Trains in England

You can do that if you buy an off peak Single for £72.70 or an Anytime Single for £171.30, as Stoke is a valid route.

However you may find it better to book a Liverpool to Stoke Ticket (no disrespect to Crewe, but I am assuming that you don't want to visit Crewe) for £26.10 in the morning Peak, or in the Off Peak Liverpool to Crewe £13.80 and Crewe to Stoke £9.80.

Then if you want to decide how long you need at Spode, you can buy an Advance timed ticket Stoke to London for between £21 and £35 depending on the train, or £59.90 Off Peak Single valid on any train after 9.30.

It all depends how much you want total flexibility of just joining any train- if you want to have that buy the £72.70 fare off peak. If leaving Liverpool in the morning peak do not pay £171- buy the £26.10 + £59.90 option= £76.

The £72.70 or the £76 combination option can be purchased on the day if you want.

Strikes by train personnel seem to go on and on. A good internet connection will help keep up with the announcements. You might research alternatives, meaning the long-distance coaches (which is to say 'bus').

You will have at least 14 days notice of any strikes.

LNWR and Avanti run between Liverpool and Crewe, East Midlands and LNWR run from Crewe to Stoke, and LNWR and Avanti run from Stoke to London- on the former you would have to change at Stafford.

The only bus service I can see is a National Express service at 0645 from Liverpool, arrive Stoke at 0910, and a Flixbus at 1510 from Stoke, arriving into London at around 1930.

The Avanti walk up fares are not for the economically minded, the LNWR routings tend to be more so. Advance on either if you can plan are better.

The service provided by East Midlands between Crewe and Stoke on Trent when I was working the LNWRs tended to be a single or double Dogbox (class 153s) or at best a class 156, neither of which is a patch on a sleek, electric, fully air-conditioned LNWR class 350.

If you take the LNWR from Stoke on Trent to London Euston you don't have to change at Stafford (excellent rose garden across the road from the station) unless you want the faster Trent Valley line and to miss the Northampton branch. If you don't change until your train terminates at Birmingham New Street you can have a look around Birmingham, and then you will pass through Birmingham airport and Coventry on the way south, as well Northampton and Milton Keynes.

As you pass through Berkhamsted keep a look out the left hand window and right after the platform ends you may catch a glimpse of the ruins of Berkhamsted castle.

welcome to the Forums, Tina. When is your trip?

Since the December timetable change the LNWR services from Crewe have been terminating at Stafford.

I actually checked my memory before posting, as I know that when I am on the semi fasts out of Crewe it no longer makes sense for me to route through Stoke.

And the EMT single car 153's have now been gone from the Crewe to Newark via Stoke route for quite a while thankfully. The duties are now rostered for 170's although I suppose a 156 or 158 could turn up if a 170 was unavailable.

That was at least last summer's timetable change, if not the December before that.

Nor can I trace a LNWR through fare any longer from Stoke via Stafford. I know they are available from Crewe, Stafford and all Trent Valley stations, I use the advance version out of Crewe at £6.70 to Euston Senior railcard quite frequently.
Although from Cumbria it is now, as of a few weeks ago, cheaper for me to change out of Avanti to LNWR at Stafford, not Crewe due to a new fares quirk.

I have yet to get anyone on here to take the slower LNWR service over the Avanti one.

By the way, as we are sharing fare tips now, the cheapest (but longest) way from Liverpool to Crewe as of last December is now a Northern Advance to Manchester, then a Northern Advance Manchester to Crewe. As a combined fare that is often £7 depending on time of day so Liverpool to London on Northern and LNWR can be had for £17 for anyone with time on their hands and a yearning for a total bargain- that is £17 before railcard reductions.