Ayman Ilham
Member
UPDATE: I actually did the All Line Rover the week after posting this, as you can see below on this thread. I managed to get a hotel for an overnight stay in Plymouth, which allowed me to also cover Cornwall. Everything else was manageable within the constraints of returning home on the same day. As of January 2024, I have finally edited and uploaded all six videos of the week. For the list of cities I had in mind to visit with the rover within this post, I've marked with those which I managed to visit and spend at least an hour in and for those I've set foot in, but didn't have time to explore properly.
ORIGINAL POST:
I am planning to do a 7-day All-Line Rover soon (£376.80 w/ 16-25 Railcard), possibly starting this Saturday or Sunday, but should I wait it out till after 15th August or will the current strikes not affect that many services for me to visit the places I want to? What I plan to do is visit as many of the cities that I haven't yet visited in Great Britain as possible. I'm based in Blackburn, Lancashire and since I've visited every city in the North and Midlands, all my target cities are either down South (closest to me I haven't yet visited are Oxford, Peterborough and Gloucester) or far up in Scotland (just got three left up there), oh and St Davids in Wales which (due to the T11 bus not being timed well with trains at Haverfordwest) is probably impossible unless I stay overnight somewhere. I'll separate cities I haven't yet visited into different groups, so you can suggest itineraries (doesn't necessarily have to be exact timetables, but a rough idea of what cities I can fit into each of the 7 days) that would work better for each day that would allow me to spend at least an hour in each city and return home on the same day. However, I might squeeze in a Night Riviera for one day so Cornwall (and thus Truro) will be possible, since Plymouth is as far as I could possibly go before I need to return to Preston just before the last train home. Cities in italics are a maybe.
West Country:
Gloucester
Bristol
Bath
Wells (via 376 bus from Bristol)
Salisbury
Exeter
Plymouth
Truro
South England:
Oxford
Reading (not officially a city, but behaves too much like one to not call it one)
Southampton
Portsmouth
Bournemouth (another de-facto city like Reading)
Chichester
Canterbury
Rochester (we can pretend it never lost its city status in 1998)
East Anglia:
Colchester
Chelmsford
Southend
St Albans
Peterborough
Ely
Scotland:
Perth
Aberdeen
Inverness
Wales:
St Davids (requires T11 bus from Haverfordwest)
Some cities from different region groups can possibly be combined within a day due to their proximity, such as Salisbury with Southampton & Portsmouth. Also, thanks to HS1, I could combine Canterbury with St Albans (via St Pancras), or with Chelmsford, Colchester & Southend (via Stratford). How do you think I will manage with the current circumstances and would it be more worthwhile to spread it out using split ticket combos and the South West Rover instead of the ALR?
ORIGINAL POST:
I am planning to do a 7-day All-Line Rover soon (£376.80 w/ 16-25 Railcard), possibly starting this Saturday or Sunday, but should I wait it out till after 15th August or will the current strikes not affect that many services for me to visit the places I want to? What I plan to do is visit as many of the cities that I haven't yet visited in Great Britain as possible. I'm based in Blackburn, Lancashire and since I've visited every city in the North and Midlands, all my target cities are either down South (closest to me I haven't yet visited are Oxford, Peterborough and Gloucester) or far up in Scotland (just got three left up there), oh and St Davids in Wales which (due to the T11 bus not being timed well with trains at Haverfordwest) is probably impossible unless I stay overnight somewhere. I'll separate cities I haven't yet visited into different groups, so you can suggest itineraries (doesn't necessarily have to be exact timetables, but a rough idea of what cities I can fit into each of the 7 days) that would work better for each day that would allow me to spend at least an hour in each city and return home on the same day. However, I might squeeze in a Night Riviera for one day so Cornwall (and thus Truro) will be possible, since Plymouth is as far as I could possibly go before I need to return to Preston just before the last train home. Cities in italics are a maybe.
West Country:
Gloucester
Bristol
Bath
Wells (via 376 bus from Bristol)
Salisbury
Exeter
Plymouth
Truro
South England:
Oxford
Reading (not officially a city, but behaves too much like one to not call it one)
Southampton
Portsmouth
Bournemouth (another de-facto city like Reading)
Chichester
Canterbury
Rochester (we can pretend it never lost its city status in 1998)
East Anglia:
Colchester
Chelmsford
Southend
St Albans
Peterborough
Ely
Scotland:
Perth
Aberdeen
Inverness
Wales:
St Davids (requires T11 bus from Haverfordwest)
Some cities from different region groups can possibly be combined within a day due to their proximity, such as Salisbury with Southampton & Portsmouth. Also, thanks to HS1, I could combine Canterbury with St Albans (via St Pancras), or with Chelmsford, Colchester & Southend (via Stratford). How do you think I will manage with the current circumstances and would it be more worthwhile to spread it out using split ticket combos and the South West Rover instead of the ALR?
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