Rail rover journeys

[whole diary]

[trainbuff]

I will be 65 this summer and am thinking of giving myself a present of a 14 day All Line Rover ticket. If you had 14 days to travel Britain's railway lines, which ones would you say are the highlights which should definitely not be missed, and what towns would you definitely stop off at. (for the record, I've probably traveled on more than half the lines and know some very well but others only poorly and many, especially a lot of smaller branch lines, not at all).

Also, if anyone can confirm for me - I thought these tickets were not valid before 9am on weekdays, but looking at the National Rail website, it appears that they are only restricted on a small number of journeys before 10am from some towns along the London to Milton Keynes and Birmingham lines. So presumably they are valid for any other early morning journey, for instance the service that leaves just after 6am from Bath Spa to Edinburgh.

If you need to leave London before 10 am get a Chiltern train from Marylebone.
All Line Rovers used to be valid at any time of day on all trains, but some train operators have placed restrictions on their use at major stations on their arrivals and departures prior to 10 a.m.   Looking back many years ago, I did a couple of all line rovers and - living in south London - often started the journey with an early train into "town" and then a long distance jump from Euston or King's Cross - now not allowed because of the 10 a.m. there

Delighted to say that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) do not have the 10 a.m. restriction, and there are ways of mitigating it - I don't think you can leave Birmingham New Street early on a Virgin train, but you can catch a local to Wolverhampton and get on the Virgin train there.   National Rail Conditions of travel also allow you to switch from a point to point ticket to a leisure pass without stopping, and it's been suggested that this allows you to get on an early train at King's Cross if you hold a single to Finsbury Park and an all line rover. Not sure what the research outcome of that was / allowed or not.

Great fun tickets ... visited Alston in its final BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) days - thank goodness there's very little in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that you need to take in before it goes these days ...

[Reginald25]

The All Line Rover is an excellent way to spend a fortnight's holiday, but I would also recommend the shorter or single day rovers. One that I have used several times giving a wide choice of scenic and interesting locations is the 'valleys rover' in South Wales (Arriva Trains Wales) accessed of course from England by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)! At one time this also covered local buses but does not appear to do so now, but a day rover on the buses is inexpensive (and of course us England oldies can't use our bus passes in Wales).