What swings the balance for you between a direct service and one where you change?

[jtuk]

Bunch of factors for me - price being the huge one, but I'll add on additional time if it involves avoiding any Voyagers, usually anything by TPE, if changing involves taking a more interesting route or an interesting stop (i.e. a decent boozer)

 

[darloscott]

To be fair for me I don’t travel by rail hugely often and when I do it’s always for leisure. Usually it’s just a means to get somewhere and don’t usually have different options (because of where I live).
I suppose if I think about it it usually comes down to price for me, whenever I’m heading south it’s nearly always TPE direct to York as it’s so much cheaper than via Darlington, usually. Next on my list would be journey time followed by comfort. I rarely travel with huge amounts of luggage but ease of changes might come into it if I was.

I suppose I had one journey last year where I went away from my usual territory on a longer journey and had two options. Travelled from home to Cardiff (Airport) which gave either XC via Birmingham or TPE/TfW via Manchester. On that occasion journey time and comfort came into the equation and I chose the XC option, with a same platform connection at Cheltenham, over a long slow trundle from Manchester (& potentially on a 150!). Price wise they were pretty similar.

 

[scotrail158713]

Price is the main one for me. I’ll happily make changes if there’s any saving to be made - up to roughly doubling my journey time. If the changes extend my journey any more than that, then the price difference is more important - £1/2 isn’t worth it, but going beyond around £10-15 difference and a longer journey time seems worth it again.

 

[D6975]

I don’t mind changing trains, in fact I often used to go out of my way to travel on more different services than was necessary. Now that loco hauleds are that much rarer, I don’t do this so much nowadays. I do however usually break a long journey deliberately, for example a trip from Bristol to Scotland would be via XC to Manchester (overnight stay) then up on a TP service from there. Bristol to Doncaster used to be HST to Padd, Circle to KGX, for a 91 to Donny. I won’t be doing that in future though due to the appalling IET seats.

When going down to Paignton on hols with my son (and lots of luggage) I always try to go on a direct service, there is usually a XC HST that gets us to Paignton at a good time to check in to the b&b.

 

[cuccir]

For me the big difference is being alone v being with others. Travelling on my own I'm happy to change, because in all the decisions invovled - using the loo, cafes, shops, etc - I only have to take responsibility for me. Travelling with others I'd pay more to not change: as well as the above, you only have one train where you have to worry about getting the right seats next to each other etc.

 

[Zamracene749]

Travelling with family, young children and bags, every change is a huge hassle, in particular in the UK where many stations still don't have cross platform or guaranteed connections. Crossing London from the North East to South West in particular is an utter nightmare with kids and luggage. Short formed trains, missing reservations and horrific overcrowding have all added to my rail delights whilst journeying with the kids. Travelling alone however, I really don't mind changing at all. As an enthusiast, I will of course happily plan in a connection if it involves nicer haulage, not that there is much of that left nowadays

 

[Purple Orange]

I agree with the notion of travelling in groups about few changes. Perhaps this is where I underestimate the need for a future long distance XC service.

Having said that, in the U.K. it will be a very very rare occurrence of travelling in numbers where more than one change is required (with the exception of onward travel when getting to the city in question), so perhaps not important enough to keep certain long distance services post HS2 in my view.

 

[ChrisC]

I will often take less direct routes or slower local trains when I’m travelling to and from a holiday destination and have luggage with me.
I usually travel with a medium sized case that will fit on the overhead racks on some classes of trains. I like to keep my luggage fairly close and in sight and will often change trains and choose a longer journey to avoid trains like crowded Voyagers where the overhead racks are useless and I have no chance of getting a seat within sight of a luggage rack.

 

[Journeyman]

From Edinburgh, lots of direct journeys are possible on XC services, but they're usually far too crowded and often very expensive anyway. I usually prefer going via London and changing, because LNER services are less crowded and more comfortable (I don't mind Azumas at all).

 

[YorksLad12]

For me it depends on the journey (business, leisure) and where I need to be afterwards, as well as the cost/operator.

I went to Edinburgh from Leeds in January. I could have taken a TPE or XC service with no change. Instead I went Standard to York (on the TPE service to Edinburgh, oddly enough) and changed to an LNER service (Mk4) and First. On the way back it was First with LNER (Azuma) and Standard with Northern in one of the horrible 195s.

When I used to commute to Sheffield, if the 0740 missed (or I missed it) I preferred to catch the 0748 stopper via Rotherham than the XC at 0811 (or even wait for the 0804 semi-fast, which in theory arrived last of the three in Sheffield).

 

[Bessie]

Surprised that no one has said "boredom". When I was in university there were a couple of Brighton-Cardiff options. The direct service was 4+ hours which was convenient but a bit boring. So I had the choice of cross London to Paddington (HSTs - exciting!), or the XC to Reading and then to Cardiff from there (slow, but interesting).

Broadly, it came down to convenience, all journeys were about the same time regardless of route. Price wasn't so much of an issue with a rail card.

