Weekend of Travel - Advice Needed

callumisme

Between December 6th-8th I am planning to travel the length of the country to watch 4 premier league football matches.

I live in Southampton and a brief summary of the games I'm planning on seeing are as follows:
Newcastle v Chelsea (Sat 12:30)
Man City v Everton (Sat 17:30)
West Ham v Swansea (Sun 13:30)
Southampton v Man Utd (Mon 20:00)

I have been planning to travel up to Newcastle by plane then get a train all the way back down to England. However because of the many stops to visit these grounds and the multiple days I need separate train tickets.

I do have friends in Newcastle and Birmingham for me to stay at Friday and Saturday night with me arriving home on Sunday evening so this isn't an issue. So far though with football tickets and travel costs I think I'm looking at about £400 on this weekend.

Has anyone got any suggestions for what I can do to try and get this down at all

Thanks

p00hsticks

It's unfortunate you don't have friends in Manchester - Virgin have £19 advance fares from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston trains on the Sunday morning, which I suspect wil be cheaper than Manchester -> Birmingham and Birmingham -> London

If you give the breakdown cost you've arrived at for each of the legs we'd know what we need to better....

cookie365

It's about 2 and a half hours from Newcastle to Piccadilly, that's going to be tight if the games start 5 hours apart.

joerugby

The Newcastle v Chelsea game is 1245 k/o making your timings even tighter

callumisme

Sorry yeah 12:45

Here's the plan
Friday
Train from Southampton to Newcastle 07:00 (£60)
Stay overnight hopefully at friends up there

Saturday
12:45 Game kicks off (£25)
14:38 Game finishes (based this weeks 12:45 kick off)
14:44 Train leaves Newcastle (Right next to stadium)
15:40 Get off at York
15:53 Train leaves York
17:13 Arrives at Manchester Piccadilly (again right next to Stadium) (£62.70) This one isn't really negotiable as I need to urgently get to the stadium)
17:30 Man City game kicks off (£32)
19:23 Game finishes
20:07 Train leaves Manchester
21:32 Arrives at Birmingham New Street (£10.40)
Sleep at Friends in Birmingham
Sunday
08:30 Train leaves Birmingham
10:28 Get off at London Euston
10:43 Leaves Euston
11:22 Get off at London Fenchurch
11:50 Leaves Fenchurch
11:59 Arrives at West Ham (£37.70)
13:30 West Ham game kicks off (£43)
15:23 Game finishes
16:05 Train leaves West Ham
16:39 Get off at London Waterloo
16:54 Leaves Waterloo
19:17 Arrive to my local train station in Southampton (£39.50)

Monday
Drive to Southampton game as that's where I live (£35 - ticket)

Would be me and hopefully my friend going. If not then just me. We would likely have to leave 5 minutes before Full Time in the Newcastle game. Can anyone think of any ways to save a bit of money for this trip as currently looking at about £345 each.

wealdroam

I'll just tackle the Sunday:

Leave Birmingham Moor Street at 08:25 and arrive at London Marylebone at 10:24. Advance Singles are currently available at £15.00 for that bit.
At Marylebone, buy an offpeak Travelcard* for zones 1-6 at £8.90 and travel by the Hammersmith & City line to Upton Park.
After the match, use the same Travelcard to get to Waterloo... From Upton Park, change at West Ham (or walk to West Ham) to the Jubilee Line.
Sorry, no cheap ways of getting back to Soton that day, unless you consider National Express coach from Victoria coach station.


*you could use a contactless payment card or Oyster instead of travelcard if you wish... would be cheaper at £2.70 each way. But if you are thinking of cash fares, then a Travelcard is cheaper than cash.

cookie365

callumisme wrote: »

Sorry yeah 12:45

Here's the plan
Friday
Train from Southampton to Newcastle 07:00 (£60)
Stay overnight hopefully at friends up there

Saturday
12:45 Game kicks off (£25)
14:38 Game finishes (based this weeks 12:45 kick off)
14:44 Train leaves Newcastle (Right next to stadium)
15:40 Get off at York
15:53 Train leaves York
17:13 Arrives at Manchester Piccadilly (again right next to Stadium) (£62.70) This one isn't really negotiable as I need to urgently get to the stadium)
17:30 Man City game kicks off (£32)
19:23 Game finishes
20:07 Train leaves Manchester
21:32 Arrives at Birmingham New Street (£10.40)
Sleep at Friends in Birmingham
Sunday
08:30 Train leaves Birmingham
10:28 Get off at London Euston
10:43 Leaves Euston
11:22 Get off at London Fenchurch
11:50 Leaves Fenchurch
11:59 Arrives at West Ham (£37.70)
13:30 West Ham game kicks off (£43)
15:23 Game finishes
16:05 Train leaves West Ham
16:39 Get off at London Waterloo
16:54 Leaves Waterloo
19:17 Arrive to my local train station in Southampton (£39.50)

Monday
Drive to Southampton game as that's where I live (£35 - ticket)

Would be me and hopefully my friend going. If not then just me. We would likely have to leave 5 minutes before Full Time in the Newcastle game. Can anyone think of any ways to save a bit of money for this trip as currently looking at about £345 each.

St James Park is about a 10 minute walk away from Newcastle station, and that assumes you don't have 20000 other people getting in your way.

The Etihad is by no means right next to Piccadilly station, it's about 2k away. If you can actually get on a tram it's about 20 minutes, walking about half an hour, again without taking into account swimming through the crowds.

callum9999

Even assuming the trains run on time to the second, the match starts right on time and there are no delays throughout the game, I think it's virtually impossible for you to see the end of the first game and beginning of the second game. I've never been to Newcastle's stadium but I wouldn't wager allowing only 10 minutes to get from your seat inside the stadium to your seat on the train. The website says it's a 15 minute walk so to get on a 14:44 train I wouldn't count on leaving any later than about quarter past.

It would make much more sense if you just chose one of them (the London game being the obvious choice) and used the money saved to see another game in the near future - especially as you're on a budget.

p00hsticks

callumisme wrote: »

Would be me and hopefully my friend going. If not then just me. We would likely have to leave 5 minutes before Full Time in the Newcastle game. Can anyone think of any ways to save a bit of money for this trip as currently looking at about £345 each.

If you and your friend go then one obvious way to save money is to spend £30 (or even better, £15 in Tesco vouchers if you have them) on getting a 'Two Together' railcard that will give you both a third off your fares - at the prices you quote you'd more than recoup the cost of the card on just the first leg of the journey.

But I agree with other posters -your timings generally look far too tight. In the case of both Newcastle and Man City the stadia aren't right next to the stations, so you need to allow more time there. Im my opinion you'd be better focussing on one or two matches only.

yorkie2

You will have to leave the Newcastle game early, for 3 reasons:
1) You will need to get ahead of the crowd (otherwise you won't be able to board the train because it would already be full, additionally the crowd will slow you down)
2) You cannot go from seat to train in the allotted time even if no-one else got in your way;
3) You actually need to get a train that arrives earlier into Manchester anyway, as that's an unrealistic transfer too!