Transport Choices???

Tony Raven wrote:
TrailRat wrote on 23/02/2007 19:08 +0100:

In June I'm off to Cornwall for my usual break but this year I will be
taking the bike.

Looking at my options I think I'm stuck with the train but it seems a
bit costly at £70 return. This doesn't even factor the cost that they
might charge for the bike.

I will be staying at Lizard Point because the YHA has a hostel there
with bike storage. I live in London.

Is there any other choices available to me?

TR


Have a look at the Megatrain. You can do London to Bristol/Exeter then
Bristol/Exeter to Plymouth then Plymouth to Penzance. Fares can be down
to £1 per leg but you can only buy 2 months in advance.
http://megatrain.com/index.php

This looked like an interesting option that I didn't know about.
However I have just had a quick look at the Megatrain help on their web
site and I find "Can I take my bicycle? megatrain tickets do not allow
you to bring your bicycle(s).".

Julian Gallop

I was wondering whether there would be scope for an inflatable bike
bag. You place your bike inside, pump up, an dit inflates to the
dimensions of a normal suitcase, encapsulating your beloved steed in a
nice cushioning airbag..


And doesn't look like a bike either so you don't get officious oiks
telling you that it cannot be taken on the train.

...d

TrailRat wrote:
In June I'm off to Cornwall for my usual break but this year I will be
taking the bike.

Looking at my options I think I'm stuck with the train but it seems a
bit costly at £70 return. This doesn't even factor the cost that they
might charge for the bike.

Up to £3 each way. Although I think it's £1 each way on First Great Western.

£70 return is well below the fuel cost of driving a car there. If you
try booking again 12 weeks before the date, then their advance purchase
discounted tickets will have been released, and can go down to £14 each way.

I will be staying at Lizard Point because the YHA has a hostel there
with bike storage. I live in London.

Is there any other choices available to me?

Not really.

A

Nigel Cliffe wrote:
TrailRat wrote:
In June I'm off to Cornwall for my usual break but this year I will be
taking the bike.

Looking at my options I think I'm stuck with the train but it seems a
bit costly at £70 return. This doesn't even factor the cost that they
might charge for the bike.

You might be looking at the train fares too early.

Don't know about the South West, but some friends are intending to travel
London to NE England in early May. We've discovered that the cheap fares
currently stop the weekend prior to our trip (weekend before from £10 each
way, weekend of our trip £90 return at the moment). However, we anticipate
that the week we want will come on-line next week.

Bizarre, but that seems to be the way with privatised railways.

Not really: they can only sell tickets on trains that they know will be
available, and they find it most efficient to not fix their timetables
until 12 weeks ahead of departure.

It's possible that sometime soon, someone will develop a system that
allows reservation of tickets before their released for sale, (as
Ffestiniog Travel do for you, manually), but at the moment, that's not
possible.

A

On Feb 23, 8:50 pm, "Nigel Cliffe" wrote:

Bizarre, but that seems to be the way with privatised railways.

It was the same with BR. It's just that before Internet booking it
wasn't as transparent. Indeed, I find getting cheapo fares a *lot*
easier now than 15 years ago.

The reason why is that the UK doesn't use train numbers like airlines
use flight numbers, so the exact train time needs to be confirmed
before a reservation can be issued. That's subject to engineering
works and the likes.

Neil

Neil Williams wrote:
On Feb 23, 8:50 pm, "Nigel Cliffe" wrote:

Bizarre, but that seems to be the way with privatised railways.

It was the same with BR. It's just that before Internet booking it
wasn't as transparent. Indeed, I find getting cheapo fares a *lot*
easier now than 15 years ago.

The reason why is that the UK doesn't use train numbers like airlines
use flight numbers, so the exact train time needs to be confirmed
before a reservation can be issued. That's subject to engineering
works and the likes.

Well, it doesn't use them publicly. (Except on the display boards of
Virgin Trains)

A

Up to £3 each way. Although I think it's £1 each way on First Great Western.

70 quid doesn't sound too bad.

Train reservations are free on FGW but not necessarily honoured.