rail tickets - East Coast Line

[Dave Pattern]

Not sure if these will be of any use to delegates travelling up the East Coast Line (e.g. from London or Scotland), but National Express has the following offers:

- one way tickets from £9
- 10% discount off Standard Advance tickets

If anyone's found any other offers on rail tickets, please post them!

[Dave Pattern]

Just checked and, for anyone traveling up the day before (i.e. staying overnight), there seems to be lots of off-peak £9 tickets available on the National Express web site. You'll probably need to choose Leeds as your destination (a ticket from Leeds to Huddersfield is then just a few pounds).

If you can get £9 tickets, then it'll definitely be cheaper to travel up the day before and book accommodation, as an early morning return ticket from London to Huddersfield is usually over £200!

[Jenny Evans]

We were contemplating coming up just for the day (though it sounds like it'll be way cheaper not to) - can you give us approximate start/finish times just so we can see what our options are?

[Dave Pattern]

There's a tentative programme on the blog:
http://mashlib09.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/event-info-programme/ and I wouldn't expect the start/end times to change.

The 6:35am departure from Kings Cross should get you into Huddersfield around 9:30am.

Just checked and it's the "anytime" return that's over £200. A standard "off peak" is £134, but not sure if 6:35am is classed as "on" or "off" peak?

[Jenny Evans]

The national rail website is saying £29.30 is the cheapest available fare at the moment from London to Huddersfield (which means taking the 6.35am out of Kings Cross, and departing Huddersfield 4.35pm) - so that's pretty good - though don't know how long fare this will last!

[Dave Pattern]

That's a good price! I'm guessing it's because most people will be wanting to travel towards London at that time of the day? I've been to a lot of morning meetings in London and we usually have to pay over £200 for a day return ticket
:-(

(Damn it -- I sound like a stereotypical grumpy Northerner!)

[Jenny Evans]

:) ouch - that is a very expensive train ticket - I don't blame you!