Train travel in the UK

"Darby Jo" wrote
| I'm traveling with some family members to the UK next spring.
| We'd like to spend some time in London and then take some trips
| to Bath, York, and Cambridge. Most of us would like to plan our
| own trip, but my mother would prefer an organized tour and for
| some reason is extremely reticent to take a train. This is what
| she said:
| "I had some questions about train travel in GB, so I called my
| travel agent, and here is what she told me. They NEVER recommend
| that you check your luggage on a train, because chances are good
| you may never see it again.

You can't do that anyway, as others have said.

| What you do is take it on with you,
| and then you have to lift it to the overhead compartment.

There are also storage areas at the end of the carriage and often at floor
level between the seat backs.

Travelling London-York (GNER trains on the East Coast Main Line) there will
be uniformed GNER staff on the platform helping people on and off the train.
I would expect that Bath and Cambridge are also well-equipped for handling
tourists with suitcases.

London King's Cross is level access to all platforms.
York has a Lift available from station concourse (Platform 3) to Platforms
5-11. Customer assistance available - "Call for Aid" button by taxi rank at
front of station. Accessible toilets on Platform 2.
Bath may involve steps/ramps to platforms.
Cambridge has level access to platforms.

All checked at Serco station information database
http://www.serco-online.com/html/sta..._home_atoc.asp


| Also, unless you are taking a train from a major city and returning
| to that major city, the trains are like metros--they arrive on time,
| and leave on time,

well, mostly :-)

| and if you aren't at the head of the line you may not get on.

What line? You wait along the platform about where your carriage will stop
and then get your reserved seat. If the staff are feeling organised that day
and they haven't got the train 'in reverse formation' there will often be
signs on the platform for 'wait here for coaches A-B-C' etc.

| There are no boarding calls.

I was in York a few months back and they have very clear announcements and
plasma information screens. The long distance trains will be announced and
indicated up to an hour before departure. Other major stations will be the
same.[1] You will also get announcements on the train about 5-10 minutes
before arrival at a station to give you time to leave your seat and collect
your luggage together.

| This would be like the metro in Paris, and we had to wait several
| times for the next one. We might not have the option of another
| train coming along in a smaller town."

Outside commuter routes at rush hour, trains simply don't get that crowded.
Obviously if a train gets cancelled, the one following it is going to be
crowded and your seat reservation will count for nothing. But your chances
of getting a seat are still fairly good.

If the last train home at night is cancelled then buses or taxis will be
laid on to get you home.

And Bath, York and Cambridge aren't really 'smaller towns' in a British
sense.

| How do I convince her that it's really not so difficult, that we
| can manage just fine taking a train on our own and really don't
| need a bus tour? I don't know what to say to make her see that
| trains are perfectly manageable, even with luggage.

Trains have:

Loos
Coffee bars/restaurants and/or a trolley service of drinks and light
refreshments
Nicer views
2x2 seating arrangements with a table on intercity, so you can sit together
and play cards or scrabble
Mobile phone free carriages (sometimes)
If you want something from your suitcase during the journey you can get it,
which you can't on a bus because it's in an outside locker
Atmosphere

And train stations are usually much nicer than bus stations for waiting
around in.

As I understand it, you're travelling as a group anyway, so it's not as
though she'd have to cope with trains/luggage on her own. My mother managed
a trip with three changes and a pull-along suitcase on her own and I won't
say how old she is.

Owain


[1] You can even check these on line at
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ldb/fs_departures.asp

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 21:47:42 +0100, "Owain"
wrote:

Travelling London-York (GNER trains on the East Coast Main Line) there will
be uniformed GNER staff on the platform helping people on and off the train.
I would expect that Bath and Cambridge are also well-equipped for handling
tourists with suitcases.

Ther's nothingparticulrly special about Cambridge. It's jsut a
station and I've not seen anyone helping anyone. But it's not a
station on a manor through route.

London King's Cross is level access to all platforms.

Including platform 9 3/4.

[...]

| Also, unless you are taking a train from a major city and returning
| to that major city, the trains are like metros--they arrive on time,
| and leave on time,

well, mostly :-)

Let's face it, I don't ride Brit trains but once every couple of
years and one time as we were headed for a connection for
Eurostar from Cambridge the train suddenty began an alternate
route and was going to be very late to Kings Cross; we were with
one of the major train buffs in England and even he was puzzled.
We had to get off at the first station that had an Underground
connection and hustle to Waterloo Station. Not the first time a
Brit train was at least a bit late, either. What are the odds?

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Owain wrote:

If the last train home at night is cancelled then buses or taxis will be
laid on to get you home.

A year or three ago, there was a major delay on the Inverness-Wick train -
they had mechanical problems, and were waiting for replacement carriages.
When I spoke to the man in charge, asking him when I could expect the train
to leave (so I would know whether or not I would make my connection to the
PostBus in Lairg), he laid on a taxi for me, at no charge. I made my
connection - there's only one PostBus a day, and it was the day of the big
Lairg lamb sale - I wouldn't have been able to get a room there for the
night.
On another occasion, people who live down the road from me were taken by
taxi all the way home from Inverness, when there was a problem with their
train.
And I've never had a problem finding room for my bags at the end of the
carriage.

"Owain" wrote
| "Darby Jo" wrote
| | I'm traveling with some family members to the UK next spring.
| | We'd like to spend some time in London and then take some trips
| | to Bath, York, and Cambridge. Most of us would like to plan our
| | own trip, but my mother would prefer an organized tour and for
| | some reason is extremely reticent to take a train. This is what
| | she said: ...
| | This would be like the metro in Paris, and we had to wait several
| | times for the next one. We might not have the option of another
| | train coming along in a smaller town."

And ...

If you take an organised bus tour you MUST get that bus, otherwise it either
leaves without you (leaving you stranded) or waits for you (and you have the
wrath of your fellow passengers to face for the rest of the tour).

Owain