good morning guys today i'm taking the train from shrewsbury down to london euston now
there's a couple of direct trains a day with avanti west coast they're about 45 pounds
or if you're chang at birmingham you can probably get it for
25 pounds one way but today i'm going to show you how to do it for considerably less than that
the only question i've got is it worth it it's going to take a little while longer
I tell you what you come with me and let's go and find out if it is i'll see in a bit
So you've got five options when travelling from Shrewsbury to London,
which I’ve attempted to illustrate on the map:
Direct with Avanti West Coast (the red route) which is around £45 pounds one way
Also in red, you can change at Wolverhampton or Birmingham stations to Avanti West Coast which you
may be able to do for around £25 if you’re lucky Change at Smethwick Galton
Bridge and Birmingham Moor St onto Chiltern Railways arriving at London Marlyebone for
maybe £30 ish that’s the brown route Change at Crewe on the blue route
for about the same price if using London North Western trains (it'll
be more expensive if you change onto Avanti). Or the green route which is the one I’m taking
today which I reckon is the cheapest using a combination of Transport for
Wales Rail and London Northwestern trains changing at Wolverhampton and Stafford.
And as we pass the largest operational mechanical signal box in the world (still under scaffolding
incidentally) we’re off to a great start in one of Transport for Wales rails refurbished
trains with the really clean interior and twin USB plus mains power sockets at every seat.
Passengers were still quite sparse as you can see from this footage.
It was a reasonably early start for me,
total journey time was scheduled to take 3 hours and 20 minutes and I’ll do a few
comparisons with the other journey times a little later on in the video.
That was not too bad and I took the 07:32 train
from Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton which is where i am now courtesy of Transport for Wales Rail
and i'm waiting for a train now which will take me up to Stafford
and when I get to Stafford i'm going to take another train there and that will take me all the
way down to Euston. So let's see how it goes and I'll catch you again in a little while. Cheers.
Yeah so this segment, it feels like you’re going back on yourself which you are to an extent but
it only takes around 13 minutes to get up to Stafford so if the change times are reasonable,
I don't think it makes a massive dent in the overall journey time in my opinion.
first impressions of this London North Western train, yes really good.
Again it was quiet but you can see how the train has been designed with commuters in mind,
the interior configuration lends itself to much busier times. Again, it was really clean with
good connectivity. I also liked the real-time tv displays which are a classy addition I think.
Yeah so made it up to Stafford and i'm just waiting for my third and final train of this
morning which will take me down to Euston via Tamworth. Now of course being an Easter
Weekend I've got to run the gauntlet of disruption due to working on the railways
but that's fair enough and that's the best time to do it in my opinion.
I haven't heard of any delays yet so it shouldn't be too badly affected I don't
think. I'll let you know how I go anyway and I'll catch you when Iget down there.
Cheers for now.
Yeh, they’re quite long trains these I think they’re eight coaches
long so you do have to bear that in mind if you’re getting off at some of the stations along the
route with shorter platforms. Obviously we’re not on this occasion so I can sit where I like.
Now I think this train had the older style seats in it - maybe going back to London Midland times?
Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on this in the comments below. Also note the first
class section, the only discernible difference seemed to be the anti-macassers on the seats?
OK so i'm on the third train. I've never seen Stafford railway station so empty
there was only myself that got off the last train going up to Liverpool. And as far as i'm aware
there are no delays at the moment. And I like the train. I'm not getting off
at the next station. But yeah I like these trains they're nice and clean, there's wifi,
usb ports and conventional power sockets aswell. One thing I should mention is that there's no
catering on any of these trains so you've got to bring your own stuff which I did do this morning
as well as forgetting my glasses by the way which is a bit of a nuisance
but yeah we'll get there and yeah hopefully we'll get there on time. So I'll take a few more shots
of the journey and I'll speak to you again when we get down to Euston. I'll catch you later.
So before I start playing some incidental music over
shots of the local countryside, I thought I’d show you the toilet area on board.
Overall, it was a clean space - not surprising really considering the lack of passengers. I
was more interested in whether everything was working or not. Unfortunately, the hand drier
didn’t appear to function though I always find these a bit tricky to position your hands under.
Anyway apart from that everything was fine and I returned to my seat to admire the views.
OK guys so I’m going to post-up some journey times, please bear in mind these can change due
to operational reasons, maintenance etc. So on an ordinary day,
Shrewsbury to Euston via Crewe can be done for around 2 hours 18 minutes
using Avanti West Coast from Crewe - bear in mind
that will be more expensive than the slower London North Western trains
Shrewsbury to Euston with a change at Wolverhampton or Birmingham stations to
Avanti West Coast can be anywhere between 2 and a half to 3 hours
Shrewsbury to Euston direct with Avanti West Coast is roughly the same give or take a few minutes
and Shrewsbury to Euston via Wolverhampton & Stafford is again a similar time
but you have those 2 changes to contend with that I’m undertaking today
And then finally, the Shrewsbury to Marylebone with Chiltern Railways
where you have to change at Smethwick Galton Bridge and Birmingham Moor Street
it's a lovely route but it’s going to take you around 3 and a half hours
So let me know what you think of these routes and times? And if you’ve got any tips and advice,
please do give me a shout in the comments below.
OK then guys that was Shrewsbury to London Euston with London North Western Railway
and Transport for Wales for the first bit. Not bad about half-an-hour delay i think when we got here.
Would i use the service again I don't know really it's difficult to tell today because things are a
bit unusual because of the maintenance that's going on around the Euston, Milton Keynes area
so yeah I probably would I like the train it was all about the journey really and the journey was
quite good and total price was £18.10 which i think is pretty decent for the amount of
journey the length of the journey and the standard of the train another announcement going on so I
will catch you in another video soon thanks for watching and i'll see you again. Cheers for now!