Tuesday 8 January 2008

An experiment with public transport


I went up to our Cheshire office last week - just over 450 mile round trip. Driving takes about 3.5 hrs to drive up on a good day. Flying is 1hr flight time (plus the getting to the airport, check in delays, etc) so it makes it about 4hr trip. So i looking into the train. Cross country from Winchester to runcorn, avoiding London with a change at Stafford - 3.5hrs!
Upsides - £81 return and leaving at peak time as well. Sleek new Virgin trains. Power at your seat. I get to read paper, cup of tea and then do some work.
Downsides - Blooming cold standing at the stations waiting for the train, gets a bit crowded around Birmingham, but the big problem - the women sitting next to me for part of the return journey had a bad case of the flu! Just hope i stay bug free.
Might try it sometime soon on a long journey. Sure as hell beats sitting on the motorway around Birmingham or getting stuck at an airport!

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