simpletastes

I am thinking of taking an Uber from Manchester to Leeds. This is estimated to cost around £60 on the Uber website. Can a driver refuse to drive me there (because he/she may have difficulty finding a passenger going back to Manchester)?

Many thanks for your thoughts.

UKtravelbear

Well any uber driver can accept or not any job so if one accepts your request then they have accepted it.

Any refual because they think they can't find a job back would happen before they accept your job in the first place.

stut

I'm not even sure a Manchester Uber is allowed to pick up in Leeds (they have to be licensed car services per local authority here) so I would imagine the price already reflects the return journey.

Should it prove difficult, bear in mind there is a very frequent, 24-hour train service between the cities.

Markie

I got stung with the 'Uber Sting' on Friday where the driver accepts the job, then calls and confirms destination. They then cancel the job. if you don't notice you can be left high and dry. Keep an eye on the app if you get a call from your 'driver'.

Skatering

I had a similar question out of London:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-i...uber-zone.html

Short answer is it was fine, and London Uber drivers can sometimes go 100 miles outside of London.

So I'd say you're fine, especially as drivers can choose their jobs anyway. In the unlikely event you do have a problem, there are websites like Minicabit, and it'll only be slightly more expensive than Uber.

simpletastes

Appreciate all the responses, thank you.

IAN-UK

It should work well enough. Though note that what looks like an easy drive can turn into a nightmare - depending on day, time, road-works and weather: the train is (reasonably) fast, frequent and (usually) reliable.

Alsacienne

Why not get the train? Simple and straightforward, and then get Uber or another taxi once you get to your destination train station.

FN-GM

They are allowed. A private hire car can operate in another authority apart from London. Lots of the private hire cars in my local authority are registered in the neighboring authority as the fees are cheaper.

I would go via the train. There is a direct service between Manchester Victoria and Leeds.

DYKWIA

There's also Piccadilly to Leeds - which is a quicker service (about 50 minutes).

KARFA

I agree. Definitely would not recommend the VIC to LDS trains unless you enjoy a much longer journey, taking in lots of small towns across the Pennines, and sitting on very old trains.

For Manchester to Leeds the Piccadilly services are much better, more frequent, and a lot faster.

stut

There is an hourly non-stop TP service from Vic to Leeds (it's the Liverpool - Newcastle service), taking 49 minutes, although there's engineering stopping it from running this week.

Once the Ordsall Chord is opened, later this year, Victoria will be the quickest connection to Leeds.

FN-GM

I live not far from Manchester and I didn't know that route existed. Cheers for letting us know.

knifeandfork

I lost my wallet last year in Manchester. Needed to return to the first town in West Yorkshire (UK readers maybe familiar with the BBC's "Happy Valley", that's where we're talking.)

This was a Sunday night at about 8pm. Ordered an Uber. Prius showed up in 90 seconds. Gave him the postcode and he didn't bat an eyelid. Driver said he frequently takes people to Leeds, Liverpool and once even Shrewsbury.

Depending on the time of day you could get to Leeds and back into the Manchester Uber area in probably about two hours on a good run. I'd imagine an Uber driver would rather take £60-70 up top for two hours out of a shift.

Turned out I'd dropped the wallet in a black cab in Manchester on the way to a comedy gig. A german scientist called Wolfgang found it. He got someone from the plastics factory he was visiting outside Bolton the following morning to call me (they found one of my business cards) and wallet and all cash and cards, by then cancelled, back in my hand by 10am the next morning. All very lucky.

simpletastes

As the OP, I just wanted to report back that I took an Uber from Manchester to Leeds without a problem. We took a car instead of a train because of a few reasons: (1) three of us travelling, so Uber was just about as economical, (2) we were not sure when we would leave Manchester and (3) we could travel point-to-point (in our case, from a restaurant in Manchester to a hotel in Leeds).

Thanks for all the thoughts by various posters.