I'm going to show my age but Brighton-Bath used to be a highlight for me behind a Class 33 and Mk1 carriages. Boredom wasn't an issue especially as I'm not sure how much of the journey I spent in my seat! Different times

 

[Trainfan2019]

For me it depends if a direct journey actually exists. I am so used to working out routes, changing points and splitting tickets for non-work journeys.

 

[[.n]]

I quite often have a choice of taking a XC service from Bournemouth/Southampton to wherever or travelling via London. Its rare than I take the XC option as I just hate the trains so much for long journeys, its often overcrowded and unpleasant, if you haven't booked a seat then you're often playing move around the train as random seat reservations appear, you end up travelling a different way round at some point on the journey. Staff are usually lovely though!
I also find that there is a reasonable chance of making an unadvertised connection via London, as the itinerary obviously has to allow the appropriate cross London timings, with luck its often possible to make an earlier connection (most handy on the return leg to get home quicker!). Going via London also offers more scope for unplanned BOJ

 

[ic31420]

For me a direct journey makes me much more likely to use rail. Especially if missing a connection means a long wait or the added complication of missing the booked train.

The more infrequent the connection or the more connections the less likely I am to use rail. Of course connections tend to slow down the journey as well as adding about to the cost.

I regularly travel to York/Doncaster. It can cost 50% as much and take me as long if not longer to get the ten miles via bus and metrostink to Man Vic than it does to get Man to York.

This and the whole hard to solve issue of cost of family travelling together Vs cost of taking the car can be what holds me off using train more.

When I was a student I often had the choice of travelling the more natural Route via Machester with changes or direct to Wigan and cycling the longer way home. Wigan usually won despite being a few quid more expensive.

 

[rf_ioliver]

I'm going to show my age but Brighton-Bath used to be a highlight for me behind a Class 33 and Mk1 carriages. Boredom wasn't an issue especially as I'm not sure how much of the journey I spent in my seat! Different times

2 car 158s. First time I went in 1990 it was a 156.

 

[Envy123]

Huntingdon to Farringdon - there are choices to be made in terms of the journey. Either the direct Thameslink service or a peak time fast to King’s Cross and then Thameslink from St Pancras.

The journey time is faster with Thameslink, including interchange and waiting time. Also, for some reason, Wi-Fi works more reliably on Thameslink than Great Northern. So, I prefer the direct service in this direction.

The return journey - pre-COVID, I had a choice between the direct service or a Cambridge train and a same-platform interchange at Stevenage for a peak time fast to Huntingdon. I didn’t mind which one and had no preference, given the minimal interchange time, so I took the first available ECML Thameslink service. Given that now, this convenience is gone, I prefer the direct service in both directions.

 

[Senex]

I always try to plan rail journeys around the trains that make the fewest intermediate stops, even if they are sometimes at less convenient times than others. And in the last three decades or so I try to avoid connections whenever possible (sometimes not possible, of course), given their unreliability in this country.

 

[LancasterRed]

Predominantly price, but seat availability and overall comfort levels do play a key role in my decision making.

 

[ivanhoe]

Living in Loughborough and regularly travelling to Liverpool, I’m just used to changes. The easiest is to catch the Nottingham train to Liverpool but the other options that come up regularly are via Leicester and Brum. Some tight connections on a Sunday evening, coming back,via Nuneaton and Leicester(but extremely quick) .
I tend to pad an extra hour into my eta nowadays, certainly since recent timetable changes. Pre COVID, the Nottingham train was at times, a tad hit and miss and I tended to go via Brum or Nuneaton(stopper). I do love travelling along the Hope Valley though. There are a lot people out there though who are scared of connecting and I’ve often seen anxious couples ask about 4 different people about when their train comes in , even though they are standing by departure boards.

 

[timothyw9]

Price and comfort normally.
When I travel between Manchester and N.Wales I normally get the x55 Euston to Crewe and then change at Crewe for the Avanti Holyhead service.
Cheaper than TFW, only about 10-15 minutes slower (mainly due to waiting at Crewe for the connection) and generally more space and comfort on the trains - not a massive fan of Pendo's but quite like the Super Voyagers, especially in coach D/K where all the tables are.

 

[route101]

I try to avoid tight connections , some Glasgow advances down ECML have short connections in Edinburgh , i always get an earlier service from Glasgow. I also try and go for longer trains.

 

[CheshireCrusty]

For me the main issues considered when making a decision are journey length:
For journeys under say 90 minutes - frequency of connecting trains is the over-riding criteria (if either service is less than 4tph then slower direct services preferred).
For journeys over 90 minutes - the key issues are comfort, catering availability (particularly hot food items and bar) plus being able to pre-book a particular seat with fewest intermediate stops as possible on as large part of the journey as possible. I will also take into account the frequency of any connecting service not providing these facilities.
The one factor no one seems to have mentioned is that I will change my origin station to avoid a change - for example I will drive to Warrington BQ to travel to Scotland rather than use the closer Wilmslow (via Crewe) or Manchester Airport stations. Similarly I will drive to Stockport for some of the destinations to the South (although my one over-riding hate is any journey which goes through Birmingham New Street and will accept a considerable time penalty in travelling by an alternative route e.g. via London or Newport/Cardiff starting in Wilmslow to avoid having to change there).

