Buxton to Bath train travel

If you split your fares across Birmingham it should be a lot less than that.

In a few weeks time I am doing Paignton to Whitehaven via Bristol for £25 railcard fare- fare split at Bristol and Stafford.

It should be £3 or so Buxton to Manchester, £5 or so Manchester to Stafford, and about £15 or so Stafford to Bath unless you are too late for the brand new very good Cross Country fares. Try a split on Manchester and Stafford or Birmingham and see what you can find.

I was travelling the other night so not in a position to look into this. If I remember rightly you are in Keswick this weekend, then Buxton, so presumably Bath is towards the end of next week.

If you give us a day I'll look to see if there is a cheaper way to do it.

Thank you! Yes we are in Keswick now! We are having a wonderful trip and I will write a trip report for the first time when we get back.
We are going from Buxton to Bath on Sat 17 Aug.
Thanks again for your help with this : )

This is the way to do it- all fares quoted with railcard for that date-

Buxton to Man Pic, all trains £3.45 Northern Advance say -0916 arrive 1016

Man Pic to Stafford 1103 arrive 1155 £6.85, stay on the train- same train through from Man to Bristol

Stafford to Bristol depart 1201 arrive 1407 £17.60

Bristol to Bath Off Peak Day Single £6.40 so just take the next train £6.40

Total £34.30

Thank you! I will work on this now. I will start with my LNER app but I am wondering if I can do all of this with this one app so will see.
If one of the trains id delayed and I miss a train, then I would have to buy a ticket on the spot, is that right? So taking a bit of a chance?

No, if a train is delayed even if an Advance Ticket is being used, then your succession of tickets is accepted. So worst case the Buxton train is delayed/cancelled then your tickets on Cross Country are automatically valid on the next train to Bristol at 1200.

You should be able to do all this on the LNER app. I could issue all the tickets as paper tickets here at Corkickle if I wanted to on the station machine. so any app should be able to.

But if the Buxton train was cancelled I personally would jump on the 0855 #199 Airport bound bus getting off at the brand new Stockport Interchange at 1018, then up the equally new link bridge to Stockport Railway Station- for £2 each that would be a no brainer to me.

You will know by 0855 if that train was being cancelled. I will also watch and put here by 0800 if there is a cancellation.

There is a McDonalds, a Starbucks and a Sainsbury's store more or less at Stockport station, also a very reasonably priced cafe called Bask- the cafe is just two years old. By all accounts it is pretty good and opens at 0900.

For the two legs of the Cross Country train you may end up with different seats either side of Stafford. If that happens my first choice on boarding at Manchester would be to see if your seats from Stafford are free between Manchester and Stafford. If so just sit there, then ask the guard when (s)he checks your tickets to block the seats out for you by reserving them from Man to Stafford with his hand held device. A little known thing which the guards can do on XC- otherwise while the train is moving someone could book them from one of the intermediate stations within 5 minutes of departure.

Worst case you have to change seats on the train at Stafford- not a big deal- just walk through the train. That train is booked as 9 cars long (a rare long cross country train) so it should have good capacity- even totally unreserved seats I would hope. You could even sit in some of the unreserved seats at MAN, then get the guard to block them out as above, and just ignore your existing reservations. I believe (s)he can then un-reserve your existing seats to free them up.

We haven’t bought our tickets yet due to our son’s slightly different schedule working from here remotely, but I just looked at tickets for the Manchester Piccadilly leg of the trip, and now they only have advance tickets, not off peak, it seems.
And this is what it says:
Advance tickets are valid only on the specific booked train but can be changed before departure of the first reserved service.
So I am not sure that we could take a later train if the first one was delayed. Any info on that?
Thank you!

On Northern (this should apply to any app) they will offer you the cheapest fare first. If you scroll down to the bottom, click on 'Compare all available ticket types' that will give you Off Peak Single (applies to all trains on a Saturday) and Anytime Day Single (pointless to buy that on a Saturday).

The fare rules get over-ridden if you are on a succession of tickets. So if you are on 2 or 3 tickets and your first or second train gets delayed then you are valid on the next. There are official letters on certain of the split ticketing websites to prove that.

Personally when I am split ticketing I allow a time buffer where I should never have to use that relaxation. If I am forced to use the wrong train I use paper tickets where I just vaguely waft them towards the guard and try to look innocent. With QR/app tickets that is harder as they have to be scanned by the guard.

I will be totally honest and will say that I am not 100% convinced by the legal basis which the letters cite, and do my darndest not to have to prove the case law. But that is what the letters say and what a number of other people on this forum will tell you.

Almost everyone else on here will tell you to split the fare. If I want to keep you on the totally right side of the law I would say to just buy the through fare at £83.55.

Splitting the fare into 4 parts at this late stage will give you a fare of around £41 (I am surprised how late on an August Saturday advance XC fares are available). So it is up to you whether to take what I see as a (small) risk of falling foul of a keen guard just to save £40 each.

Okay, well that all makes sense and we will probably just buy two tickets, cause it seems the last one from Bristol Meads could be an off peak, and would save ten pounds or so.
Thanks for all the time you have put into helping me understand the public transportation options!
: )
We are being flexible due to our son’s varying schedule as I mentioned. Would have been good to buy tickets earlier.

I can see the train from Buxton is on time, a 4 car train if on the 0916.

The good news is that the 1103 from Manchester Pic to Bristol is also running, and currently on time. It is 8 cars long (2 x 4 car sets), arrives into Pic at 1029 from Southampton, and is currently expected to use Platform 6 at Pic, although that may change.

That train formation from the front (furthest from the barriers) is cars A C D F L J I G

The toilet in Car F (the rear car of the front set) is out of use.

The Buxton train is due to arrive at Pic at Platform 11, so turn right out of the platform end for Platform 6.

Thanks so much Stuart! It has really helped with the logistics of our 4 trips to England (2023 and 2024) to have had your help with train travel and other suggestions.
We are here now in Bath and the architecture is heavenly!
Hope you had a good time in Derbyshire.