United Kingdom

Getting around by public transport

Domestic air travel

in the UK is only quicker than the train on the longest routes, such as London to Scotland. The growth of the budget market however means that air travel is sometimes cheaper than the equivalent journey by train. The first place to look is on the websites of the UK-based budget airlines. The main ones for domestic flights are Ryanair, BMI Baby, Flybe, Air Southwest and Easyjet.

Make sure you are making a fair comparison with the train fare before you book. Extra costs such as cost of getting to/from the airport (up to 15 pounds) and the "taxes" added to air fares can double or triple the price. Cheap air tickets are only available in advance, and advance train fares can be as little as 15 pounds single for the 400 miles from London to Edinburgh.

Coach travel.

going by coach has become more popular recently - new companies have come into the market and introduced extremely low fares. The service is also easier and faster within the UK than in some other countries. National Express run an extensive network of services around England and Wales, Scottish Citylink operate most routes in Scotland. If you book early enough, tickets on Megabus start at a pound for journeys between London and major student cities. All except Scottish Citylink need to be booked in advance. National Express do a Britxplorer rover ticket for visitors to the UK - see their website for details.

Train travel

Rail travel gets a bad press in the UK for being unreliable and expensive. Although unplanned journeys can be expensive, trains are usually on time and are rarely cancelled. On the occasions when things do go wrong, the rail companies usually manage to look after the passengers.

The National Rail network covers virtually all towns in Britain with well integrated frequent services. Railways in Northern Ireland are run separately and will be dealt with in the Northern Ireland section.

Here are some guidelines for getting a good deal on the railways in Great Britain:

• Britain is a good place to use rail passes - there are no supplements or advance booking required on any trains except sleepers, and the equivalent walk-on fares are pretty expensive. Interrail passes are available for European visitors, and the Britrail pass works like the Eurrail pass for visitors from the rest of the world. If you do not qualify for either of these, you can still get the All Line Rail Rover, and a selection of regional rovers (particularly the Freedom of Scotland pass). These are pretty good value if you intend to travel a lot within a week or fortnight, and are not well marketed - ask for what you want at any train station ticket office.
• A Young Persons Railcard is available for those with an ISIC Card or under 26. This will give a third off travel tickets and Rover Tickets and costs 20 pounds. You can save the cost of it on a single trip from London to Scotland.
• Plan your journey in advance, and find out the cost, using the National Rail website. This will link you to a relevant website to book tickets. Beware some will charge you a fee for using a credit card. It is often cheaper to buy tickets in advance from the internet although they can be booked at major stations as well.
• If you buy a cheap ticket in advance, it will only be valid on the specific trains they are booked for, so it's important not to miss the train.

The key routes in Britain are as follows:

• First Great Western runs the Great Western Mainline from London Paddington Station to Newquay (5-5.5 hours, 3 per day, change once), and Bath/Bristol (1.5-2 hours, 2 trains per hour).
• The West Coast Mainline (operated by Virgin Trains) runs from London Euston Station to Birmingham New Street (1.5 hours, 2 trains per hour), Holyhead (6-7 hours including ship to Dublin, 2 trains per day connect with sailings), Liverpool (2.5 hours, hourly), Manchester (2.5 hours, twice hourly) and Glasgow (4.5-5 hours 9 per day). An evening train runs to Edinburgh (5.5 hours). There is also an overnight seats and sleeper service to various cities run by First Scotrail.
• The East Coast Mainline (operated by GNER) runs from London Kings Cross Station to Leeds (2.5 hours, 1-2 trains hourly), York (2 hours, 2 trains hourly), Newcastle (3 hours, 2 trains hourly) and Edinburgh (4.5-5 hours, hourly). Several trains continue to Aberdeen or Glasgow, and one continues to Inverness.
• Transpennine Express trains run from Liverpool and Manchester (Airport and Picadilly) to the Lake District (roughly hourly). They also run a service from Liverpool and Manchester to Leeds and York (up to 4 per hour, every 2 hours from the airport at night), with a few trains going as far as Newcastle and Hull.
• Virgin Trains operate the Cross Country network, which is centred around Birmingham. Trains run north to Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh (hourly, 2 hours, 2.5 hours, 3.5 hours and 5 hours. Also hourly to Newcastle missing out Leeds). Seperate trains run up the west side of the country to the Lake District, Carlisle and either Edinburgh or Glasgow (hourly 4-4.5 hours to Scotland). Hourly services also run Birmingham to Manchester, and from Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Several of the services to Edinburgh carry on to Inverness or Aberdeen.

  Trains run south to Oxford and Reading, carrying on to Southampton or Brighton. Other trains run to Devon and Cornwall, and still more head to Cardiff and south Wales. Most of these trains are continuations of the northern services, so for example there is a daily train from Edinburgh to Brighton (around 9 hours), and also from Edinburgh to Cornwall (11 hours).

The southeast and Scotland, have some long-distance routes which run entirely within the region - click on the links for more details.

More details about buying tickets and services are on the National Rail page of this site.

© Ben Stafford, 2006

Getting around by car

In the UK you should drive on the left-hand side of the road. It is impossible to emphasize enough how important this is - people who don't drive on the right are extremely like to meet somebody who drives on the right almost immediately, and an unpleasant and dangerous collision is almost certain to occur.

Almost the whole the UK (except Scotland) is fairly close to a motorway. Aside from the M6 Toll (which runs parallel to the M6 but has less queues on it), and a couple of tolls for tunnels and bridges, this network is free to use, and of a generally fairly good quality. Unfortunately a large proportion of it is also extremely congested most of the time - if you want to get anywhere quickly avoid rush hour (7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm), and ideally try to travel at night. Cars are a pain in large towns and cities as they are horribly congested almost all the time, and especially around school hours. Parking is also a problem, with most on-street parking covered by expensive meters, and extremely dedicated traffic wardens.

The main issue for drivers in the UK is the high cost of fuel - including the taxes it is almost the most expensive in Europe - over a pound a litre in much of the country at April 2006.

As everywhere else, drinking and driving or driving under the influence of drugs is a serious offence in the UK, and you can be stopped and breatalysed almost at random. Most people should be able to drink a pint of beer and remain under the limit, but there is no guarantee of this.