 

[TheGrew]

At one point I was regularly doing Cosham to Letchworth with return to Eastleigh and experimented with a number of different routes to minimise journey time broadly these were:
Cosham -> Waterloo (via Guildford) -> Northern Line -> Euston -> Kings Cross (walking along Euston road) -> Letchworth
Cosham -> Waterloo (via Eastleigh) -> Northern Line -> Euston -> Kings Cross (walking along Euston road) -> Letchworth
Cosham -> Three Bridges/Gatwick Airport -> St Pancras -> Kings Cross (walk across the road) -> Letchworth

Generally going via Guildford was the quickest option but if I had a particularly large bag and wanted to avoid the tube the Thameslink method worked quite nicely.

With the return trip back to Eastleigh I found my preferred routes were:
Letchworth -> Finsbury Park -> Victoria Line -> Oxford Circus -> Bakerloo Line - > Waterloo -> Eastleigh
Letchworth -> Finsbury Park -> Victoria Line -> Vauxhall -> Clapham Junction -> Eastleigh
Letchworth -> Kings Cross -> Euston (walking along Euston road) -> Northern Line -> Waterloo -> Eastleigh

Sometimes on a summers evening I would walk the entire distance from Waterloo to Kings Cross.
My main motivation was about minimising my Cross-London connection time. I think the fastest I managed Kings Cross - Waterloo was about 25 minutes once.

 

[faltskog36abba]

An example of mine was Manchester to Glasgow , direct but overcrowded 350 or change at Preston or Wigan onto a bigger pendo. Usually changed .

I agree as I do exactly the same.

 

[Metal_gee_man]

I've changed my planned routing or timing to allow me to use Seatfrog to upgrade cheaply to 1st class, but as I've now realised the 1st class on an IET isn't worth the money as the seats are too close to a table if you want to be comfortable, use a laptop and slouch into the seat.
So it only justifies being used on XC and AWC now but...

 

[gingerheid]

Reliability, and how much luggage I anticipate having.

 

[Welshman]

Sheer comfort and convenience settles it for me.
Travelling from London to North Wales, I'll happily wait at Euston for one of the [normally] six daily through five-car voyagers rather than being decamped at Chester to drag over the footbridge and crowd on to a TfW 175 at best, or 150 at worst.

 

[M!T]

If it's a long journey and I can possibly make some, or all, of it on loco-hauled trains, as opposed to trains with noisy motors underneath the carriages, I'll opt for that. Also, price is a big factor for me too.

For example...

Back in 2003 I travelled from Bingley (West Yorkshire) to St Ives (Cornwall). The bulk of the journey (Leeds-St Erth) was made on a Virgin Voyager. On the positive side, it was direct. On the negative side, the route via Birmingham never really seems to get any speed up, which is frustrating, and the constant droning of the motors becomes really oppressive after a couple of hours.

In 2004 I made the same trip but this time went Leeds-Kings Cross (IC225) and then Paddington-St Erth (HST). Consistently higher speeds meant the journey felt more satisfying and took no longer, despite the transfer at London. Relatively quiet trains, on account of being powered by locos rather than under-carriage motors, were a much nicer place to be, and the whole trip only cost about half as much on account of GNER (as it were then) and FGW offering much better advance purchase deals than Virgin the year before.

For shorter journeys it's really just about speed and comfort. Leeds to York, for example, can be done in just over 20 minutes with TPE but some of the Nothern services take the best part of an hour. I'll happily wait longer at Leeds to get a TPE service, even if it ends up saving me no time, because I just find it more satisfying travelling at a higher speed when I am actually on the train. Also, TPE's trains are generally quieter than Nothern's. Even if you get a 185 it's a nicer place to be than anything Northern has to offer on that route.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Sheer comfort and convenience settles it for me.
Travelling from London to North Wales, I'll happily wait at Euston for one of the [normally] six daily through five-car voyagers rather than being decamped at Chester to drag over the footbridge and crowd on to a TfW 175 at best, or 150 at worst.

If a 175 or 158 were guaranteed then I'd change for the leg stretch at Crewe. But 150s don't cut it in 2020 on anything longer than 45 minutes. An hour is okay on a very clean, refurbished unit.

 

[starlightEXPRESS]

I am fortunate to live on a line that's served by trains to two different London termini. (There is no difference in price between routes.)
- Morning: Direct train to my preferred London terminus (but if there are severe delays, I'll take the first train that arrives and change up the line);
- Evening: If high peak, I'll wait for my direct train and try to get on as soon as it's announced so I can get a seat. If after high peak, take first train and change down the line.
Mostly my decisions are driven by whether I am likely to be able to get a seat. If I am standing or likely to stand, then I'll probably take the first train and change if necessary.