Manchester - Cambridge travelling

philio16

philio16

philio16

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
158
Location
Manchester, UK
Hi,

I'm a poor student looking to travel to Cambridge to go home for my brothers 18th on the 7th april, returning on the 10th. Normally I'd get the train with my railcard but my girlfriend may be coming who doesn't have one and we can't really afford to spend £100 on train tickets.

So....my question is what other ways of getting there are there for as cheap as possible? Coach companies etc would be good :)

Ta! Phil
 
Should be able to get from Manchester to Cambridge through National Express (without changing coaches if you so wish). I take the NX350 to get to Sheffield, which goes all the way to Manchester. Looks like it'd cost around £40 return for one person.
 
National Express do Manchester to London, then get a train from London to Cambridge... job done! Coach can be very cheap if booked early enough and the train from Cambridge to London is approx £20 return.

To be honest why you couldn't find the information for yourself if beyond me, "STUDENTS" :p ;) :D

<edit> Funfare National Express = £9 retun <edit>

HEADRAT
 
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HEADRAT said:
National Express do Manchester to London
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The service I linked to earlier is Manchester direct to Cambridge (not sure that was clear from my post), which would be the low hassle option. Don't know if there are any discounts for that service though, so might be worth the extra hassle of switching to train if the money's an issue.
 
Can't you just get the train? The last few times I've done the train from London to Manchester and back it's cost me £10 each way, granted that's with a rail card that gets a third off, so it would be £15 each way for your lady friend. London to Cambridge and back shouldn't be all that expensive either I'd have thought.
 
[TW]Fox said:
How on earth is that going to be the cheapest way? The fuel alone would be 40 quid then the cost of the rental on top?
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May not be the absolute cheapest but it's probably one of the easiest and won't mean getting a coach which is just plain badness :o

Besides you can rent a car for as little as £12 per day so won't be much more expensive than some of the coach trips mentioned already.
 
homerio said:
Can't you just get the train? The last few times I've done the train from London to Manchester and back it's cost me £10 each way, granted that's with a rail card that gets a third off, so it would be £15 each way for your lady friend. London to Cambridge and back shouldn't be all that expensive either I'd have thought.
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The problem isn't expense, it's hastle. Those people who don't live in London have long ago worked out that travel to and from the capital is easy, but travel east/west across the more northerly parts of the country is a pig. I used to do it many years ago to get to uni and I gather it's no better now. The best I ever dis was only one change, but that involved three hours on the World's Slowest Train. More usually it's two or three changes, with either a desperate sprint at a stop, or an hour of filling in time.

AFAIK xyphic is correct: there should be a direct coach.


M
 
i've never been able to get a direct coach :s, only changing at milton keynes, or victoria, have recently considered the train via london route, costs a bit less and is much quicker than the grantham/p'boro route

car is the cheapest option if there's more than 1 of you, i've not found any situation this isnt true, not sure that it's 2 days of rental cheaper though
 
homerio said:
Can't you just get the train? The last few times I've done the train from London to Manchester and back it's cost me £10 each way, granted that's with a rail card that gets a third off, so it would be £15 each way for your lady friend. London to Cambridge and back shouldn't be all that expensive either I'd have thought.
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£65 return each! :eek: I'd be buying a railcard if we did get the train, which is £20, so works out at the same pretty much for this 1 journey :(

Should have mentioned I can't drive either :(

I'll check out the train route via London though ta :)
 
The fastest train from Manchester to London is approximately 2 hours 30 IIRC, and then the direct train from Kings Cross to Cambridge takes 50 minutes. I would imagine it's actually faster to go through London than to go direct on a coach service.

Another option would be train from Manchester to Birmingham, and then to Cambridge. I've never done that route though, and am not aware of how long it takes or how convenient the connections might be.

The absolute cheapest way will be some sort of coach service though - national express do all kinds of offers every now and then and booking well in advance can sometimes net £1 fares etc.... or is that the megabus (www.megabus.co.uk)?
 
If you told us what approximate times you wanted to travel on those days it would be easier. For example, you can get

Friday 7 April 2006 leaving MANCHESTER PICCADILLY 13:45 arriving LONDON EUSTON 16:06

and

Monday 10 April 2006 leaving LONDON EUSTON 16:05 arriving MANCHESTER PICCADILLY 18:30.

If you buy these tickets as singles, then they cost £10 EACH. That's £20 for your return journey to London. No changes, fast train.

A saver return form London to Cambridge and back is £16.55. That makes your journey cost £36.55 with a railcard.
 
Found the cheap Manchester - London tickets, but national rail website is saying a London - Camrbidge saver return is about £25 :confused:

Edit - A single back to manchester from london on the sunday is £54.....I think Ill stay till Monday lol
 
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