Heading to England

[frj1983]

Hello All,

My Wife and I are flying to England in early April and we just got our BritRail passes for our teain travel throughout the UK. We plan on going from London to Leeds/York, from leeds to Edinburgh, Scotland, from Edinburgh to Cardiff, Wales and from Cardiff back to London.

By looking at the train schedules, I have figured out a way to travel on 6 different rail operators lines. It will give us a chance to sample their wares so to speak. The passes only cost us a little over $600.00 and trying to purchase point-to-point tickets would have cost us over $1500.00, so the passes were cheaper.

We're looking forward to 12 days of travel through the UK and it will be interesting to compare the UK's rail service with Amtrak. All aboard indeed! :lol:

 

[jis]

If you are going to York, do find time to see the National Railway Museum in York, which is right next to the spectacular curved roof York Station. It is well worth it. It has the fastest officially recorded steam engine in the world (the A4 Class "Mallard") parked in there among various other very well preserved historical artifacts.

Hope you are taking the ECML through Newcastle to Edinburgh from York/Leeds. If so sit on the right hand side. The cliffs between Berwyck upon Tweed and Edinburgh overlooking the North Sea are quite spectacular.

Hopefully you are taking the WCML on your way from Edinburgh to Cardiff. If so, the Lake Country that you will pass through around Oxenholme is quite spectacular too. And surely you will pass through the amazing piece of Brunel engineering in the form of the Severn Tunnel either on your way to Cardiff or on the way back.

Have fun!

 

[frj1983]

If you are going to York, do find time to see the National Railway Museum in York, which is right next to the spectacular curved roof York Station. It is well wiorth it. It has the fastest officially recorded steam engine in the world (the A4 Class "Mallard") parked in there among various other very well preserved historical artifacts.
Hope you are taking the ECML through Newcastle to Edinburgh from York/Leeds. If so sit on the right hand side. The cliffs between Berwyck upon Tweed and Edinburgh ovelooking the North Sea are quite spectacular.

Hopefully you are taking the WCML on your way from Edinburgh to Cardiff. If so, the Lake Country that you will pass through around Oxenholme is quite spectacular too. And surely you will pass through the amazing piece of Brunel engineering in the form of the Severn Tunnel either on your way to Cardiff or on the way back.

Have fun!

Thanks for sharing the info,

The husband of my wife's friend in Leeds is taking me for a days outing to the National Railway Museum in York. I just read "Yesterday's Railways" about the Steam to Diesel era in England and there was a story about the "Mallard" in that book. I do look forward to seeing it. Thanks also for giving me an idea of what sides to sit on for our train trips.

A husband of another of my wife"s friends in Wales is taking me to a smaller steam-train museum near their house. He's arranging a cab ride for me there. I'm so excited, that February and March are probably going to run slow! This is my first trip to the UK and my Wife's fourth...she actually lived there for 3 years!

 

[Chris J.]

The rail museum in York is well worth a visit; and it's right by the station.

A few other bits of trivia about the York/Leeds area

As you travel from Leeds to York on the usual route you go past one of the passenger rail yards outside of Leeds (on the left if you're going towards York).

Part of the line from York to Harrogate to Leeds (this isn't the route you'd normally take to get from one end to the other), has old style semaphore signals and signalmen with tokens for the single-track stretches. It's the few stops out of York, which are some little villages. It's not a preserved line or anything; just a regular route with older infrastructure. I suspect one day it'll all be updated to color lights and electronic tokens.

I used to commute on that route for a while.

 

[jis]

Speaking of semaphore signals, when in Edinburgh, try to take a day trip out to Stirling, perhaps going out via the Forth Bridge, something you must not miss, and Perth and coming back on the more direct route. Stirling is a quaint town with a castle and a station with semaphore signals all around.

Even if you can't make it out to Stirling, at least do take a Scotrail local to North Queensferry, which is just past the Forth Bridge. Great views of the Forth Bridge can also be had if you get off at Dalmeny on the south bank and walk down to the shore of the Firth of Forth. DO NOT MISS the Forth Railway Bridge! It is an engineering landmark and a thing of beauty and over 100 years old!

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Railway_Bridge

This picture taken from Queensferry on the south bank. The North Queensferry station is just past the bridge on the other bank, where the viaduct ends as seen in this picture.

 

[Steve4031]

You can make seat reservations for specific kinds of seats before each journey. Some trains require reservations IIRC. You can determine this before you go. I know there is at least one website that has all of this info in once place. I dont remember the name off the top of my head. If you have an Iphone, there is an app for rail service in the UK. good luck.

 

[alanh]

http://www.seat61.com is a site with detailed information on rail systems worldwide.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk is the site where you can book UK tickets.

 

[jis]

You can make seat reservations for specific kinds of seats before each journey. Some trains require reservations IIRC. You can determine this before you go. I know there is at least one website that has all of this info in once place. I dont remember the name off the top of my head. If you have an Iphone, there is an app for rail service in the UK. good luck.

The iPhone app that I use a lot when in UK is iRail.

Also if in London consider getting the following iPhone apps: London Bus, iTrans Tube.

If you get reserved seats beware of getting what you think is a window seat but actually is next to a non-window post.

 

[jamesontheroad]

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk is the site where you can book UK tickets.

Unfortunately it's not that simple. You can't book tickets on nationalrail.co.uk, although you can do just about everything else relating to trip planning.

To buy train tickets you need to go directly to the operator's websites or train stations. A handful of generic booking services like Thetrainline and RailEasy sell tickets, but they add booking and delivery fees that you can avoid by booking with operator's websites (East Coast is my favourite, because of the good booking engine design and 10% discount on all East Coast Advance fares).

In the case of the OP, however, with the passes booked, all you need to do is get the booking office of any large railway station and you'll be able to reserve seats for free. This is very handy on busier intercity routes, and will also help you get forward / backward facing seats, table seats, airline seats, window / aisle, etc.

Finally, not meaning to blow my own trumpet (but toot-toot anyway) ... I created and contributed to the bulk of the content on the Wikitravel page Rail Travel in the UK. I hope it is of use to first time rail passengers in the UK.