Cars and Trains

A small but very annoying point about train travel!

I’m trying to plan a trip to Manchester next Wednesday for the wife and myself.

You’d think that living in Newmarket that the simple thing would be to use Central Trains from Ely. However they operate a pricing policy which means it would be nearly £300 for two to go to Manchester, if you want more than a couple of hours there. And you have to book three days in advance to go cheaper.

The best option would have been Rio from Kettering, but someone in their wisdom stopped that one, as it would have competed with Virgin, despite being very useful for those in the east who want to go north.

So I then found that a good way of going would be to go to Rugby and then take Virgin. Affordable at £140 for two and also a walk-up fare!

But can I found out whether I can park the car at Rugby? Of course not! Most rail companies seem to expect you to just arrive at stations as if by magic. There are exceptions, but certainly not Virgin. And you can’t get any sense out of their phone lines! This echoes the trouble I had recently, when I went from London to see Ipswich play Coventry at their new stadium. No-one had a clue about how to get from the station to the ground. And that included the council as well!

I’ve often threatened writing a web site something on the lines of FriendsReunited, where people contribute their experiences for UK stations. And especially parking and the interchange!

If we want more people to use public transport, then we must get everything joined up and that string must be documented on the web.