NUTS - 4th April 09 - Newcastle

[andycookuk]

Originally Posted by mattsmith

Leave the train out of it for Sheffield to Newcastle. National Express will totally rip you off. You *could* get the 5.30am Northern Rail service out of Sheffield on the Saturday and change and Doncaster for the bargain price of £9.50, but you'll not get back that way - there's no way you'll get Newcastle TO Sheffield for under £45 at any time, ever.

You'd be better off using the Megabus service which uses the Meadowhall Interchange. Leave Sheffield Friday evening at 8pm, arrive in Newcastle at 11.10pm for £11.50.
Going back is a pain because there's no journeys to Sheffield between ~12pm on Sunday and 1am on Monday. If you don't mind the late-night travel then it's similarly £11-£15 depending when you go.

hey, that's some mean internet searching Matt, thanks! Next NUTS I'll deff make sure I'll get tickets straight away and look at some more... flexible travelling arrangements.

[rant]

It makes me really angry at how awful this countries public transport system is. It's crushingly expensive and poor! Not just nationally but locally as well (at least where I live). It's hypocritical that the government is trying to encourage us to get our of our cars and onto public transport to cut our carbon emissions when it's so much cheaper to use cars and so much easier. It's just wrong that it should be run as a business where we have to pay extortionate fairs to essentially make money for the bosses of what should be a public service.

[/rant]

Think I'm gonna save my money this time. Thanks for the offer tho Joe!
Have to see everyone at BUC. Can't wait! who's goin this year

[mattsmith]

Without wanting to threadjack into a condemnation of UK public transport, I just want to say that I feel your pain Andy I really do. Carbon footprints aside, car ownership is often the the cheapest way to get around in this country, especially if it's split between couples. My GF has a car that she kindly shares with me. The annual cost of running it including tax, insurance and 20 litres of petrol every other week is under £1200 per year. By contrast 2 local bus passes was £1352 per year for 2007 (when I last bought them), the same tickets will now cost £1560 (although they're now a good deal cheaper if you can afford to fork out for the whole year up front). Plus with the car, you go where you want when you want, and there's no arguments about whether you're allowed to carry your unicycle on with you. A weekend at my brother's place in Harrogate last week cost about an extra 10 litres of petrol (at 88.9p per litre) split between 2 people. The same journey on the train would have cost just short of £100.

As for the Mega Bus, I've not used it myself, but my folks constantly flit to and from London on it for a few quid each. It takes all day, but if you book a couple of weeks in advance it can cost less per person to make a 600 mile round trip than it does for me to get a one-way ticket into work.