SaraJH

I imagine that the train is more expensive than the flights and parking combined!

PUCCI GALORE

not in and out of Newcastle - it's fairly cheap and very convenient.

:D!

Yes, there is a choice; SWT is slower than GWR.

£33.10 is the walk-up fare for travel at off-peak times. But as these BA £29 fares and Monarch £19 fares are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, they cannot be compared to train tickets. Advance train fares are exchangeable for a fee of £10.

The cheapest advance published fare from Bristol Temple Meads to London is £12.20 on SWT although GWR had a recent offer for £10.


c-w-s I believe lives in rural Northumberland. There is no train to NCL airport, only the metro which takes 45 minutes to Newcastle Central station, and parking is expensive in Newcastle city centre not to mention having to drive into the city (although there is free on-street parking 3-4 metro stops from the centre).

If your destination is LHR to connect to another flight, there is no point taking 3.5 hours from Newcastle station to Kings Cross plus another 60 minutes on the Piccadilly line or 5-10 times more money, on tube/bus/taxi to Paddington plus Heathrow Express which will take nearly 60 minutes anyway, when the flight itself takes about 60 minutes and security at NCL is relatively easy although you do need to go through LHR security on the return.

VTEC's cheapest published advance fares are £20 but they often have their own sales which can be less. But c-w-s is probably going to be in CE most of the time now, which will need to be compared to VTEC 1st class.

corporate-wage-slave

Indeed that's correct. In fact my nearest station is Tweedbank in Scotland, that's the newly reopened Borders railway to Edinburgh. To get to Newcastle train station I have to drive to Newcastle airport and on a bit further to get to the station. And as I'm normally going on to services LHR/LGW/LCY then ending up in King's Cross isn't entirely helpful.

But I have done it, most notoriously when I had an umpteen sector trip to South Island New Zealand. There was Fog On The Tyne, so cancelled flight and I dashed down on the train instead. Arrived in LHR in good time for the LHR-HKG leg, only to discover all umpteen sectors had been auto-cancelled out of my booking due to missing the first NCL-LHR sector. I made it in the end, but it took a long time to get each sector restored one by one.

When I Travel The World

Great fares, but when i'm looking maybe 1 1/2 months in advance for tickets I don't see them. Sometimes I see the SWT on Megabus.com for that price, but never GWR.

FlyerTalker688786

Same here. Never saw that fare on GWR. On SWT there is only once or twice daily, no? Bristol and beyond remain to be a gold pot for railway companies. More competition for this route is needed.

MeltingAlf

BRS-LHR/LCY/LGW unfortunately too short to be viable I think, although the (relatively) recent completion of the runway lengthening is getting me hopes up for some new carriers.

I wonder what's the most common way for a Bristolian to fly intercontinentally, if we discount going into London. via AMS on KLM, via BRU on SN, or via DUB on EI? Certainly looking for ideas on the way forward when the time comes and I am more commonly based in BRS

bmibaby737

Although as the crow flies, CWL-LCY is only slightly longer than what BRS-LCY would be. Flybe are said to be getting the high yielding business passengers on this service by being quicker and more reliable than the train.