Train travel

Nero said:
I never understand why people use Trainline. Book directly with LNER. It’s a better deal and keeps money in the public system.
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Totally agree. Last year a party of 6 of us had booked direct with LNER from Kings Cross to Darlington, got to our seats, sat down waiting for the train to leave. A lady with her mother and 2 children arrived and asked us to move as we were in her seats. Said we had booked these seats and had tickets to prove, she asked to see the tickets which we showed her. She wasn’t happy and was very abusive asking how we had booked her seats. We had booked direct with LNER, her mistake was booking with train line. Trainline don’t know which seats LNER have sold, the guard who tried to calm her down found her other seats and recommended she use the LNER App in future to guarantee your seat.
 
1finny said:
We dumped our cars over a year ago.
We use train for almost all our travelling to see friends, family, airports etc

It’s such a low hassle, comfortable way to travel.
I can’t recall any major problems of delays, cancellations - and we have had a helluva lot of journeys.

Saved loads v car expenses too.
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You've been lucky or don't travel on match days!
Until the last couple of away games it was rare to have a trip without delays/cancellations/ ridiculous overcrowding.
I tend to use Trainline for convenience. For the frequent delay/repay claims I just go direct to the operator and that works fine.

I would say Lner/zumo are the best and transpennine by far the worst.
 
Jan_Aage_Fjortoft said:
Where you travelling from? 53 mins from Boro on average.

What annoys me most is the difference in prices when you buy on the day. Don't just mean for long distance. But I often have to get a train to Sunderland. If I buy an advanced single can get it for as low as £3.60 with a few days notice. On the day its £12.90 as they only sell one type of ticket. Off Peak single. No options for a specific train. I can understand a bit more expensive or if it was demand related but it's not for those reasons other than it's the only type of ticket on offer.

The prices just discourage spur of the moment travel to places on the train.

Oh and trains where they skip stations seem pretty pointless. Sunderland to Middlesbrough is about 58 mins when it stops at every station. Because of the speed restrictions it only knocks off a couple of mins when they do the version with only a stop at Thornaby and Hartlepool before Sunderland. Might as well do all the stops (about 9?) seems there is barely any time saved.
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Yep, means if you fancy a spontaneous day trip out its usuallly far too expensive to go on the train as a family. Often just one fare costs more than the petrol and parking.
 
From Nunthorpe to Durham.
Booked the night before, one adult and one child with rail card £16

Bit of a faff coming home. Now able to change in Darlo
 
SilentProf said:
I’ve always thought there should be dedicated trains taking fans to every away game and back. I’m sure the logistics would be a nightmare but it would make the experience so much easier if we could go direct with no stops.
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In the "old" days there were just such trains, football specials that took fans to away games non stop. Especially cup games.
 
Update….

Seatfrog got us upgrades for the return for £42 for the pair… so even more relaxing… even if were traveling backwards lol
 
Trug said:
In the "old" days there were just such trains, football specials that took fans to away games non stop. Especially cup games.
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I used to love football specials, you could pay on the day, they were really cheap, they were usually old rolling stock, with the big old bouncy seats in carriages or occasionally you had some with the compartments.. a real mixture of fans used to use them. Really good for night matches were thee was a lack of regular services. I came back from Sunderland in the league cup.match in the old 2nd Division on one of them, that was after using regular trains to get up there. In my time , there was always transport police on the train and you would be welcomed with a police escort at the destination, some forces were fine and friendly, Sunderland police were absolute *****.
The last time I used one was at Boothferry park, when we played at Hull on Easter Monday under the old 2nd division promotion season under Rioch, me and a mate had gone down really early on the regular service for a few drinks in the quay area, the game had ended in stalemate which was only highlighted by Boro fans being able to climb over the rotating spikes at the end of the match which led to a massive on pitch brawl, We decided to get the special back, which was parked up right next to the away end , that would save a maybe fraught walk back down Analby road with the now really angry Hull fans all around us to the train station. Funny old days where , ticket inspection and checking wasn't as tight as it could be.
I would love for the Special to come back.
 
LeeMiller said:
From Nunthorpe to Durham.
Booked the night before, one adult and one child with rail card £16

Bit of a faff coming home. Now able to change in Darlo
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That's a decent price for the UK, but I've just bought tickets for Sorrento to Naples (about an hour) for less than that.

And when I say less than that, I mean for two adult returns.

Until UK prices fall back to more affordable and attractive prices, our railways will continue to struggle I think.
 
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