CEF/CLY to Portsmouth - Cheapest ways

[Chapeltom]

I'm sorry if this enquiry is a bit over-complicated. I'm off to Portsmouth on Wednesday 7th July, I want to be there as early as possible (11:30 latest really). I have a Y-P Railcard and will be looking to come back between 3-5pm in the afternoon

I live in Chapel en le Frith and wouldn't mind knowing the cheapest ways to get to Portsmouth from there. I can go from Chapel, Stockport or Manchester Airport. I can get to the latter two as early as 4:30am by bus so the early bit can be achieved.

My other option is going Chinley and via Sheffield. This isn't a problem one bit, I know the earliest train is 6:20am from Chinley.

Can anyone advise me, I don't mind booking advance tickets but if I can get Off-Peak tickets via splitting I'm not fussed.

Tom

 

[yorkie]

£61.50 from Chapel en le Frith, will get you an Off Peak return that is valid on any train on the route via Manchester & London Euston.

CrossCountry have a scam going on where they charge you more to use rattling mid-range DMUs that suffer from severe overcrowding, poor catering, and a longer journey time. Don't fall for this scam! Sadly the authorities refuse to do anything about it, and the scammers get away with it.

If you want to use the awful CrossCountry route, then you can get around the scam by purchasing a combination of tickets by splitting the journey into lots of tickets. You can search for the best split, but splitting at places like Stoke, somewhere in the West Midlands (Wolves/Brum/Coventry), Banbury, etc... See this thread for a fairly similar journey:
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32066

In that case it was singles, but returns are only about 10p more.

Avantix Traveller NFM05 makes it a lot easier to research splits, if you can get a copy.

I'd start with an Anytime Return from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Stafford, at £14.25 (NOTE: 0705 from Manchester does not call Stafford, all others in the morning do) this complies with the £12 minimum fare for 16-25 Railcards before 10am on weekdays not in July and August (simple! )
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Earliest journey opportunity from CIE:

CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH         06:08 Train NORTHERN RAIL 
STOCKPORT           06:41  07:07 Train VIRGIN TRAINS 
LONDON EUSTON       08:58  08:58 Tube         
LONDON WATERLOO     10:00  10:00 Train SOUTH WEST TRAINS 
PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR  11:33

It's a lot slower avoiding London so I wouldn't bother with CrossCountry ticket combinations!

EUS-WAT is very easy (victoria line) and you should make the 09:30, which gets to Portsmouth at 11:07.

 

[transportphoto]

Just a qucik question - have you got an oyster card with a RC loaded?

Thats if you have an oyster!

 

[Deerfold]

EUS-WAT is very easy (victoria line) and you should make the 09:30, which gets to Portsmouth at 11:07.

Northern line, surely?

 

[yorkie]

Yes, I was thinking of Victoria! Anyway it should be quite easy to make a 30 minute connection between the two. I did consider splitting and suggesting Southern from Victoria, but nothing other than the fastest trains will meet the criteria of arriving ASAP and by 11:30!

Just a qucik question - have you got an oyster card with a RC loaded?

Thats if you have an oyster!

I can't think of any possible split that would help. I considered splitting in London - it only helps if getting Southern from Victoria, which I was going to suggest but then realised it would be too slow. Also there's no point getting a ticket to Euston and paying extra to use the tube when you can use the tube for no more (and sometimes less, as we saw in another thread) than the cost of a ticket to Euston for most WCML flows anyway.

£61 return for a journey of that length at peak time is amazingly good value. From York, without splitting, a railcard holder could only get to Burton-on-Trent (one third of the distance) for £61, thanks to CrossCountry's scamming policies.

 

[Matt Taylor]

The tube journey between Euston and Waterloo takes nine minutes on the Northern line, factoring in entry/exit from the tube stations and waiting time on the platforms a 30 minute connection is ample. I arrived at Waterloo at 1523 yesterday and was at Euston concourse by 1541.

 

[paul1609]

To be honest if you just want to get to Portsmouth and back rather than enjoying the journey your best bet would be to fly Manchester Airport to Southampton Airport with Flybe. Its very hassle free and quite reliable tickets are currently around £65 return including taxes.
Airplane to train at Southampton Airport is supposed to be the shortest walk in the UK 10 mins is ample from your plane landing if you have no hold baggage.
In contrast the London Portsmouth line has been down graded so its basically outer suburban with 2 plus 3 seating and even the "fast" trains crawl along these days.

