On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Philip Hardy wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

Heh! The solution would have been to keep a bike locked up at Euston,
and do the leg to the city on that. Saves money, burns calories, and is
quicker!

Burns calories? Is that a good thing?

Mr Tracy, to whom i was replying, was extolling the virtues of a free
breakfast in first class, but bemoaning the effect it had on his loading
gauge. Burning some calories would allow him to have had his Full English
and eaten it, as it were.

tom

--
The Gospel is enlightened in interesting ways by reading Beowulf and The
Hobbit while listening to Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. To kill a dragon
(i.e. Serpent, Smaug, Wolf at the Door) you need 12 (disciples/dwarves)
plus one thief (burglar, Hail to the Thief/King/thief in the night),
making Christ/Bilbo the 13th Thief. -- Remy Wilkins

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 19:03:21
on Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Tom Anderson remarked:

Even a few places inside London - plenty of places on the southern and
eastern side of zone 6 take an hour to get to Euston from.

Up with which I would not put.

I KNEW someone was going to say that! Nine minutes is record time, i
think.

Here's what people's hero Geoffrey Pullum (and sideick Benjamin Zimmer)
has to say about it:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/langu...es/001702.html
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/langu...es/001715.html
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/langu...es/002670.html

tom

--
The Gospel is enlightened in interesting ways by reading Beowulf and The
Hobbit while listening to Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. To kill a dragon
(i.e. Serpent, Smaug, Wolf at the Door) you need 12 (disciples/dwarves)
plus one thief (burglar, Hail to the Thief/King/thief in the night),
making Christ/Bilbo the 13th Thief. -- Remy Wilkins

On Nov 29, 7:12 pm, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
19:03:21 on Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Tom Anderson
remarked:

Even a few places inside London - plenty of places on the southern and
eastern side of zone 6 take an hour to get to Euston from.

Up with which I would not put.

Though presumably not many people who commute therefrom actually work
near Euston, and can probably walk to their offices from the Southern
termini... (Yes, I know the original poster was asking about Stafford
to Euston.)

It's also price, which varies with distance more than with time.

And also the number of alternatives.

I might choose to allow an hour to get to Euston from some places in
zone 2, as it happens, but it would also take me two hours or less to
walk there from most of zone 2 if absolutely everything went wrong.

Oh yes. In my Cambridge commuting days, when everything worked I was
pretty smug, but when (for example) the train sat down at Letchworth I
didn't have the option of hopping on a bus with my Oyster. To say
nothing of the numerous times when the portion from Kings Lynn refused
to mate with the portion sitting at the platform in Cambridge, often
leading to the whole thing being cancelled (with me a good 50 miles
from my desk...)

"Sam" wrote:
Hi All

Due to my partner's working commitments it looks like we will be moving
from London to the Stafford area

Has anyone experience of commuting from Stafford to EUS ? Needing to
arrive into EUS about 0900 and leaving at 1700 ish, chances of getting
seats, frequency of delays etc etc ?

Yep, I do it every day and have done for the past 18 months. A monthly
season ticket cost 775.80 with the underground included.

The 6:43 gets into EUS at about 8:20. One the way back there is the 17:21
which is heaving as it stops at Rugby and Nuneaton or the 17:45 which is a
bit quieter. Your best bet is to reserve a seat as all the trains can get a
bit full. Not really many delays but it seems worse on trains leaving
London. The worst part is the seats on the Virgin trains which appear to
have been designed by a legless dwarf. First class is better but the prices
are a bit steep, well over 1000 per month last time I looked.

In message
, at
14:36:16 on Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Rupert Candy
remarked:
In my Cambridge commuting days, when everything worked I was
pretty smug, but when (for example) the train sat down at Letchworth I
didn't have the option of hopping on a bus with my Oyster. To say
nothing of the numerous times when the portion from Kings Lynn refused
to mate with the portion sitting at the platform in Cambridge, often
leading to the whole thing being cancelled (with me a good 50 miles
from my desk...)

I gave up when one morning it took three hours to get from Royston as
far as Huntingdon (my ultimate destination Peterborough), a trip that
has a straight road between them, half an hour by car. At Huntingdon we
were all tipped out (for the umpteenth time that day). And as you say,
not much to do then except perhaps get a taxi back home and start again
tomorrow!
--
Roland Perry

"Cheeky" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:26:34 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

On 29 Nov, 10:00, "Sam" wrote:
Hi All

Due to my partner's working commitments it looks like we will be moving
from
London to the Stafford area

Has anyone experience of commuting from Stafford to EUS ? Needing to
arrive
into EUS about 0900 and leaving at 1700 ish, chances of getting seats,
frequency of delays etc etc ?

Cheers

J.

All the way from Stafford to London every day! Rather you than me!

A lad I know does it from Crewe to London each day. As you said -
rather him than me although an hour and 16 minutes isn't that bad. It
can take that on a bad day from South Manchester to Wigan. I suppose
it depends on what the journeys are at either end.

I'm looking at a 5-10 minute walk at the Stafford end, 1h30 journey ish, 5
minute walk to KX.

Whenever I have got an early train from Manchester Piccadily, it seems to
have considerable slack and arrives 10 - 15 mins early in to EUS. Would
this ever happen from Stafford ?

J.

On Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 11:10:13AM -0800, 1501 wrote:
On 29 Nov, 16:28, "Toby" wrote:
Going down,
there are 3 Pendolinos that arrive into Euston before 9 -
Going up to London.

Was there a special offer on pointless directional technicalities this
week?

--
David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness

Blessed are the pessimists, for they test their backups

On 29 Nov, 20:32, Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at
12:14:22 on Thu, 29 Nov 2007, MIG
remarked:

It's only a bit over an hour from Grantham to KX (hardly any longer than
Cambridge). It's time that matters, not distance.

It's also price, which varies with distance more than with time.

It's obviously a bit of both, but people are reluctant to commute much
more than an hour, even if it's really cheap.

I work in London (Zone 2, west london), 3 people in the office have a
1h commute, the other 14 take over an hour. Personally it's 07:55-
09:10 for me in the morning, and 17:30-18:55 in the evening, however
if I leave 5 minute late, or the bakerloo is really bad, I miss the
connection at Harrow and get in 45 minutes later.
Thats bike/train/tube/bike.

Before moving it was a direct tube and took 1h10 door to door, plus an
average 8 minutes wait for the non-timetabled tube, so the same. Bike
all the way took 2h15 though, which is a lot less than it would take
for the 50 miles now

"MrMr" wrote in message
...

The 6:43 gets into EUS at about 8:20. One the way back there is the 17:21
which is heaving as it stops at Rugby and Nuneaton or the 17:45 which is a
bit quieter. Your best bet is to reserve a seat as all the trains can get
a
bit full. Not really many delays but it seems worse on trains leaving
London. The worst part is the seats on the Virgin trains which appear to
have been designed by a legless dwarf. First class is better but the
prices
are a bit steep, well over 1000 per month last time I looked.

But, but, but... a season is one of the times when first class is usually
worth the extra [1], as it's 150% of the standard fare (160% on some lines,
I know). Since that gets you a seat and coffee etc, I guess it's worth it. I
have never travelled on the 1721 ex Euston, but I can picture standard on
it - and it's not a pretty sight.

[1] The others IMHO are Advance Purchase deals and cases where you would
have to buy an open return if you travelled in standard.

Regards

Jonathan