London to Birmingham Cheapest??

paragp

HI there

I need to go from London to Birmingham New Street station on the 11th of july - need to be there before 9:30am and leave at 4:30pm.
Whats the cheapest and or quickest way to do this???
thanks

notakid

Hi
Chiltern Main Line are the cheapest fares from London to Birmingham so I would assume the same applies the other way round! You go from London Marybone and arrive in Birmingham Snow Hill or Birmingham Moor St both are 5 mins from New St. The journey is slightly longer than Virgin but not by much.
Check out
http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/content.php?nID=news&ID=12&yID=
I'm sure it will be cheaper than Virgin esp as you need to arrive before 9:30

LesD

Megabus can't get you there by 9.30 a.m., but they'll get you back for £8. Takes 3 hours though!!!!!!

Seriously, Chiltern is POUNDS cheaper. £25.50 compared with Virgin's £108!!!

So....

Virgin Euston-New Street 1.5 hours £108 return.

Chiltern Marylebone-MoorStreet/Snow Hill 2.25 hours £25.50 return.

bunking_off

Wouldn't suggest for one moment that Virgin are cheapest, but you'd have to be seriously mad to pay the £108 full fare if you do travel with them.

Taking a quick look at their booking site for the day in question you can get an Advance Standard B out at £36 (leave Euston 0708, arrive 0841), and a Value Advance Single B return at £13 (leave New St 1645 on Central trains, change at Rugby onto Virgin). Alternatively, pay £24 for an advanced standard C and you can get a direct train (leave New St 1700, arrive 1833).

For both of these tickets, you'd be locked onto travelling on these particular trains, no changes allowed.

It's down to whether you need flexibility, and how important your time is - Virgin take approx 90 mins, Chiltern 130.

LesD

bunking_off wrote:

Wouldn't suggest for one moment that Virgin are cheapest, but you'd have to be seriously mad to pay the £108 full fare if you do travel with them.

Yep - should have checked the two-singles option. Still leaves Chiltern at half their price tho'!

Now for the serious part. This is the second question in a week or so where the OP hasn't come back to acknowledge an answer.

I'm thinking of starting a name-and-shame thread so we don't waste our time in the future!

bunking_off

Good point.

Main reason I posted is that it frightens me how many people I see on Virgin Trains who have paid full fare (or at least their company has...I make a point out of listening out for clues of the company concerned then avoiding such profligate organisations like the plague...)

Perhaps we should also start a campaign on my favourite bug-bear...the mysteriously disappearing fares. I need a ticket for Thursday on VT; the fallback fare is always the Advance B or A as they're always available if a little pricey. If I look there at the moment, no sign...insistence on full-fare. I know if I take a look over the next couple of days they'll mysteriously appear again. This happens time & time again, and it's always obvious because there's no discount tickets on any trains in a given period. You get the same result regardless of which booking agency is used. Be interested to know if it's a fault on the main booking engine, or something more nefarious...