchester ought to be an easy option but both the Nottingham to Manchester and Manchester to Glasgow trains are often overcrowded and not the most comfortable for long distance journeys with luggage. That leaves changing at Chesterfield as the easiest option but again boarding a XC Voyager at Chesterfield, on one of its most overcrowded sections of the route is also not fun, especially with luggage and children.

That leaves changing at Leeds and Carlisle, which with good connections ought to be achievable in not much more than 6 hours, as an option that ought to be quite good. However, becuase of poor connections, especially at Leeds, and all stations trains between Settle and Carlisle, it can often take up to 7 hours. Perhaps just 2 or 3 limited stop trains a day between Leeds and Carlisle, extended through to Glasgow could be viable. In addition to the custom from Leeds and West Yorkshire to Glasgow, just one change from Sheffield and Nottingham could also be quite an attractive option. Currently, I don’t think many people consider travelling via Leeds and Carlisle, even though there are some good advance fares available, mainly because with long journey times they don’t show up on the online journey planners as a choice.

 

[DanTrain]

Nottingham to Glasgow, or indeed most destinations in Scotland, has not been an easy, comfortable, or indeed fast journey for many years now. I am not, however, suggesting that the answer is to restore the direct Nottingham to Glasgow services via Settle to Carlisle as I don’t think that is being realistic.

It was not helped when the Crewe service was cut back to Derby, meaning an additional change of train at Derby. There used to be quite good connections at Crewe to/from Nottingham into fast services on the WCML to Scotland. These days the connections are not good at Crewe and also there’s the inconvenience of a change at Derby and sometimes an overcrowded 153 between Derby and Crewe.
In a similar way changing at Grantham to the ECML is no longer an easy option as very few Edinburgh trains call at Grantham these days.
Changing at Manchester ought to be an easy option but both the Nottingham to Manchester and Manchester to Glasgow trains are often overcrowded and not the most comfortable for long distance journeys with luggage. That leaves changing at Chesterfield as the easiest option but again boarding a XC Voyager at Chesterfield, on one of its most overcrowded sections of the route is also not fun, especially with luggage and children.

That leaves changing at Leeds and Carlisle, which with good connections ought to be achievable in not much more than 6 hours, as an option that ought to be quite good. However, becuase of poor connections, especially at Leeds, and all stations trains between Settle and Carlisle, it can often take up to 7 hours. Perhaps just 2 or 3 limited stop trains a day between Leeds and Carlisle, extended through to Glasgow could be viable. In addition to the custom from Leeds and West Yorkshire to Glasgow, just one change from Sheffield and Nottingham could also be quite an attractive option. Currently, I don’t think many people consider travelling via Leeds and Carlisle, even though there are some good advance fares available, mainly because with long journey times they don’t show up on the online journey planners as a choice.

That's very true, and not a bad idea. The problem is that it does a very similar thing to what XC does - go direct but take ages. Certaintly travelling from Sheffield to Glasgow, it's quicker to change at Man Piccadilly onto a TPE than to go direct via Edinburgh.

On the other hand, if Northern/Scot Rail could offer some cheap advances via the 'scenic route', it could be a contender, especially if a good connection could be achieved at Leeds. Would take a fair bit of marketing and the NR route planner showing it for it to work though, but I could definitely see the 'Glasgow City Break with sceneic train ride' marketing working quite well! Perhaps even a scenic day's ride from Leeds to Mallaig via Glasgow could be marketed (or maybe I've taken this too far!).

 

[route101]

Can be done in 5 hours if you find a VTWC Glasgow that calls at Tamworth. Otherwise, the quickest way is changing at Man Picc/Ox Rd and Wigan NW at 5h 12. The easiest option is to change at Chesterfield for the XC, but it does take nearly 6 hours!

Yeah there was one connection at Tamworth , was the 1657 from Euston.

 

[route101]

Nottingham to Glasgow, or indeed most destinations in Scotland, has not been an easy, comfortable, or indeed fast journey for many years now. I am not, however, suggesting that the answer is to restore the direct Nottingham to Glasgow services via Settle to Carlisle as I don’t think that is being realistic.

It was not helped when the Crewe service was cut back to Derby, meaning an additional change of train at Derby. There used to be quite good connections at Crewe to/from Nottingham into fast services on the WCML to Scotland. These days the connections are not good at Crewe and also there’s the inconvenience of a change at Derby and sometimes an overcrowded 153 between Derby and Crewe.
In a similar way changing at Grantham to the ECML is no longer an easy option as very few Edinburgh trains call at Grantham these days.
Changing at Manchester ought to be an easy option but both the Nottingham to Manchester and Manchester to Glasgow trains are often overcrowded and not the most comfortable for long distance journeys with luggage. That leaves changing at Chesterfield as the easiest option but again boarding a XC Voyager at Chesterfield, on one of its most overcrowded sections of the route is also not fun, especially with luggage and children.

That leaves changing at Leeds and Carlisle, which with good connections ought to be achievable in not much more than 6 hours, as an option that ought to be quite good. However, becuase of poor connections, especially at Leeds, and all stations trains between Settle and Carlisle, it can often take up to 7 hours. Perhaps just 2 or 3 limited stop trains a day between Leeds and Carlisle, extended through to Glasgow could be viable. In addition to the custom from Leeds and West Yorkshire to Glasgow, just one change from Sheffield and Nottingham could also be quite an attractive option. Currently, I don’t think many people consider travelling via Leeds and Carlisle, even though there are some good advance fares available, mainly because with long journey times they don’t show up on the online journey planners as a choice.

When we stopped at Chesterfield i noticed the next train after ours was a XC to Glasgow which i think gets in after 8 , so it would of taken an hour off my journey.