flybe

[Thorn]

They are not limited at all.
Just book 12 weeks in advance for the best price when they are released.
The restriction is only that it is for one train only, so no flexibility.
I can still get to London from Manchester off peak on Monday next for £42.
In my experience the public can’t get enough of them. The train from Manchester to Edinburgh starts at the airport. If you don’t get on at the airport it’s standing room only all the way.
I was in London two weeks ago for a jolly and the 10.56 Manchester to London was rammed as was the return evening train two days later.

The number of cheap tickets is limited, and the times of the trains on which cheap tickets are available are not always convenient. Moreover, you have to know that you need to travel well in advance.
If I'm going to London for leisure, I can work round the limitations. If something crops up that requires me to travel, not so.
Time was when I could walk into the station, buy a cheap day return and get on the first train thereafter.

 

[tqineil]

https://www.sleeper.scot/caledonian...PDLZYrXVC3FhqZ7JvKWlffalzHHFDKw3xUOZ8KIcKsLek

Nice PR there, I’ve used it and drink is frequently involved

 

[gintonic]

Nice PR there, I’ve used it and drink is frequently involved

new rolling stock is great. We've an ensuite double next up to Inverness

 

[Richard Lines]

unless I go back to three day round trips to Aberdeen by car.

This is the kind of 'needless' travel which airlines facilitate which needs to be addressed and curtailed. This isn't getting at anyone person more the philosophy.

The oil companies are bad for this (although I imagine other industries might also be) in that they allow people to commute like this in the first place. As I keep saying there is a need for some fundamental changes in attitudes that have been formed in the last 40 years or so which hinge around the concept of 'cheap' transport.

As for the whichever cretin it was suggesting (up here in Scotland I think) suggesting we should abandon APD, if anything it should be increased considerably.

Regards

Richard

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

This is the kind of 'needless' travel which airlines facilitate which needs to be addressed and curtailed. This isn't getting at anyone person more the philosophy.

The oil companies are bad for this (although I imagine other industries might also be) in that they allow people to commute like this in the first place. As I keep saying there is a need for some fundamental changes in attitudes that have been formed in the last 40 years or so which hinge around the concept of 'cheap' transport.

As for the whichever cretin it was suggesting (up here in Scotland I think) suggesting we should abandon APD, if anything it should be increased considerably.

Regards

Richard

So let’s all move to London?

 

[k90tour]

There should be no case for short haul aviation in a country with a developed railway network. We have them in the developing world because the railways are very limited and some areas are only otherwise reachable by boat.
The UK has an incredibly expensive to use rail system that has been asset stripped for decades

I quite agree. I was amazed when I met my wife at Nantes Airport. She had been working in Paris so we met up at Nantes. The plane was packed, even though there's a TGV service.

Edit: I should add that the organisation she was visiting were arranging travel and had originally booked her an Air France flight back to London and so decided to change the booking to Nantes for our convenience.

 

[k90tour]

Is it just me, or is the UK’s air a little cleaner?

Indeed .
Did anybody see the NASA graphics of pollution over China, before and after the travel restrictions imposed there and the resulting slowdown of factories? I'm amazed I haven't heard more about this.
If ever there was an illustration of Western consumerism killing the planet, this is it.

 

[tqineil]

new rolling stock is great. We've an ensuite double next up to Inverness

nice, I’m only familiar with the old stock tbh... bit rickety but a marvellous journey to Inverness ... enjoy

 

[davidsrsb]

So let’s all move to London?

No, let's move jobs out of London and agree to keep them in one place for several years. Companies are far too keen to keep "restructuing" (chasing a lower rental) and hopping around the country.

 

[Richard Lines]

So let’s all move to London?

We all need to start adjusting what we do and the way we think, the whole of our society has been geared to cheap and readily available transport for the last 50 - 60years and it is difficult to easily conceive of alternatives.

It's akin to saying to a teenager can you imagine life before mobile phones.

Most plane journeys are not NECESSARY and that's a fact

Regards

Richard

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

No, let's move jobs out of London and agree to keep them in one place for several years. Companies are far too keen to keep "restructuing" (chasing a lower rental) and hopping around the country.

But if we move stuff out of London - decentralise (which I support BTW) - then that almost guarantees a requirement for more travelling around. If travel is to be curtailed, we all need to be in the same place. Which is London, realistically, for the U.K.

I understand Richard Lines’ point, and agree to some extent, but the best solution is carbon neutral travel, not increasing isolation, IMHO.