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Need help - travelling from Edinburgh to Bakewell

Posted by on

Dear Forum,

My spouse and I will be visiting Peak district for 3 days as part of our UK travel itinerary

We have booked our stay in Bakewell , and we’ll be coming from Edinburgh on 2nd May, 2023

I need some help in planning our travel from Edinburgh to Bakewell

I understand that train is probably the best mode of travel for this journey (I am not a proficient driver, so that rules out car rental). I was looking up on Omio and the LNER website, and could see that there are trains from Edinburgh to Grindleford via either Sheffield or Manchester

  1. Which route would you recommend and why?
  2. Is it safe to book train tickets now, given the possibility of railway strikes?
  3. Is there certain train operator that I should prefer/ avoid? I am getting trains from Crosscountry, Transpennine Express Service and Northern railways and am super confused on which train operator is reliable
  4. I saw a bunch of different fares and wanted to know what is an “Advance single” ticket? I understood that it’s non-refundable, but then there are some confusing T&Cs mentioned on the websites, that I can use the same ticket for a later date (provided that I board the same train), is that true?

Also, would we get a Taxi from Grindleford to Bakewell? Is there an app that we could use?

Would be really helpful if the community could help us here, this being our first visit to the UK, we are not familiar with the transit system.
Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Posted by
7392 posts

Grindleford is the closest station, but it is a country station with no facilities and you would have to pre order a taxi from there.

Advance Singles are only valid on the specific train on the specific date. I'm not sure what information you are looking at which is confusing matters, but it is probably concerning strike action days and 'do not travel days'. Do not travel alerts are issued on a route specific basis in the event of severe actual or forecast weather. They are issued if little or no train service is possible, and road replacement cannot be provided due to conditions. But they are very rare and vanishingly unlikely in May.

At the moment strike action is suspended- and no suggestion that it is to restart. The strike mandate runs out in May, and has to be reballoted, thus it seems very unlikely that any action could happen on that day.
That is an issue to be dealt with, if it happens.

The 'normal' route is Edinburgh to Manchester, change there then train to Buxton and Transpeak Bus to Bakewell.

There is a lot of prejudice around TransPennine Express, and their services. Some people will bombard you with that. However their route is cheapest-£27.70 EDI- Buxton on the 0812 train or £30.90 on the 1012 train.

This google map shows you where Sylvan Park (for the bus) is at Buxton, compared to the train station-https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Sylvan+Park/@53.259494,-1.9116039,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x487a31162bae8a7b:0xade7ba477189086c!8m2!3d53.259571!4d-1.908337!16s%2Fg%2F1q67964z8

If you can't get round the prejudice and negativity about Transpennine then go to Sheffield, from Bus 218 is a regular service, from the Interchange, which is adjacent to the Railway Station.
The problem with Cross Country is their short trains and expensive fares.

The best and cheapest route is LNER to Doncaster, then Northern Rail to Sheffield- a 3 3/4 hour journey leaving Edinburgh on the hour from 1000, cost £47.70 advance single.

Posted by
7392 posts

In the event of a strike (or maybe your preference) there is a National Express Coach from Edinburgh to Sheffield at 0845, change at Leeds, arrive Sheffield 1540. The fare is £39.50 currently. If you are still fretting about rail strikes that is your alternative.

LNER always run trains on a strike day. If there were huge problems on the Doncaster to Sheffield line you would catch a bus X78 from Doncaster Interchange (next to the railway station) to Sheffield Interchange. - every 20 minutes, takes just over the hour.

Basically there is zero possibility that you would get stranded taking this route.

Posted by
3 posts

@isn31c : Thanks a ton! This is super helpful!
Had a couple of follow ups, would be really great if you could help me with these

  1. When I change trains at Manchester or Doncaster; would 20 mins be sufficient to de-board and then on-board the next train to Buxton/ Sheffield? Asking because I see ~20-25 mins layover when looking at trains on the LNER website
  2. I will be carrying a mid-sized suitcase, do the buses from Sheffield/ Buxton to Bakewell allow keeping some luggage?

Many thanks!

Posted by
7392 posts

The connection time at Doncaster is 7 minutes, and at Manchester is 10 minutes. That means that you can get from any platform/track to any platform/track in that time. It shouldn't even take you that long- those are the official but conservative estimates. Everything is well signposted and there are lots of uniformed staff to ask, and lifts/elevators between platforms so you don't have to negotiate stairs. Manchester Picc has escalators as well.
There is no hold/under the bus stowage for suitcases but any bus has on board racks to put suitcases- especially the Trans Peak from Buxton. That is a long distance service which is always being used by people with luggage.

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