Booking two separate train tickets on same day and need some guidance

It doesn’t matter which of the main train companies you book your ticket with. All I’d say is, avoid using a third party. And by that I mean a booking agency rather than one of the TOCs.

Birmingham New Street is a huge train station and can be confusing but you can get across it in 15 minutes. However my own personal choice would be to break for lunch there for maybe an hour - there’s a good selection of restaurants and shops on the upper level of New Street, as well as the bull from the Commonwealth Games. That also builds in some extra time for station confusion and the chance of late running. There are a lot of platforms, and they all have an A and a B, and they’re all underground and it took me a few months of travelling regularly through Birmingham to get the hang of it.

However - of course by buying your tickets separately, and if you are, as I suspect, buying Advance tickets, you aren’t protected. If things go very wrong on the Plymouth to Birmingham leg (eg storm damage where the line runs along the beach) you might have to buy a new Liverpool ticket. However, if things do go very wrong on the Plymouth to Birmingham leg, you’ll get money back on that ticket via delay repay.

I hope that all makes sense.

TL;DR: leave plenty of time and it’s a nice lunch stop.

You don't have any choice of Liverpool stations - all long distance trains will arrive at Lime St.

As long as you leave a sensible time between trains, if your first train is late such that you miss your connection, just tell the train manager on the second train and you should be fine.

Neither LNER or CCR will run the train to Liverpool. It will be either Avanti (with a simple change at Crewe) or London North Western (direct bit a bit slower). You can still buy from LNER and get your credit back though.

If you wait a few days (likely a week today) you'll get a BNS- LLS ticket for £7.25 when LNWR open their advance bookings, on the trains at xx.34 from BNS up until 1534.

At 2.15, if Leg 1 is on time, go and see "Ozzy" the huge mechanical bull perform on New Street concourse. I'm going to see him on 10 February if I'm on time at a Birmingham change over.

I have recently proved, twice, that the legal letter issued by ATOC (Association of Train Operating Companies) to all ticket retailers does hold true. You are protected on later legs on split ticketing if Leg 1 is late, if you have allowed the MCT, which is 15 minutes at BNS. I had read the letter and didn't believe it, but it does work.

If you want to use your £5 credit with LNER to buy the 2nd leg that will bring it down to £2.25.

There is a whole food court on the upper level of BNS station concourse, plus a Tesco. You are utterly spoilt for choice for lunch at Birmingham New Street.

From Plymouth you are on a 4 car train, from Birmingham the Liverpool trains are normally 8 car.

EDIT- Cross Country Trains are always referred to as XC, rather than CCR. It's too late now, but you are on the very last PLY-BNS train I would have chosen- only one of two in the day that starts from Penzance, not Plymouth. Be ready to evict someone from your booked seat.

I have recently proved, twice, that the legal letter issued by ATOC (Association of Train Operating Companies) to all ticket retailers does hold true. You are protected on later legs on split ticketing if Leg 1 is late, if you have allowed the MCT, which is 15 minutes at BNS. I had read the letter and didn't believe it, but it does work.

This is great to know! Thank you! Just shows that despite my years of travelling on trains, I have a lot to learn.

Oh, you guys are great! Thank you all so much!

Golden Girl, that's a wonderful idea about stopping for lunch there, both to relax and also gain a bit of time in case of delays. Thanks so much for all the info. I will definitely allot a decent amount of time. And fwiw, I never use 3rd parties for booking - I always go straight to the source. Birmingham does sound a bit confusing but I'm good at finding people and asking for help. 😊

Johnnew52, that's very good to know about all of them going to the Lime Street station. That's the one my friend told me to go to. And thanks for the additional info as well - very helpful!

Stuart, good to know about the cheaper ticket. You had mentioned it before but I didn't see it, so that makes sense that it hasn't been released yet. Also that is good info about eating there and the number of cars. I always like knowing as much as possible about the train so that's helpful. Thanks so much!

ETA: I see what you mean about the passenger rights as well. Hopefully I won't need to use it but it's very good info to have! Thanks!

Pedantic Nigel alert...

only from decades of working trains through all the Birmingham stations including New Street...

I like all that Golden Girl says, just to pick up on "There are a lot of platforms, and they all have an A and a B", true except that only Platform 4 has an A and a B, and a C. If you take the West Midlands/London Northwestern Ry train which originates at New Street it is more than likely that it will leave from 4C.

I agree with what Stuart said about what to do if the incoming train is late making the Minimum Connection Time can't be met - that's how I always dealt with that issue, across the network. But I wonder about the ATOC letter - isn't it a RDG letter these days? I miss ATOC.

If the others hadn't mentioned going upstairs at New Street I would have done. Not only is the Grand Central centre above the station - and I agree that it is an Aladdin's Cave for a quick lunch, but attached to it and across a road bridge - completely indoors and heated and air conditioned - is the Bullring centre with 3 floors of shops and restaurants. It is a longish journey from Plymouth to Liverpool - no that's not true, it is a plain flat long journey. I'd really suggest a stopover for a pit stop and stretch of legs at New Street.

And final pedantic point - whilst it is true that an Avanti West Coast train will only call at Liverpool Lime Street in Liverpool, a West Midlands/London Northwestern Ry train will call first at Liverpool South Parkway (where there are links to John Lennon / Speke airport and a connection to Merseyrail trains), and then terminate at Liverpool Lime Street. So don't bounce out at Liverpool Parkway!

