Originally Posted by
Aviatrix
Wouldn't this depend on the OP's starting point in Manchester? If it's the centre of town then the journey would take about three hours door-to-door regardless of whether he travels by train or by air
MAN has quite good train service, so it doesn't really matter; as easy to take train to airport as to London. Elapsed time to LHR will be similar or slightly shorter by flying. I've taken the train to London from MAN a few times (actually chose to fly US-MAN instead of LHR to avoid the hassle of LHR) and the train is not bad, but cost more than flying MAN-LHR and the only advantage of the train is if you are not going to LHR or that part of London. Virgin trains seem to think they are BA when it comes to pricing.