U.K. Journey Planning
There was a time when journey planning meant sitting down with a load of timetables or going making enquiries at a bus or train station but the web has changed all of that. Even so, paper and electronic timetable perusal have not been dispatched to history just yet and telephone based enquiry services look set to continue with information delivery by text messaging become part of the scene. Sticking with the web though, here are some places to visit while trying fathom the logistics of getting somewhere without resorting to private means.
Quick access to variety of journey planners, from the local to the national: very useful for planning journeys that require both rail and bus travel. They also operate a national 7 days a week telephone enquiry service between 08:00 and 20:00. Even with all the alternatives, I continue to think that it’s the best place to look for any journey in the U.K.
Even though there is a link to this on the Traveline website, its worth highlighting here for a few reasons. First, there’s a journey planner and a road traffic news system for car users. Not only this but there are journey planners for coach and air services in addition to its rail planner.
This site, maintained by ATOC, the Association of Train Operating Companies, is the official place to look when it comes to planning your rail journeys. Timetable information, train running times and lists of service disruptions distinguish this web offering. Other more mundane stuff like ticketing policies, contact details for train operating companies are also featured. A more notable facility is the ability to buy train tickets online.
Formerly two separate companies but now two parts of the same empire, but former differences were a big help when booking journeys (the old Qjump algorithm was the better, methinks, even if non-available ticket choices got shown to catch out the unwary). Nowadays, I usually book ahead on thetrainline before picking the tickets up at my local train station: saves the headaches formerly suffered when waiting for the things to turn up in the post.
After the merger of the entity above, it could be assumed that rail ticket sales became a monopoly but that appears not to be the case thanks to this purveyor. Being a user of train companies for such needs, I haven’t gone to this bunch but they’re there to be tried anyway.
There was a time when the National Rail website was even less inspiring today so I ended up turning to this German offering at times. Since then, Britain’s biggest rail freight carrier has come into their ownership and they have had a go on the passenger franchising merry-go-round. Even so, this journey planning website remains their only incursion into the U.K. passenger transport market. One thing to bear in mind is that it isn’t updated as often as those in the U.K. but there may be times when another alternative is in order.
This is the place to go if you are planning to visit Britain from beyond its shores and wish to organise your train travel for when you arrive. Ticket and travel pass sales are all part of the offer though they make pains to ensure their services are provided to non-British residents. It could be invaluable if you are journeying from far away.
If you want to get an overview of the high-speed rail options in Europe, this makes a good port of call. Saying that, it would be better if they offered booking services rather than sending you to the individual train companies but that’s not how it is.
This is where the slack from the previous entry in this list is taken up and it even borrows Raileasy for U.K. bookings too. Naturally, Eurostar bookings are available and much. much more again. Possibly the one to consult for that all Europe escapade.
This is not a journey though it does get you an overview what’s on offer when it comes to exploring the British countryside while making use of whatever bus services. This little guide is available in printed form as well as the PDF that you can download from the website. It has been put together by Simon Holt Marketing Services and a copy came my way while spending some time in Swansea’s tourist information centre (next to the city’s bus station by the way). Sometimes an overview is what’s needed in order to get started…
