Great Western Coffee Shop

I am looking into the cheapest way to get to Blackpool from Langley in April.

The fist ticket I looked at was just a standard ticket from Langley to Blackpool, which came back as a two standard open singles at over ^200! So I started looking at alternatives.

Because I only live just down the road from Heathrow I looked at flying. Unfortunately there are no flights to Blackpool from any London airport that I know of, so I looked at flying to Manchester and getting the train to Blackpool.

Here is a breakdown of what I have found so far:

BMI Heathrow to Manchester (return) plus train fair to Blackpool= ^90.90

Train Euston to Blackpool saver return ^67 (not convenient times) +approx ^10 to get to Euston from Langley total =^77

Reading-Blackpool ^72 (two singles) + approx ^10 to get to reading total ^82

And I found the best price to fly to Manchester ^36 (BMI) get the train to Blackpool ^15.20, coming back get the train from Blackpool to Reading ^12.50 and then ^8.50 to get back to Langley, total price of ^72.20

No wonder so many people would rather fly domestically, if the price difference is as little as that.

Don't forget to try splitting tickets at various destinations - Birmingham New Street and Crewe are good places to split tickets if on the CrossCountry route.

I tried splitting the tickets at Birmingham and Preston, but I cant get the price down on. I want to travel on a Friday evening, its not that there are not any cheap tickets they are just not available for the times I want to travel. I can get a cheap ticket back from Blackpool on a Sunday but the cheapest I can find going up on a Friday is about ^70.

I suggest you go and buy it on the Virgin Trains website - you may be able to get the Saver Half RTN ticket which is only valid with advance purchase on the other "portion" of your journey. It's essentially a single fare.

Thanks for the tip on the virgin website, it is slightly cheaper ^70 total cost but that is comparable to flying at ^72 and flying saves 2 hours off my journey time (including an hour at the airport to check in)

Is that comparable to travel costs to the airport though? ;) And additional journey times to/from the airport, etc.

yeah the ^72 for the plane includes the cost of getting from Manchester airport and I am only a 15 minute ^1 bus journey from Heathrow, its about 6hrs on the train and 4 on the plane, 1 hour for check in and boarding and hour flying then another 2hours form the airport to Blackpool.

You're obviously more confident flying from T1 than I am.  I would regard arriving in the terminal area 1 hr before departure as cutting it extremely fine - security queues can easily be 20 minutes. Or will it be T5 by then?

But if you are only 15 minutes by bus then you're close enough to make the plane more competitive time wise than most people who have to allow at least 1 hr, if not substantially more to get to LHR. 

Its actually BMI who fly from T1, but T5 opens in March so some of the flights from T1 will have moved, also BA were not much more expensive, I could go with them presumably from T5.

Think about the environment-

-go by rail.

Think about the poor people near Heathrow-

-go by rail.

Book ahead, get a seat reservation, get a cheaper ticket.

Go greener, go cheaper.

Go by rail.

Chances are heathrow was there first - buy near the biggest airport in the country..........what do you expect

Can I add the US to that list as well?

Only if we can list them in reverse alphabetical order, Timmer!

Of course we can Phil.

But my point is that it is not any cheaper than the train!

I live near Heathrow and I don^t mind the planes, I would not have bought a house here if I did, most people have moved in after the airport.

To get people away from planes and on the trains they need to make them competitively priced and reduce journey times. Why is anyone going to get the train over the plane when the cost is the same and the plane is 2 hours quicker?

Although I do sympathise with people protesting against the third runway, the third runway will be mainly for short haul domestic and European flights, if the government had the sense to invest in a decent rail infrastructure there would be no need for this third runway!

Boris wants an Airport built in the Thames Estuary instead of Third Runway- what do you think of that!

I understand everyone's points, I was merely doing a copy of the Virgin Trains adverts ("go greener, go cheaper" etc.).

BUT:

As Tesco say- "Every little helps"

With China and India, all must be done.

And yes, the gov need to invest in "High Speed 2" to B'ham and Manchester (+ poss Glasgow), and "High Speed 3" to the West (Bristol and the like- noting that part of Brunel's line could be used easily for 140mph+). They need to axe Ebbesfleet, and revert to Ashford. Ebbfleet will just cause congestion on the local roads, seeing as CrossRail will not be extended there!

Anyway, back to the point, I would prefer to get the train than to fly, even if it is a little more mon^y.

The price comparisons between rail and air are even more marked on Eurostar and beyond.

Basically you can get to Berlin by train in a day 11 hours  leave  London 08:05 arrive just after  19:00 ( it's easier coming back because plus hour).  And I've got to add probaly 2 hours to  get to St pancras. Flight even getting to airport 1 hour plus 2 hour check 2 hour flight and 1 hour to centre. Is only 6 hours.

But fares for rail are likely to be double. ^100 v ^200 roughly.

Pity because it's an ICE 3 from Bruxelles to Koln and an ICE 2 onwards.
 

Blackpool is a lot faster from London than it used to be thanks to the West Coast Modernisation Programme. Tilt!

Network Rail recently put forward relevant proposals. (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1535.msg9814#msg9814