Today I am travelling home from Devon to the Cumbrian Coast.
Usually I travel via South West trains to Waterloo, then Avanti and Northern. I avoid Cross Country due to their overcrowding and high pricing.
And both those points are very often true, or have been.
Today I am on Cross Country due to their very new pricing structure.
I paid, with a railcard, £7.45 for Paignton to Bristol, £8.60 for Bristol to Stafford and £10.20 on Avanti for Stafford to an hour beyond Carlisle. An outstanding bargain. Yes I booked 10 weeks out. The Stafford to home fare I can usually get about 2 to 3 weeks out but the XC fares seem to be more limited.
I would have to say neither train has been packed. The first was busy but not massively so, but the one from Bristol has lots of room. And, joy of joys, the second train is one recently transferred from Avant so has an on board shop, not just trolley catering.
So far a really good experience. The other benefit is I get a 64 minute change at Carlisle rather than 10 minutes via Euston. The latter almost a!ways ends in a 40 mile taxi ride, paid for by Avanti.
At the time of booking I could have stayed on to Manchester for £3 more - so Bristol to Manchester for under £12.
I have somewhere to visit in Stafford so opted for that route instead. Likewise during my change in Bristol I had 3 three interesting churches to visit- St James' Priory Church, St Peter's (Castle) Church and the Temple Church. The latter two are ruined Churches from the WW2 Blitz, preserved as memorials.