Warrington to Flitwick

[exile]

Hi folks

Having trouble working out the cheapest options here

1. Liverpool to East Finchley - Fri 3rd August, leaving after 5 pm
2. East Finchley to Flitwick - Sat 4th, arriving before 11am
3. Flitwick to East Finchley - Sat 4th, late
4. East Finchley to Runcorn (from where I can get a bus home)- Sun 5th, afternoon

I know there are no advance tickets so it will have to be "walk on" fares.

Main options seem to be
- Off peak return Liverpool to Flitwick (assuming that the rules for overnight stopover are OK for this) (£82.90) plus oyster card for the Underground legs (10.40 for 4 journeys)

- Off peak return Liverpool to London Terminals (74.20), plus oyster card for the underground journeys (10.40), plus Cheap Day Return London to Flitwick (16.90)

- Off peak return Liverpool to London plus some sort of ticket that combines the underground journeys on Saturday with the return to/from Flitwick - but I'm having trouble finding anything along those lines....

 

[bb21]

- Off peak return Liverpool to London plus some sort of ticket that combines the underground journeys on Saturday with the return to/from Flitwick - but I'm having trouble finding anything along those lines....

A ticket from Zone U123* will incur an add-on of £3.10 each way, which is more expensive than paying separately for the LU part of the journey on Oyster (£3.10 peak / £2.60 off-peak).

 

[MikeWh]

East Finchley to Kentish Town is only £1.40 off-peak on Oyster so you could get the train to/from Flitwick from there if you don't mind it taking a little longer (ie not a fast train). That cuts the Oyster down to £8.00. You can save a further £2.40 by walking from Euston to Mornington Crescent and back, takes about 10 minutes each way.

 

[kieron]

I know there are no advance tickets so it will have to be "walk on" fares.

I'm not sure what you mean by "no advance tickets". There seem to be plenty available between Liverpool and London, particularly on slower trains.

For instance:

Friday
Liverpool Lime Street-London Euston 18:04-22:20 £12.00
Liverpool Lime Street 18:04
Stafford 19:09-19:21
Rugby 20:17-20:32
London Euston 22:20

Sunday
London Marylebone-Birmingham Moor Street 12:00-14:37 £9.00
Birmingham New Street-Runcorn 15:35-16:54 £13.00

I can't suggest anything for the journey on Saturday (or the Underground for that matter), except to note that Kentish Town is a mile and a half from St. Pancras.

 

[exile]

I'm not sure what you mean by "no advance tickets". There seem to be plenty available between Liverpool and London, particularly on slower trains.

For instance:

Friday
Liverpool Lime Street-London Euston 18:04-22:20 £12.00
Liverpool Lime Street 18:04
Stafford 19:09-19:21
Rugby 20:17-20:32
London Euston 22:20

Sunday
London Marylebone-Birmingham Moor Street 12:00-14:37 £9.00
Birmingham New Street-Runcorn 15:35-16:54 £13.00

I can't suggest anything for the journey on Saturday (or the Underground for that matter), except to note that Kentish Town is a mile and a half from St. Pancras.

Thanks for those suggestions - that might be a tad too slow however! Oddly enough I can see advance tickets on the direct trains but not saving enough to make it worth losing the flexibility.

 

[kieron]

To be honest, even those advances aren't that good for someone doing a return trip, given that a LM-only SVR costs £39. You are looking at 4 hours each way with those (and similarly with the OPR from Wrexham to London via High Wycombe, which is only valid as far as Crewe anyway).

There is a trade-off between speed and cost (you could switch from one to the other at Stafford or somewhere for part of the effect), but I don't know of a way to reduce the cost of a ticket on Virgin significantly.

 

[sonic2009]

A message for the OP do you have to leave after 5pm due to work commitments or can you leave at 5pm?

 

[exile]

Working on the Friday though boss is happy for me to leave a few minutes early if I take a shorter lunch break.