Ah yes, 4C.

I used to live in Leicestershire and travel for work to all parts of the UK, wheeling my suitcase and laptop bag. And pretty much every journey took me through Birmingham New Street. I saw it in the olden days when it felt like the mouth of hell. Just the grimmest place imaginable.

And then when they developed Grand Central, and suddenly I found myself deliberately building in an extra hour or two for my Birmingham change, planning which restaurant to eat at, whether I’d have time to go shopping (sadly John Lewis closed) or across to the Bullring and actually looking forward to it even if I only had time for a coffee and cookie from Pret or a lemon slice from Leon. And knowing that the Caffè Nero near Five Guys had loads of phone charging points. There’s not many train stations I feel that fond of.

Nigel, thank you so much! The more information I have, the better for me. I like the idea of all the cool places to hunt for food and shopping! It sounds very interesting! And thanks especially for the platform info. I have all the train and bus apps on my phone so will keep myself informed about the platforms and will definitely ask if I can't find it. In fact, I'll probably try and find it before I take my lunch/shopping break. :-)

So don't bounce out at Liverpool Parkway!

Ha ha, duly noted!

Golden Girl, you may it sound like so much fun! I can't wait to check it out all!

Golden Girl, you may it sound like so much fun! I can't wait to check it out all.

Fun compared to most train stations in the UK… it’s not like Disneyland or anything ;-)

Birmingham New Street. I saw it in the olden days when it felt like the mouth of hell. Just the grimmest place imaginable.

Completely agree. Especially the old Platform 1 and platform 12.

The wind whistled through, and one year I drew Snow Duty. What a day!! And then the next day armed with a snow shovel and heavy clothing got to shovel the turn around sidings and platforms at Longbridge. Ah the joys of New Street pale in comparison.

🤣🤣🤣 Well, I'm not a huge fan of DL, GG, so I'm sure I'll like it. I do like train stations.

Nigel, oh my goodness! I think I'm very glad there has been a refurbishment. You're making me cold just reading about it (although it is -22.8C here right now, so that could have something to do with it).😊

Mardee, nothing of informative substance to add here, but just wanted to pop in and say I am getting excited for you to take your trip!! Can’t wait to hear about your adventures!!

Good to hear from you, Mustlovedogs! When is your upcoming trip? I cannot for the life of me remember (yes, my mind is a sieve).

I was telling someone else today that Yorkshire seems to be pulling me in. I'm fine tuning my itinerary and I can't seem to get out of there, lol! I would love to come back in the future and spend a month or two in one place in Yorkshire. That would be heaven - and everyone here on the forum could come and visit me!

Further to Nigel's comment above I am struggling to find the letter in question, which was a leaked internal industry letter, not intended for the general public- so can't clarify the ATOC/RDG point. However, and my head is really hurting here (having spent way over an hour on the issue), it was to codify ambiguities within the National Rail Conditions of Travel- which is a public document guaranteed to send you to sleep.
In the NR C of T a combination of Clauses 14.2, 14.4, 20 and 28 apply, with 28.5 being very interesting (concerning provision of food for a delay exceeding 60 minutes, and even provision of overnight hotels). Outside pedant's corner I would never expect to have to quote clauses to a railway official.

I can make my point (at times very forcefully) in other ways on the ground or even through a formal written complaint process than by clause quoting.

I have never been offered a hotel, just a long distance taxi. Sometimes a hotel would be cheaper for a train company than some of the taxi rides I have had.

The full name of Liverpool Parkway is actually Liverpool South Parkway by the way.

Earlier I decided not to mention it, but at many stations round the country you (or I, at least) see stop boards on platforms for XC trains which still say VT (for Virgin Trains, the former owner of XC before 2007). In fact at Carlisle (which never sees XC trains) and two brand new stations in Scotland new VT stop boards have recently been installed!!. XC/VT don't stop at the new stations of East Linton and Reston either!!
Stop Boards are an aid for train and platform staff, not really for the public.

The current advice is:

Compensation for delays is usually paid when customers experience a delay on their full journey, regardless of the number of tickets held. When a delay results in a customer with multiple valid tickets arriving at their destination late, multiple tickets may be submitted with a claim for a delayed journey.

This clarifies that the key point is that in the terms it is the full journey on national rail services that is taken into account for appropriate compensation / refund, not parts of it and the ticketing arrangements are irrelevant.

The pull is strong for us, too! I vacillate between centering ourselves more in North York Moors or the Dales. The more I read and research, though, the more I’m leaning toward basing in Grassington for a little over half our time. I just absolutely love the idea of spending a week in each, so regardless of where we go first, our plan is to return and stay. The Yorkshire Dales, NY Moors along with Northumberland will see us in the next few years hopefully! We’re hoping to go for the first area in May 2025. I’d go back this spring/summer, but with hubby not being a huge travel fan, I felt that 2024 I wanted to plan a whole family vacation- with him and our dog- so we’ll head to the beach. He gets his one year quota, though, then we leave him to return to England! 😂

We realize just how fortunate we are to be able to do these trips together. I hope your planning continues along nicely! I know you must be counting the days!!

Mustlovedogs, I think no matter what base you choose, you can't go wrong in that area!

And I am counting the days, but hoping that my arm heals up quickly as well. I've got about 7 weeks before I leave, and the closer it gets, the faster it seems!