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Last year, I went to Edinburgh from Oxford. It was slightly cheaper for me to: * Drive to Birmingham airport * Pay for airport parking * Fly to Edinburgh *

by zero_iq 11y ago

Last year, I went to Edinburgh from Oxford. It was slightly cheaper for me to: * Drive to Birmingham airport * Pay for airport parking * Fly to Edinburgh * Get the bus to/from Edinburgh center ...than to get the train, booked about a month in advance. And of course, I got the best part of a whole extra day in Edinburgh with the time saved. Crazy.

matthewowen 11y ago
Oxford to Edinburgh takes about 6 hours on the train, going via London. The bulk of that is on the London - Edinburgh train (a nice 4.5 hour block). Oxford to Birmingham is about 1hr15 if everything goes to plan. Parking, going through security, boarding, etc is, generously, at least an hour. The flight is about 1hr15. It takes 30 minutes to get from the airport to the city centre (but you'll also have to navigate your way through the airport to get to the bus. Adding that up comes to at least four hours, and could well be closer to five. So you actually saved at most two hours, and possibly as little as one. However, you probably had a pretty miserable journey (whereas on the train you could have relaxed for four hours with a good book and a nice cup of tea).
- zero_iq 11y ago
  Well, OK not technically a day, but practically speaking it bought me around 7 extra hours in Edinburgh, which felt like an extra day in comparison to having to spend 8 hours+ on the return train journey. There are many other practical factors about my specific journey your comparison doesn't include, such as the fact that I don't actually live in Oxford, so I need to get the bus to Oxford station (in which time I can get 90% of the way to Birmingham Airport by car), the times of day I was travelling, connection times, and travel time at the other end of the train journey. (And if you factored in Oxford's marvelous road works, that's probably another 4 hours saved right there ;-) As for a miserable journey... last time I went to Edinburgh by train it was so overcrowded they simply cancelled all the seat reservations altogether, because people couldn't get to their seats. So I stood/squatted/sat on luggage in a crowded hot train for hours. Not fun at all. I knew would be busy. That's why I bought a "reservation"! The plane journey was a doddle by comparison.

by zero_iq 11y ago

matthewowen 11y ago

Oxford to Edinburgh takes about 6 hours on the train, going via London. The bulk of that is on the London - Edinburgh train (a nice 4.5 hour block). Oxford to Birmingham is about 1hr15 if everything goes to plan. Parking, going through security, boarding, etc is, generously, at least an hour. The flight is about 1hr15. It takes 30 minutes to get from the airport to the city centre (but you'll also have to navigate your way through the airport to get to the bus. Adding that up comes to at least four hours, and could well be closer to five. So you actually saved at most two hours, and possibly as little as one. However, you probably had a pretty miserable journey (whereas on the train you could have relaxed for four hours with a good book and a nice cup of tea).

zero_iq 11y ago
Well, OK not technically a day, but practically speaking it bought me around 7 extra hours in Edinburgh, which felt like an extra day in comparison to having to spend 8 hours+ on the return train journey. There are many other practical factors about my specific journey your comparison doesn't include, such as the fact that I don't actually live in Oxford, so I need to get the bus to Oxford station (in which time I can get 90% of the way to Birmingham Airport by car), the times of day I was travelling, connection times, and travel time at the other end of the train journey. (And if you factored in Oxford's marvelous road works, that's probably another 4 hours saved right there ;-) As for a miserable journey... last time I went to Edinburgh by train it was so overcrowded they simply cancelled all the seat reservations altogether, because people couldn't get to their seats. So I stood/squatted/sat on luggage in a crowded hot train for hours. Not fun at all. I knew would be busy. That's why I bought a "reservation"! The plane journey was a doddle by comparison.