How good are the trains here?
The Stansted Express seems too good to be true, ~2 hours trip between three cities I want to visit within a week...
I learned the hard way that German trains are very terrible, do the UK ones delay, get cancelled, or turn into standing-only often?
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>turn into standing-only often
yes
>delay
yes
>cancelled
yes they have developed a habit of going on strike every other week over the last couple of years
and they'll charge you 3x the price unless you book a few weeks in advance (with no flexibility to change the ticket easily if you need to)
so are there faster or better ways to get to York and then Hull from London or will I have to be stuck standing in a train for 9 hours?
You can get from London to Hull in like 4-5 hrs
t. do this very journey twice a year from KGX
York to Hull is probably like an hour on the local train
>Hull
Why the frick are you going to Hull mate?
why must I be subject to interrogation if I say I'm visiting any place other than London?
I just want to see what regular England looks like outside of the massive cities
England has some actually nice bits and you’re deliberately going to visit Hull, the unwashed wiener of the British Isles
the Yorkshire dales and the Peak District aren’t too far from hull and are comfy
let him be. he likes miseryporn.
I bet he visited the german shitholes in saxony and mecklenburg
People also keep necking themselves in front of London trains too, lost count of how many times it took me 2 hours to get home cause of that
Always have a backup option
I guess London-York is the one I have to worry about then
thanks for your responses
>turn into standing-only often
on commuter rail and the tube, yes
on long distance, where people have reservations, no
>delay
rarely imo
>cancelled
happens only with strikes and technical issues
there should be big advance warning about strikes
London-Edinburgh on £20 entails trekking out to stansted and being locked in a ryanair cattle pen for 2 hours, then 1 hour on the plane, then tram or expensive taxi into Edinburgh
take the train, it goes city centre to city centre, is much more comfortable, and overall cheaper (once you factor in door to door transport, and things like baggage + food)
>try and avoid Crosscountry trains, shitshow of a company that never run enough carriages.
transpennine express is also awful
Trains aren’t fantastic but they’re not too bad either. Download the Trainline app and you can find cheap (£20-£30) tickets between cities, even Exeter-London or London-Edinburgh routes.
Most trains will be on time or only late a couple minutes, it’s more metro lines and inner city ones that get cancelled for bulllshit reasons.
>Hull
Why on earth would you go there? At least Birmingham and Manchester have a nice city centre and good museums. Don’t go there.
i saw some pictures and it looks chill
it looks like a nice seaside place
Fair enough. Best coasts are in Cornwall and Devon, though. The north can be a bit depressing but there are nice spots up there. If you get the chance go down to see Exeter and Padstow, the weather’s better in the West Country and I reckon the coasts are too.
Scottish trains are good English trains are a mess of 7 different companies
Just buy the 49€ ticket in Germany and travel the hole.country
Get a coach in advance they price gouge you so fricking hard leaving from London. They know you have no choice
I've heard of people flying from cities in the UK to Spain or some other European country and then flying to a different UK city because it's cheaper and more reliable than getting the train there
These things are very variable
The price is ridiculous but they do usually run more or less to time. But there are arbitrary delays all the time.
Industrial relations with rail unions are poor so there are currently a lot of strikes. These have to be notified in advance so you can plan around them. The effects often spill over due to trains being in the wrong place.
You can get seat reservations on long distance trains which are sometimes ignored. Commuter trains have gotten better since covid as people wage from home.
Some U.K. rail journeys are kino as frick, eg the west highland lines to Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh
Long distance coaches are an alternative (cheap and nasty but it’s just a bus you can handle it). Flights an alternative for some longer journeys eg to Edinburgh.
Don’t do coaches. You can get flights between London and Edinburgh or Belfast for as little as £20 on Skiplagged. Unless you want a train or coach journey look around at different options.
>Skiplagged.
What a fricking meme, lol.
#
>Skiplagged.
What a fricking meme, lol.
>I learned the hard way that German trains are very terrible, do the UK ones delay, get cancelled, or turn into standing-only often?
People love to complain about the trains here because they're a nightmare when it goes wrong but they're actually good relative to the rest of Europe. 92% punctuality within 5 minutes, 97% within 10 minutes and 4% end up cancelled. Compare with your experience of Germany with 64% punctuality within 5 minutes (although Germany is particularly bad). That only puts the UK behind Switzerland, Netherlands and Luxembourg in Europe.
Pricing can be a joke if you don't know the system. Always book advance when possible and use split ticketing, there are sites that will do this automatically for you. Basically tickets are often cheaper when you buy for (e.g.) Edinburgh > Newcastle > London instead of a ticket for Edinburgh > London even though you are travelling on the same exact train and for the same set number mostly. Flights are often mentioned as an alternative to Edinburgh<>London train but having done both many times, journey time evens out to almost exactly the same so train is preferable as you can just sit and relax rather than tube/train>flight>tram + the other usual airport hassle.
There's also an app called seatfrog where you can bid for first class upgrades once you have your standard ticket booked. It gets you a bigger seat, quieter and mostly empty carriage, drinks and snacks at a minimum. Some operators like LNER will even serve a meal and alcohol too. Whatever you do, try and avoid Crosscountry trains, shitshow of a company that never run enough carriages.
>How good are the trains here?
Awful. Constant delays, cancellations and lateness. Many trains full during peak hours.
And it's the most expensive rail travel in Europe. Worst service, most expensive.
>Worst service
Not even close, punctuality is one of the best. Overcrowding is a problem but not an outlier with the rest of Europe. People don't seem to realise how awful trains in other countries can be.
>Most expensive
Absolutely on most measures. Most expensive per km, most expensive tickets on day of travel, most expensive monthly tickets etc. BUT advance fares are some of the lowest across Europe and return fares are not amongst the most expensive as there tends to be little difference between a single and return ticket here compared to most European countries which charge a return as 2 x single price. For OP and other tourists, high fares won't really be a problem unless they need to change travel plans short notice. They will be overwhelmingly booking advance and off-peak tickets.
I never had trouble there. Brits just overstate their shittiness. Coming from NA they are friggin amazing, efficient, get you where you want to go. Sure they might be five or ten minutes late from time to time, but on holiday does that really matter?