 

[Matt Taylor]

The majority of Portsmouth workings are 444 units, 450s are rarely used outside the peaks and the 1000 Waterloo-Portsmouth is booked a 5 car 444.

CEF to MIA is over an hour and Southampton Airport to Portsmouth is over an hour, both are indirect, add the check in times and the security hassles and I don't really see any great advantage of flying. Also consider that with Flybe you would be tied to the flights you book rather than having the flexibilty of the SVR. The E195s that Flybe uses are not bad little aircraft but they are far less roomy than a Desiro, but have bigger windows than a Pendolino I think.:roll:

http://matthew-taylor.fotopic.net/p63989327.html

 

[Chapeltom]

Would booking advanced tickets to London Euston help then just taking a train from there?

 

[yorkie]

I very much doubt it. Advance tickets should be released very soon, so you can take a look, but I would be very surprised if so. An Advance ticket for the through journey to Portsmouth would also likely be cheaper than splitting, bear in mind Waterloo to Portsmouth is £19.15 for a CDR and SWT don't do Advance tickets.

The price of an Advance ticket into Euston at peak time is likely to be very high, and considerably more than half the cost of a SVR.

The fact is that this £61 ticket is exceptionally good value and I am surprised if this isn't considered reasonable? If we could all do a 500+ mile round trip for £60 on all routes then rail travel would be a LOT more affordable, there would be less cars on the road, and this section of the forum would not be needed as much as it is now, as there would be no need to worry about splitting tickets to avoid being defrauded by the TOCs. 12 pence per mile for immediate, walk-on travel, at any time, is reasonable and if all journeys cost that at any time I'd be very happy indeed.

 

[paul1609]

The majority of Portsmouth workings are 444 units, 450s are rarely used outside the peaks and the 1000 Waterloo-Portsmouth is booked a 5 car 444.

CEF to MIA is over an hour and Southampton Airport to Portsmouth is over an hour, both are indirect, add the check in times and the security hassles and I don't really see any great advantage of flying. Also consider that with Flybe you would be tied to the flights you book rather than having the flexibilty of the SVR. The E195s that Flybe uses are not bad little aircraft but they are far less roomy than a Desiro, but have bigger windows than a Pendolino I think.:roll:

http://matthew-taylor.fotopic.net/p63989327.html

Sorry but I dont think your right. If the OP wants to be in Portsmouth as early as possible the 7.30 flight from Manchester will get him in to central Portsmouth before 10.00. He needs to arrive at Manchester Airport around 6.30 having checked in on line, security wont take any more than 10 mins at Manchester and is more or less instantaneous at Southampton.
The first train from Chapel-en-le frith wont get him to Portsmouth in time. To arrive before 10.00 (just) he needs to get a train from Stockport at 5.00

The earliest train arrival from Chapel en le frith is 11.00
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I very much doubt it. Advance tickets should be released very soon, so you can take a look, but I would be very surprised if so. An Advance ticket for the through journey to Portsmouth would also likely be cheaper than splitting, bear in mind Waterloo to Portsmouth is £19.15 for a CDR and SWT don't do Advance tickets.

The price of an Advance ticket into Euston at peak time is likely to be very high, and considerably more than half the cost of a SVR.

The fact is that this £61 ticket is exceptionally good value and I am surprised if this isn't considered reasonable? If we could all do a 500+ mile round trip for £60 on all routes then rail travel would be a LOT more affordable, there would be less cars on the road, and this section of the forum would not be needed as much as it is now, as there would be no need to worry about splitting tickets to avoid being defrauded by the TOCs. 12 pence per mile for immediate, walk-on travel, at any time, is reasonable and if all journeys cost that at any time I'd be very happy indeed.

What might be worth looking in to is a Off Peak ticket to Kensington Olympia and then Megatrain to Portsmouth. Availability on this is very good since the Greyhound Bus and Southern Advances started.

 

[Chapeltom]

The MegaTrain looks fantastic. £47.35 OP Return (SPT to WAT) + bus fare to Stockport + Mega train will probably work out at £55.00.

 

[yorkie]

£47.35 OP Return (SPT to WAT)

That's a ticket to Zone U1* LONDN, which is valid to any LU station in Zone 1 and therefore attracts a premium (that is greater than the price of Oyster PAYG singles but less than the price of £4 cash singles). You're better off buying to a station that includes a cross-London transfer, such as Kenny O.